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The Lost Library - Unfair Trade


Bramble Rose

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(OOC: Figured I'd leave him a sketch and uncolored since coloration and mark may fluctuate through the thread :razz:)

 

 

Doctor Whooves blinked as Trixie and Presteza both made comment on the fruit. Something clicked there ... the fruit wasn't just altered, it was ... yes, just as the passing pony had said, it was swapped. Just as he and Trixie had been. In fact, this reminded him of something, it was ... it was ... Whooves blinked in confusion. What was wrong? He *always* remembered the trivia he'd read in the nick of time.

Well, perhaps it just wasn't the nick of time, yet.

He was distracted by another bright flash of white light, rather like just a few minutes ago. Everything felt very strange for a moment, as he staggered around with his balance completely thrown off. Whooves wasn't the only one - Derpy came plummeting from the sky and slammed right into Trixie, knocking both of them into the bushes. He stumbled back into somepony very large, shook his head, then went running over to the bushes. "Derpy? Trixie?" he called, then blinked, cleared his voice. "Are you all right?" Nope, voice was still weird. He started rummaging desperately through the leaves.

Inside the bushes, Trixie was having problems mainly because her wings were all caught up in the branches - when the branches were parted, and there stood a lovely tan unicorn mare holding out her hoof to help her out. Her brown hair was long and impossibly curly, and she had a bright, easy smile on her face, as the sun shone around her. "Ah, thank goodness you're OK!" she said merrily. "Let me help you out!"

 

Presteza was happily enjoying another one of those fruits. The painter was suddenly hit by a bright flash that made her wince and stumble before she noticed something felt ... different. Her vision suddenly had a slight creamy bump in front of it... almost as if her muzzle had grown. She reached up and noticed that her snout had grown more prominent in addition to the shape of her jaw and chin. The Now-stallion's eyes widened slowly as he continued to inspect his features, blushing deeper and deeper at the same time, "Wot.... the ..." The burly pony flung his head head around, hoping to see his normally long mane in it's usual brush motif... only to notice it was gone! He took a look behind himself and sighed in relief when he saw he'd still had his tail in it's usual style... if a bit shorter and not as full, "Oh thank, Celestia at least that's still the--- WOT THE BUCK IS GOIN' ON WITH MY VOICE?! " The stallion's blush covered his entire head as he listened to what was now a fairly nice baritone, deep but not distractingly so and still having a youthful quality to it. "Oh, hey..." The cream colored unicorn sighed, "Great... The prodigious and prolific Presteza has Trixie's mark!... Well Presteza guesses Mum'll be happy ta hear this... not so much about the rest o' the changes though..." 

 

After a bit of thought the stallion walked casually over to a puddle and blushed even deeper, "Well, Hello! Presteza is quite the looker now!... Well she was a cute mare back then but now, oh crop I've got my dad's physique... oh Silver would be so jealous!" The stallion chuckled to himself before he picked up his little fruit bat companion, "Oi, Fresco...Could Presteza borrow yer name for a li'l bit, Bruv? ... Presteza's name doesn't fit a burly creature such as myself." The little purple chiropteran simply stared at her and let out a hesitant squeak, "Thanks, buddy!"

 

The Now-stallion trotted up to the group and saw everypony else was already getting used ta these changes... Trixie seemd to be still trying (and failing) to keep her cool and make sense of the situation, the doctor was in the same boat... although now the Former-mare had a good idea of where her gender had gone to and who she'd gained. "Gotta admit, Doctor, ya make a pretty mare... but Fresco'd -- that's wot Presteza is goin' by fer now-- kinda like ta get that little trait back sooner rather than later." The magnificent and prolific Fresco looked himself over and chuckled awkwardly, "I'm pretty sure my coltfriend back home isn't gonna like me like this."

 

It was a moment before (S)he took notice of derpy's new speech pattern...

 

 

"Sweet Celestia, do I usually talk this much?"

 

 

"Nope! I think it's kinda charmin' ta be honest... but then again yer regular self was a bit cuter!" Said the stallion with not short of playful bluntness before walking over and thinking a moment, She seemed considerably more analytical than before... meaning she seemed to be analyzing things at all. "Hm...  if you've got the doctor's mark... and Fresco's  got trixie's mark... and trixie has yer mark then... oh... " The stallion whipped around to look at the doctor and then thought a moment before adressing everypony, "Excuse me everypony! But the magnificent and Prolific Fresco believes that we should explain what we all think of our makes to everyone present in our little group... that way if furhter swapping happens then the bearer of out skills can figure out how to use them more effeciently." The stallion galloped back over to the doctor and took a deep breath, "Okay, doc. My talent seems ta be a bit odd in that I seem ta be able ta use magic only when paintin' Since yer a unicorn and all I think you should be able ta use it better than me since this swappin' thing only manages ta swap general traits and not details... so that's why I didn't get your physique and instead wound up with on more like my dad's. In addition ta that My talent seems ta give me a keen eye for detail, color, and I have an excellent memory." The stallion was left gasping for breath after his explanation before he looked back up at the unicorn, "Didja get all that?"
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  • 4 weeks later...
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Doctor Whooves was glad to see that Derpy and Trixie were OK, albeit not entirely as they wished to be.  Swapped again.  Swapping going on, that's for sure.  Something was swapping.  And by process of elimination, that meant Presteza got swapped with ... himself?  Except if Presteza was a stallion...

While Derpy and Pres- Fresco - were busy with their long-winded discussions, Whooves winked lightly to Trixie with a playful grin on her lips, gave her a reassuring little hug, then headed over to a nearby clothing shop which bore a full-length mirror.  Huh.  Well.  That was ... odd.  Very odd.  Something missing.

"Beg pardon?  Oh, yes, Fresco," she said, "That makes perfect sense.  And as far as you, Derpy, it sounds like you're talking normally, to me.  Most normal you've ever sounded.  So maybe that's different."  As she talked, she picked up a big, floppy hat and put it on her head, pressing it down over her curly mane.  Yes, that looked better.  "Sorry.  I seem to be a little disoriented.  It's not every day you wake up to still be you, but see a strange face in the mirror.  And a somewhat altered personality.  Goodness, I hope that doesn't happen too many more times.  Can you imagine the disorientation if you ended up having twelve or thirteen new faces?"

She left a small pile of bits on the abandoned countertop to pay for the hat, and started to leave the small shop, but then grabbed a scarf on impulse and added a couple more bits to the pile.  Odd for a scarf to be in such a tropical shop, but perhaps it was because of the colors - all sorts of different colors along this oddly long scarf.  She looped it once, twice, three times round her neck as she rejoined the rest of the ponies.  Then popped one end of the scarf into the side of her mouth to chew lightly on it.  That felt better.  "Anyway, sorry.  Distracted.  Yes, general traits sounds appropriate, seeing as you never had a mane as curly as this.  My grams did, though."

"As for my cutie mark, well, Trixie and I already had that one out.  Timing.  What I'm thinking, though, is that all of these swapping incidents ... they couldn't have just all happened at once.  It had to start with a single swap.  So let's find out when, where, and to whom the first swap happened."  With a confident grin, she held out her hoof into the street and waited a moment ... then waited a bit more ... then she frowned, and looked up and down the empty street.

"That's odd ... when I do that, there's usually somepony there to grab ... "
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Trixie didn't see how the cream stallion's observations, whatever his or her name, helped the situation any.  There was only one real question - well, two - that mattered in Trixie's mind.  Who or what was doing this, and how could Trixie get back to normal!?  "Ugh, I, er Trixie, finds this situation intolerable! What can I do, fly?  Well alright, I, um, Trixie, admits flying is pretty useful and I guess I can manipulate the weather better than I used to, but that's it!  Bubbly personality, who needs that?! Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest there's anything wrong with it… Wait, what did I say?!"

Trixie pushed the newly all too talkative Derpy out of the way, "Great, the only ability you got is to be annoying".  She was about to trot to the street before sighing and turning around to help Derpy up, "sorry about that, I don't know what came over me…"  Trixie put her hooves to her head and shook it, of course she knew why she was dismissive, she just felt… Bad about it.  Ugh she needed to get back to normal!   Of course that was easier said than done, without her magic how could she look for anything magical?  All Trixie could do is look about with her eyes, and there was nothing to see!  Well, nothing interesting, except for Whooves' new look.  That definitely was an improvement in an otherwise intolerable situation.

While admiring Whooves' new form, it suddenly dawned on Trixie, Whooves was a unicorn now!  Trixie galloped forward and leaped into the air, grabbing the tan unicorn by her forelegs and desperately trying to flap her wings in sync.  "err, hold on, Trixie's got this…"  After several seconds of misflaps and hovering just enough for Whooves' hind hooves to drag along the ground, Trixie managed to get a couple stories into the air.  "You aright hon?  Er.. Anyway, this is my.. I mean Trixie's masterful plan.  Now that we have an elevated view, you use your magic to see if you can detect any source of magic strong enough to do this.  There has to be something!  Trixie has no desire to have wings forever.  Unless she becomes a princess, of course!  Wouldn't that be great?!"

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"Nope! I think it's kinda charmin' ta be honest... but then again yer regular self was a bit cuter!"

 

Derpy scratched her chin. "So the question is... is it better to be charming or cute? Charming tends to earn more respect but cute gets you more attention. And I certainly haven't lost my need to be noticed. But on the other hoof, charming gets you respect and attention, though not as much attention as cute."

 

When Doctor Whooves tried to showcase her sense of timing, the curly maned mare held out to hooves expecting a passerby but nopony showed up. It wasn't that much of a surprise though seeing as how they've swapped talents and all. This means Derpy must step in and show her how it's done!

 

"No no no, my good mare. You must do it like this." Derpy held out her hoof and, sure enough somepony walked up to her with a blue banana. "Here ya go, miss! I was gonna throw them out but I figured I could just hand them out to random ponies instead."

 

"Why thank you good sir." She took the banana and unpeeled it. "I imagine it probably taste like blueberries and banana. What would you call a fruit like this? A bluenana? A bananaberry?" She fell silent, realizing her sense of timing responded to her hunger rather than the task at hoof. She glanced at everypony with a raise of her eyebrows. "...It appears my stomach dictates my tendency for timing at the moment."

 

Aside from the glorious ability to fly, It seemed like Trixie mostly gained the tendency for mood swings. Derpy was silent for a moment as her mouth was occupied with eating. She observed as Trixie struggled to carry the Doctor into the sky with her new found wings. "Blimey, she looks like a baby bird just learning to fly. It's kind of adorable really. I'd show her a thing of two but I'm unfortunately wingless at the moment." Derpy said to whoever was listening. It seemed like Trixie's plan was to see if Whooves could detect the source of the swapping. Sounded good to her. "See anything up there yet!?" She shouted before looking at what's left of her bluenana. "It's a shame these don't grow naturally. They're quite delicious!"

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  • 4 weeks later...

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The stallion pouted a bit, "Fresco's mane was a little bit curly... at least at the ends." The stallion huffed and then straightened himself back up and fiddled with his mane curiously, "Fresco misses his old style." The stallion looked over at the nearby puddle and inspected himself again. Now that he thought about it, he looked -really- strong for a unicorn! Hay, maybe he could give his cousin rose a run for her money in the strength--- actually nevermind, that was a bit much to wish for. The painter took a moment to laugh as he witnessed the doctor try and catch something, apparently expecting to snag up a pony running by to only be greeted by nothing but air. Fresco gestured to derpy, "Since you've traded marks with her... maybe you should have Derpy try that move?  Fresco in the meantime will try and see if he can get some answers" after he'd taken a few steps he wiggled his nose, "hmm... also if anypony wound up getting my allergies and is a unicorn... try not to sneeze, kay?"

 

The cream colored stallion trotted over to a cottage where he saw a pair of eyes peering out a formerly cracked open door. The stallion knocked on the door, not fully aware of his new strength he accidently made it sound like he was pounding on it for entry. The door once again cracked open and a pair of eyes belonging to what Fresco could only assume was a pony looked out form the shadows,  asking what the stallion wanted. "Well first off Fresco would like to know when you guys first started holding yourselves up in your homes." The pony(?) in the hut simply said that they'd started hiding just today after the incidents happened and told him to quickly close the door before they were 'swapped'

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  • 3 weeks later...

Whooves blinked in surprise as a pair of forelegs suddenly scooped under her armpits and lifted.  Her hind hooves dragged slowly along the ground as Trixie labored, Whooves simply rolling her eyes and waiting with an extremely flat expression on her face.  Before the piles of dirt in front of her dragging hooves became *too* high, they finally lifted up above the rooftops.

Well.  Not a bad plan, actually.  And while everypony ELSE might have problems with their new magics ... "Excellent idea, Trixie!  I might have never used a horn before - not on purpose, anyway, unlike the display from earlier - but there was unlikely to be an Earth Pony alive who has studied unicorn magic as much as I have!"  She'd progressed through countless instructional books, just to gather as much of an understanding of what was possible as she could, just in case it would come in handy.  "I've taught unicorns new spells before!  All will be well."  With a calm confidence, she arranged her mind in exactly the right mental structure for the aetheric pathways, reached the inner calmness required for aligning one's self with the surrounding mana patterns, and then opened her eyes.

... ... ...

"How do you make the magic start ... actually DOING stuff?" she asked, confused.

 
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  • 2 weeks later...

It took Trixie a little bit of time, but she managed to figure out the basics of flying.  Flap both wings at the same time - surprisingly not as easy as it sounded.  For pegasai it must have been second nature, something they either learned while very young or knowledge they were innately born with.  Trixie had never put any thought into flying, let along the connection of non-unicorns in general to the magic of the world, until now.

 

Once in the air, though, the feeling was exhilarating!   Was this a natural feeling for a pegasus?  Was this how twilight felt as an alicorn in flight? Whatever the case, Trixie could do this all day!  As tempting as it was though, she didn’t want to attempt any aerial stunts, least of all because she didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of the others, and of course she was holding the lovely Miss Whooves aloft. 

 

Holding the brown unicorn mare up gave the whole scene a sort of romantic feeling for Trixie.  Even if the other pony was the Doctor, she was at least now a very cute Doctor.  Trixie had felt a fondness for the eccentric pony for quite a while, perhaps even a friendship.  Now, for the first time, Whooves was actually downright attractive, enough so that not even her bragging about her knowledge of unicorn spells turned off the now compassionate Trixie, who sported a smile on her face for the first time that day.

 

Then the Doctor delivered her question.  Trixie’s beaming face grew shocked and she forgot to flap her wings for a moment, dropping several yards before she recovered.  “What do you mean, how do you make the magic start?  You just do!!    You think of what you want to do and as long as you know the spell, you … well you know … you make it happen!!  Expert in unicorn magic, indeed!!  Feh!   Er, Trixie didn’t mean to be mean…   Uh, wait, yes Trixie did!!  Dahhhhh, this cutie maaaark!”

 

Trixie stood there in mid-air with her eyes closed as she counted to ten and worked to calm her now furiously flapping wings that were starting to whip up a minor local gale.  She sighed, “alright, allow Trixie to best explain this wondrous feat that every young unicorn knows…"

 

……. …….

 

“Just give Trixie a moment”  How does one explain the obvious?  “Okay, okay, Trixie has it.  Once you know what you want to do, and you know the spell, or it is just something basic like levitation, you well…  Focus your mind to simply *push* the magic out.”  Simple enough, right?  Well Whooves was new to this whole unicorn thing, and wasn’t as bright as Trixie, so maybe she needed to be even more basic.  “Just well… Push the magic out, imagine it going through and out your horn, and push it from here,”  Trixie touched a hoof at the base of the Doctor’s horn.  “Trixie know you can do it!!  Trixie believes in you!!”  Gahh, this cutie mark was getting really annoying!! The flying is great but why did she feel the need to be so cheerful and *bubbly*!

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  • 3 weeks later...

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After polishing off the blue bannana, Derpy watched Fresco practically beat down a door before a citizen answered, claiming they just started hiding today. After the door to the hut was slammed shut, Derpy trotted up to Fresco. "So the incidents didn't start happening until today? Interesting. Perhaps the creature wasn't always here. Or maybe some recent events have agitated it's mojo, so to speak."

 

Derpy looked up as Trixie encouraged the Doctor to use her magic. That was quite a sight, seeing Trixie inherit Derpy's nearly polar opposite personality. It was clear the mare was undergoing a lot of conflict due to their differences, but she still managed to get off the ground rather well, considering she's never had wings before. Kudos. But back to the task at hoof. Now that Derpy's stomach was full, her sense of timing might be a bit more cooperative now.

 

"Now all we need is the right pony" She felt drawn to walked towards the thick Jungle. Derpy simply complied and continued her sentence. "Worry not, dear Fresco. We'll get ourselves a lead in no ti...

 

"Help! Somepony help!"

 

Derpy paused and raised an eyebrow. "Do you hear someth-?"

 

Her face crashed into the ground as something impacted her form behind. As she lied there collecting her bearings, she heard a couple voices.

 

"Oh geez, I'm sorry!"

 

"You big clutz. Even when you're a mare, you don't watch where you're going!"

 

"Even when your a mare..." Derpy repeated as a grin slowly met her face. She jumped to her hooves and spun around to face a tan stallion and a red mare. "Greetings! I couldn't help but overhear. Have you been swapped by any chance?"

 

"Yes! How do we fix it?"

 

"I haven't figured that out yet. But don't worry, we will. Now... can you remember where this happened?"'

 

"We ran into a clearing. There was a ten hoof tall alicorn statue. It was all broken down and covered in vines."

 

Derpy placed a hoof on her chin... "Hmmm it's unlikely that was the only pony-made item there. Was there anything else you saw?"

 

"Only the horn that fell off the statue."

 

"We tried to put it back, but that's when..."

 

"I see." Derpy said. "Perhaps something would happen if the horn was returned... Could you possibly point us in the direction of the statue?"

 

The two ponies looked concerned. "Uh, no. We got lost. It;s a miracle when even found our way here."

 

"Drat." Derpy said. "Well thank you for the info. You can go now. We'll fix this, don't worry."

 

Since when did she make such difficult promises? Derpy watched the two ponies head into the village before turning to Fresco. "Well that was certainly productive! An old giant alicorn statue. What do you suppose that means? Are there more statues? a city? The only problem we have is knowing where it's at. Perhaps a statue that tall would be seen from a Pegasus-eye-veiw."

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Fresco chuckled a bit as he witnessed the two new ponies present bicker amongst each other. Seems they were in a similar predicament the as-of-now-stallion was. Seems for the moment all he could do was hope whatever was doing this saw fit to return his newly acquired chromosomes back to the doctor or some other poor pony... or they could go find this statue the duo was talking about! Just the prospect of  this statue brought an excited grin to the freckled stallion's face. Was it one of original two Alicorn princesses, or some other Alicorn that Equestrians didn't know about, Whatever it was, if was the source of all this weirdness, it had to be worth a look!

 

"Sounds like a great lead, Miss Hooves... And I think I have just the duo who might be able to spot it could be." Fresco looked over to the two mares currently trying to get used to flying, it seems tha tTrixie was enjoying herself in a rather conflicted manner as the personality traits of Derpy's personality rubbed off on her. "Oi! You two see anythin' up there?!" He shouted to the duo, "Try ta keep an eye out for anythin' that might be a statue, might be a bit hard ta spot since it's supposed ta have a lot o' vines and rubbish on it." 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Doctor Whooves had studied all sorts of texts on basic, intermediate, and advanced magic - the better to replicate magic with science, though she had to admit, also out of a certain envy of unicorn magic.  And that incident when she was a young colt, that had first turned her towards science.  Shudder.  However, she'd never really read any of the primers for unicorn foals who were just learning.

A shiver ran along her spine as Trixie finished her explanation, and touched her horn.  What a decidedly odd sensation, to be touched on something she'd never had before.  And ... pushing?  That was a terribly physical action for what should be a mental activity.  Still, reviewing her memory, she could remember a physical strain upon quite a few unicorns when they were undergoing some serious magical undertaking.  So she supposed that made sense.

As she worked through the basics of being something entirely other than what she was used to, she absent-mindedly shoved the corner of her scarf into her mouth and started chewing again.  She was vaguely aware of the discoveries that Derpy and Fresco were coming upon, down below, and the request to look for a statue, but one thing at a time, thank you.

Once again she formed a framework in her mind, but this time of something simpler - the framework of levitation, one of the simplest of magical equations.  And then, focusing upon a leaf upon a nearby tree, she ... *pushed*.  Gently at first, and then more firmly.  Her horn glowed a bright, vibrant blue color.  More firmly yet.  The tip of her horn sputtered and wheezed with bright blue sparks, sounding surprisingly like a smaller, quieter version of her cart.  The sparks were even the same color as the smoke.  Then the leaf ... exploded!  Little fragments of leaf floated down.  Whooves blanched.  Oops.

"Oh dear," she murmured. She needed something to help her to keep her focus, to think straight.  For some reason, her mind flitted back to the time she'd been working on her invention to bring time forward to you.  It was during the ... what ... second iteration of the device?  That he'd, at the time, fallen into a particular habit while thinking.  In fact, she probably still had it ... right ... ah!

She pulled out a recorder and placed it to her lips.  She was perhaps not the best recorder player, but her mind immediately soothed.  The sputtering at her horn settled down to a simple blue glow, and then first one, then a dozen leaves floated up off the tree to start swirling around Trixie and herself.  Her eyes opened and she smiled brightly.  "Ah, excellent," she murmured, and returned the recorder to her lips as she reformed her mental framework into one that could see magic.  The landscape before her eyes shifted and changed into a fantastic array of hues.

"Oh my," she murmured, "Tell me, Trixie, is there actually a bright glow at the base of the mountain over there, or is that my magic sight?"


Down below, a strange creature flitted down out of the trees to land before Presteza and Derpy, while the strange mare and stallion went running on into town to go about their business.  If ponies and fruit and creatures were getting swapped, this creature had certainly had more than its fair share of attention.  it was virtually impossible to tell what it had started as - it had a macaw's wings and broad tail, a lizard's body, the long arms and legs of some sort of monkey, the broad mouth and flicking tongue of a frog, and it even had a brightly colored crest made out of luscious red flower petals.  The poor creature looked up to the two hopefully, offering them a round coconut covered in a pineapple's spines.  Or was it a pineapple shaped like a coconut?
 
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Initially, Trixie found Whooves' first attempt at unicorn magic amusing. He was no better than a unicorn foal, complete with the sputtering magic and lack of any semblance of control. That amusement quickly turned to shock when Whooves managed to magically create a harmonious dance of leaves swirling in the air in tune with the recorder she was playing on her very second try! Where did she get that thing, anyway?

"How did you manage that so quickly?!" It took unicorn foals months, sometimes years, to properly control their magic once it started to manifest itself. Even Trixie herself had taken a great deal of time to learn to focus and control her own immense magical potential! Granted, Whooves was an adult, but even so, how could the tan mare figure it out in moments?! Then it dawned on her "Well, Trixie is surprised and impressed you figured out how to control your magic with such haste! But with the Sagely and Wise Trixie as your teacher in all things magical, anything is possible my faithful student! Perhaps Trixie should have been an instructor at the School for Gifted Unicorns, since bestowing my immense knowledge of the mystical arts has shown such rapid results!"

Now if only Trixie could get those gifts back! They were no closer to solving the problem now than they were when this first started happening! As much fun flying may be, it wasn't the same as creating spells, unless one could do both like a princess, but one thing at a time.

Trixie flew herself and Whooves up higher, hoping to spot the statue that Pressy had mentioned. All Trixie could see was a great mass of jungle surrounded by the ocean blue. If the statue was indeed covered as the stallion had said, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. It was all very frustrating.

But not, apparently, for Whooves. Trixie could see the mountain, of course, but there was no obvious light. Trixie did indeed teach her minion well! "You must be detecting something through the ley lines. Good job, Trixie is so very proud of you!" Ugh, that was so bubbly. What was she, a primary school teacher?!

"Excellent! Now observe the Swift and Aerial Trixie as she brings us to the site in moments!" Her wings flapped harder as she leaned forward in the sky, swiftly zooming through the atmosphere to prove her superiority of mastering strange forms. Indeed, she could feel the wind in her mane! The power of the weather at her command! The pure speed, how exhilarating! She looked down at the jungle streaking by below them.

... Wait, they were still in the village. They hadn't reached the jungle yet. Her swift flight was better described as a 'lazy amble.'

"Then again, it wouldn't be kind to leave without our new friends!" she chirped merrily. Ha! Make use of that bubbly personality, at last! "We should probably fetch them, first!"

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  • 2 weeks later...

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While Fresco was shouting to the duo in the sky, Derpy was feeling quite proud of herself for mastering the art of timing. Utilizing this talent would come in handy while delivering mail to the good citizens of Ponyville, that much was certain.

 

"Well, my good fellow," she said. "It seems our work here is done for the time being- aaaah!"

 

A bizarre mixture of animals fluttered out of the jungle. It landed on the ground and approached them, making Derpy scramble backwards until she bumped into Fresco. After realizing she wasn't under attack, Derpy leaned towards the stallion and whispered, "what do you suppose that is? Do you think it's responsible for all the swapping, or one of the greatest victims of it?"

 

She stood there for a moment, waiting. Nothing seemed to be getting swapped so she was starting to suspect the poor creature suffered the same fate as everything else on the island. However, before Derpy could speak her mind, the creature did something odd. It offered them some kind of round object. Derpy raised an eyebrow before gazing at the creature. "What is this?" She walked closer to better inspect it. "Some sort of... round pineapple?" She took it in her hooves and inspected it. "What do you want us to do with this? Do you want us to eat it? Are you giving it as a gift?" Her expression grew uneasy. "Are you offering this in hopes we'd help you in return?"

 

What did this odd creature want? Why did it target them and give them this weird shaped pineapple? Derpy knocked her hoof against it and listened. Despite looking like a pineapple, it felt and sounded like it had a hard outer shell like a coconut. She trotted up to Fresco and tossed it on the ground in front of him. "Would you do the honors of cracking open this... Cocoapple....Pinenut?

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  • 4 weeks later...

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The painterpony jumped with a start as he felt somepony bump into him. It seemed something had managed ta startle derpy as well. Some sort of strange chimaera like creature but of the non-traditional variety. Honestly the little creature was quite the fascinating individual, normally his first instinct was to try and memorize every feature of this oddity but seeing as other things were going to have to take priority.

 

Looking over at the discombobulated creature, Fresco put a hoof to his chin and then spoke up, "I think it's a victim... if it's the one doin' the swapping and gettin' so many ponies so scared and stressed I doubt it would willing show it's face in front of it's latest victi--" Fresco stopped at the creature approached and rolled a strange fruit towards  him and Derpy. Once the strange mixed up fruit was rolled his way he chuckled and nodded to derpy,"O' course I can!" The stallion lifted up his hoof and then struck down on the strange snack. Just like that, the strange fruit combo was split in half; inside each side was indeed the moist flesh of a coconut.

 

"Thanks fer the food li'l guy." The stallion offer the other half to his now well spoken pegasus friend, "No reason ta turn down an offerin' o' good will right, Doctor Derpy?"

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  • 1 month later...

The strange creature rolled backwards and made chittering, happy noises as they broke it open and started tasting the fruit - the inside white like a coconut, but soft and spongy like a pineapple, and flavor like a mix between the two fruits - a virgin mixed drink, needing only rum and a little umbrella to make it a proper tropical island classic.  The creature scarpered off into the jungle again as soon as the two ponies were sampling it, its long arms grabbing hold of the low branches and vines to pull itself into the upper canapy, giving it enough space to launch itself into the air and fly away.

Whooves had a flat look on her face as she dangled underneath the pegasus trying out her new wings, feeling decidedly undignified.  Luckily, Trixie realized her own mistake, and Whooves decided not to rub it in, even passively.  This new, bubbly Trixie was rather pleasant, for the time being - though he wanted the normal Trixie back soon.  He liked her confidence.

"Right, then!" she cried, hopping down to the forest floor, automatically reaching out to grab Derpy's fruit so she could have a taste and a snack... and blinking down at her hoof when it came up empty.  What in Equestria was going on?  She felt decidedly off-balance... "We found something out in the jungle, figured we'd just pop off and see wot's wot, right?"  She sprang into the cart and twisted a few knobs, cranked the clutch, and threw the lever to send it into action.  And when nothing happened, she hauled back and gave a proper *kick* to the boiler.  The *bong* resonated throughout the jungle, but the only reaction was a sputtering wheeze that died away raspingly.

She blinked and looked back at her cart with a look of loss and hurt.  "Oye, wot's wrong?" she asked worriedly, going through the motions again.  Another resonating bong, another wheezing gasp that died away.  It was just like when she was trying to teach Trixie, earlier today, how to run the thing!  "Wait, I'm doin' it too fast... um..."  She tried slowing down ... Twist.  Twist.  Crank.  Crank.  Lever.  Wait.  Wait.  *BONG*.

A jet of steam hisssssssed out of the boiler, and Whooves' eyes got big and watery ...
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  • 2 weeks later...

Trixie landed right after dropping Whooves to the ground, stumbling a few steps with an almost-flubbed but nonetheless nailed landing!  She circled around and felt a great need to explain WHY she had come back.  Which was not, of course, because she couldn't fly as fast as she thought she would be able to.  "The cheerful and bubbly Trixie has returned for you!  For you are part of Trixie's team, and as we are all a team, it would not do to leave any pony behind!  Even if they are useless, or foolish, or talk too much!  not that I mean any of you do that!  Cause that'd be mean.  Oh, Trixie hopes she didn't hurt anypony's feelings!  Why is Trixie SPEAKING like this?! "  Trixie dropped her face into her hooves.  "Can we please hurry and fix this?  Please?"

Her attention was pulled away by that telltale gong noise of Whooves' boiler.  She felt an ever-so-not-very-slight feeling of satisfaction at seeing Whooves unable to start his ... her ... that blasted cart!  See, it wasn't just Trixie who had trouble with it!  "Here, allow me, Whooves," she said, getting into the cart next to the mysterious and mouthy mare.  "It's all in the timing!" She couldn't help but lay in the dig.

Swiftly, she went through the process as Whooves had been showing her just a short time earlier.  Throw the switch, pump the doohickey, pull the lever once the pressure is up on the gauge... it was like a spell, except done with hooves instead of magic, thus making it obviously inferior.  Then wait for a couple heartbeats, and then kick.  BONG.  Wheeeeeeze.  Kick.  BONG.  BONG.  BONG.  BONGBONGBONG!  DOUBLEHOOFBONG!  This was quite therapeutic, actually...

Then Trixie made the mistake of looking up and seeing those big, watery, tear-filled eyes on the Doctor.  Her last kick was moderated to just the tiniest little tapping *ping*.  "Oh, Whooves!  It's all right!  It's probably just broken again, and you'll get to spend all sorts of quality time fixing it!  You can *usually* start her up!  It happens to everypony, sometimes!"

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  • 3 weeks later...

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"No reason ta turn down an offerin' o' good will right, Doctor Derpy?"

 

"Right you are," she said. Unless one considers it 'good will' to tamper with the strange fruit. But such a thought entered her mind for only a brief moment before she disregarded it.

 

A grin met her face as she glanced back to the 'applenut in her hooves. Ultimately, the creature was probably just being friendly. Just as she ate the last bit of it, the Doctor swooped in and... awkwardly swiped at her hoof. Then she announced it was time to check out the forest and leaped into the cart to start her up. However, no matter what she did, the cart wouldn't come to life. After seeing the sheer sadness in her eyes over her newfound lack of timing, Derpy couldn't help but feel pity. Such an impeccable talent was to be missed for sure. In fact, she's been enjoying it quite a bit herself, and would be reluctant to part with it already.

 

Trixie attempted to start it up too, but failed. Upon seeing The Doctor in a state of dejection, Trixie did not hesitate to reassure her.

 

"Oh, Whooves!  It's all right!  It's probably just broken again, and you'll get to spend all sorts of quality time fixing it!  You can *usually* start her up!  It happens to everypony, sometimes!"

 

Derpy's brow raised and a smirk met her face. It was like watching her old self. Heh. Why was she already feeling so nostalgic? It wasn't long since their cutie marks had been switched and it already feels like it's been forever since she's had the Doctor's cutie mark.

 

Wait a second...
 

Derpy snapped out of her daze. She had the Doctor's cutie mark!

 

"Well what am I standing around collecting dust for?" She declared. "Allow me to give it a whirl!"

 

She leapt into the cart and her hooves sprang to life as if they'd done this a hundred times. Crank. Twist.  Crank.  Twist Twist.  Lever. .... Wheeze. Kick.
She didn't even wait for the result before jumping out of the cart and standing on her hind legs, giving a wild gesture towards the vehicle as if presenting something amazing.
Then the cart let out a loud pop! And a steady brrrrrrrmmmmmmm as it started up.

 

"Ta da!"

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  • 4 weeks later...

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Fresco in the meantime was nomming away at his treat, smiling at the creature who'd hoofed it to him moments earlier and smiled; these were really good! He was gonna miss this treat when hopefully all this was all fixed and back to normal. Once Derpy had finished her own treat she was spurred into action by the doctor. It seemed that derpy's aquisition of his cutie mark not only allowed her a superb sense of timing but a natural aptitude for the big blue wagon that he and trixie had arrived in.

 

"Awesome job, Doctah Derpy!" he said in an excited tone before getting up and looking to the doctor, "I trust you'd be honored to have the prestigious and prodigious fresco on board you lovely wagon... Is fresco correct?" he asked the doctor with a slight blush and awkward grin on his face.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Doctor Whooves' eyes just got wider and wetter as Trixie's hooves banged away at her precious boiler, her lower lip starting to tremble.  "why ... why would you do that?" she asked softly ...

And then Derpy, faithful Derpy, for the first time, managed to properly get the ol' girl started up.  Doctor Whooves, rather than grateful, looked almost offended.  "Wait... wait... wot'd you two do to her?"  She rushed forward, checking over the boiler, the engine... "Why's she so ... so ... quiet?!"  At the looks they were delivering, she explained, "It's supposed to be making that ... HUUHHHhhh... HuUUUHHhhh..HuuHHhhhHHH noise!"  She tried ... poorly ... to mimic the normal rasping VWORP the engine usually made.

She sighed, shook her head.  "Whatever.  yes, Fresco, everypony, all aboard!  We've got to stick together if we're ever going to get ourselves back to normal!"  She stepped up to the console ... then paused ... and stepped back away from it with a sad little sigh.  "Derpy, I suppose you should probably steer..."  She glared gloomily at the cart itself, as if accusing it with her eyes of cheating on her, and started chewing gloomily on the end of her impossibly long and very colorful scarf.
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  • 2 weeks later...

Trixie's heart ached to see Doctor Whooves' face, to hear her little plaintive question.  "Be-because the helpful and caring Trixie is trying to get it to started up, of course!  I didn't really upset you, did I?  Oh, I'm so sorry!"  Impulsively she moved forward to wrap her forelegs around the mare that was the Doctor, giving her a big, caring hug.  Doctor Whooves was rather cute like this, and this hug wasn't entirely unpleasant... "I wasn't trying to damage it!  I was just trying to help!"

Wait.  What if he expected her to be hugging him like this once he was back to normal?  "WHAT AM I SAYING?!  The sooner we catch this thing, the better!"

She moved away, though in the time she'd been hugging Doctor Whooves, Derpy had managed to get the cart started up.  Without its usual horrid cacaphony.  "Are you sure it's supposed to do that wheezing?  It sounds like it's running so much better now.  It sounds happy and bubbly now!  I understand how this cart feels right now!"  She impulsively moved to give the boiler a hug.  Then her eye snapped open.  "Why am I hugging a very hot boiler?"  she darted away again, letting out a frustrated noise.

"Where were we going?  Oh, right!  The statue in the jungle!  Along the ground.  Even though the Aerodynamic and Athletic Trixie can fly!  We'll find a cure there, right?  Right? Trixie wants her magic back!  She wants her personality back!  Not to hurt anypony's feelings!  Your abilities and personalities are very nice!  BUT TRIXIE DOES NOT WANT TO BE NICE!"

She trembled at the bizarre and conflicting emotions running through her, and then decisively moved to the wheel.  "Presteza!  Or Fresco!  Get on board!  And Derpy!  On board!  We're leaving!"  As soon as they were in the cart, she threw the lever to 'forward' and took off at a high speed.

And then the strangest thing happened.  She understood why the Doctor liked driving this around.  It went zipping off at speed, and she was twisting the wheel left and right, weaving between trees, and she felt a laugh bubbling up in her throat.  And she didn't care that she was happy, because ... "THIS IS SO FUN!" Wait, what if they crashed?  She popped open one of the Doctor's hat-storage compartments, rummaged inside, and pulled out some sort of collandar-ish looking helmet thing, slapping it on her head, all without taking her eyes off of the jungle in front of her, and felt a ridiculously huge smile on her face.
 

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"Wait... wait... wot'd you two do to her? Why's she so ... so ... quiet?! It's supposed to be making that ... HUUHHHhhh... HuUUUHHhhh..HuuHHhhhHHH noise!"

 

“You’re quite right, my good pony!” Derpy acknowledged, unfazed by her counterpart’s worried inquiries as she gave the cart an affectionate tap or two. “But a quiet engine means...” the mare paused for a moment; the thought in her mind she intended to say momentarily eluded her. “Ah yes, a quieter cart allows other passengers to hear each other easier, resulting in more productive conversations. Plus with reduced engine noise, theoretically one should be capable of listening for hazards on the road, which comes in pretty handy when said hazards can’t be seen with the naked eye. All in all, it’s a major improvement, wouldn’t you say?”

Even though the Doctor had recommended Derpy to take the wheel, it was Trixie who volunteered herself as driver. To this, the grey mare objected not as she took shotgun position. It had been a long time since her last ride in that cart. It wouldn’t hurt anypony to reacquaint herself with the controls by watching somepony else at the controls. Very sensible plan, indeed!

Of course, it was only mere seconds before Trixie zipped off that Derpy’s eyes widened in horror; “............Oh dear.” Right as the cart began accelerating, feelings of quesiness came to the forefront. Derpy had not remembered quickly enough how she suffered from cart sickness whenever she rode with the Doctor. In times past though, she had wings to fly alongside the contraption. Boy, did Derpy miss her wings now as her breathing became more labored.

And what it pity it was that Derpy couldn’t savor the natural surroundings rushing past as the cart drove on. To think of all the jungle’s wonders that would escape her notice! After a couple minutes, the mare’s insides reached their breaking point. “Trixie,” Derpy’s mouth looked like it was struggling to hold back a storm; “Be a darling... and lend me that helmet of yours...”
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  • 2 months later...

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"Yes, Mu'um!" said the stallion with a rather excited tone in his voice as he took place on the bizarre but fascinating vehicle. This was getting exciting! Even while the group at the controls were discussing how this device should be handled, The exciteable stallion whistled for his little flying friend to fly on over, and that he did but Fresco didn't land on Fresco's horn like Fresco expected Fresco to do, instead Fresco passed Fresco and landed on the good doctor's face and hung down off of her horn with a happy squeak and spread of his wings just as the machine went went into it's speedy frenzy.

This would prove to be quite unfortunate timing for the doctor seeing as now with the speed they were going she now found her eyes covered by the membranous purple wings of Fresco's Flying companion... this might get confusing(in more ways than one)

"The Prodigious and prolific Fresco would have to agree... but  Fresco must wonder if our fair pilot knows how to stop this machine without flinging us through the air." He said in a voice that hinted he was trying not to sound rude.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Doctor Whooves froze in surprise as Trixie gave her a hug.  Oh dear.  This again.  Though it wasn't too bad, yet.  No bumping into controls and whatnot.  Though then the boiler got the same attention, so maybe it didn't mean anything.  Whooves knew Trixie harbored a crush on him, and had let her down gently once before... Trixie was trying her hardest to pretend there was no such thing, but Whooves had seen the jealousy when he'd paid attention to any mare other than Trixie.

 

Whooves laid a hoof on Trixie's shoulder at her faint panic at becoming too nice.  "Don't worry, Trixie.  These things always have a way of working out.  Except when they don't.  We'll get to this next clue, whatever it is, and then I'll do that thing where I figure something out.  It might take a few more stops along the way, but I'm sure we'll manage something, and you'll get back to being yourself, with your powerful ego and your overdramatic declarations."

 

She looked back to Derpy and her hopeful declaration that the cart was better quieter... Whooves couldn't argue any of the points, not really, and with a sudden faceful of bat, she could hardly just go haring around trying to fix it.  Even if she could trust her own hooves just now.  So she just ... chewed on the soggy end of her scarf desperately, with a quiet little protest of "But I like that noise..."

 

The trip was relatively short, and quick, and ended with only a few extra dents to her precious cart.  The stop didn't *quite* fling them through the air, and then there was the sort search before they found themselves at the base of some massive statue of some ancient alicorn.

 

"Fascinating..." Whooves breathed softly, holding up the broken-off horn.  One hoof gently lifted the bat out of her face so she could peer up towards the statue's head.  "This island must have been something once... some... I don't know.  Something.  Perhaps a stop on the trade route.  Or maybe it wasn't even originally an island.  Stuff got moved around during the time of Discord."  She tried using her magic to float the horn on up, but it sparked and fizzed alarmingly, sending the bat squeaking and flapping away in alarm, so she quickly stopped.  "Oop, terribly sorry.  You're right, of course, I should have warned you.  Trixie, could you see about fitting this horn back in the right place?  I don't think it'll do anything, just... should be in the right place.  And I'll start trying to figure out that magic-detection spell again."

 

She drew out her recorder and began that horrible music-playing once more, settling down her nerves from everything that had happened, and feeling the magic start to flow again...

 

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Everything was awesome!  Well except for being a peagsus part, although Trixie did like the idea of being able to fly, she preferred to do so while retaining her horn, much like a princess, which she totally deserved to be.  Other than that, yeah, awesome!  At least that was the one word she could think to describe the exhilarating feeling she had while wildly piloting Whooves' self-propelled cart through the jungle.  Flying over falling trees and rocks, just avoiding this and that tree, or just squeezing under branches at top speed, it was a thrill a second! "Whoooooo! This is so much fun! You having fun?!? Trixie is having fun!!  Trixie's havin' a whole lot of fun!!!"  Poor Derpy wasn't having so much fun though, asking for a helmet, that was okay, Trixie had a helmet!  Her first thought was to lift it with her magic, but ugh, pegasus, so she took it with her hoof and plopped it right on Derpy's head and patted it, "there you go hon, Trixie is happy to provide!!"  Why was she so bubbly?!? Who cares, this was fun!!

 

It didn't take long for the quartet to reach their destination, a large stone statue of a beautiful alicorn princess from some distant past, the effigy itself was well worn from the intervening millennia and covered with vines, but the area around it was remarkably clear of the large trees and dense brush that defined the surrounding jungle.  "We're heeeeere!!" Trixie exclaimed excitedly as she slammed the breaks, bringing the cart to a sudden halt.  It tipped onto its front wheels for a moment as the passengers slid forward, all pressing up against Trixie's back before the rear wheels fell back to the jungle floor.

 

Trixie hopped on out.  Was the statue important?  Maybe a clue to solve their current dilemma? She really hoped Whooves somehow knew.  Trixie rolled her eyes at Whooves' poor showing of magic.  One just doesn't just 'get' magical ability, that was silly! Once again she had to step in and save the day at Whooves' request.  "Fiiiiine!  The sooner we are done here, the better. Maybe we can finally figure out who or what is doing this."

 

Trixie floated upward with the stone horn in hooves, reaching the statue's head in a few seconds and placing the horn back in place.  Then she waited ... Wasn't something supposed to happen?  Like, magic or something?  At least a clue?!?  "Nothing's haaaaaaaappenin!!"  She crossed her forehooves, glaring at Whooves in disappointment, "Wellll?  Trixie would like to change back sometime soon, ya know!! I mean, it would be nice.  I didn't mean to yell, er, wait, yes Trixie did!"

 

Unknown to Trixie and her three cohorts, a curious creature emerged from the back of the cart looking upon the ponies with inquisitiveness, the same bizarre one encountered earlier in the village that was a menagerie of body parts with a macaw's wings and broad tail, a lizard's body, the long arms and legs of some sort of monkey, the broad mouth and flicking tongue of a frog, and it even had a brightly colored crest made out of luscious red flower petals, but most of all it was infused with magic, a chaotic magic of enormous power...

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

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Whatever Trixie hoped to accomplish by putting the helmet onto Derpy’s head, it did not perform the function that the grey-coated mare intended. There wasn’t any time to take it off, because the cart came to a stop at its destination. The rough manner in which Trixie hit brakes stiffened Derpy’s resolve to be the first one out; the first chance she got, she galloped just behind the trees to provide some... much-needed relief for her throat after that harrowing ride.

Derpy reemerged just in time to witness Trixie complaining that the alicorn statue wasn’t doing anything. Well, at least the thing was there as predicted, thank goodness! “Now now, there’s no need to panic just yet,” the grey mare confidently strode onto the scene, the helmet still adorning her head; “In my experience, if you can’t get a suspicious object to activate its mystical power, just give it a jolt of magic. Of course, there’s always the question of which type of magic you need to make something work. I suppose it’s possible to attempt every single spell we know of and hope one of them works. Can’t be that hard, can it?”

The mare rested a hoof on her chin, pondering as she paced back and forth. “Then again, we may simply have an ordinary statue on our hooves, which would mean that my theory would have been wrong all along. But we can’t know for certain unless we’ve experimented with every possible spell first, which could very well take days. Hmmmm.....”

The thinking mare energetically turned towards the Doctor; “Let’s try giving that statue some juice, shall we!?”

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  • 5 weeks later...

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The sight of the great green jungle surrounding the group brought the young painter's worries up; he'd had allergies when he (formerly and hopefully soon to be again she) arrived but while surrounded by this verdant greenery he realized he didn't feel a single itch on or  in his muzzle... so that could only mean somepony else in the group took that little trait from him. What he was really worried about was if they had gotten his likelihood of inducing a magical surge when they sneezed, so at the moment he could only pray that it wasn't the doctor who got them...

There was a moment of silence with no sounds of sniffling so the stallion wiped some sweat from his brow on the fetlock of his hoof and traveled over to get a closer look at the statue in Question. "Oh... This is neat!" He said with a goofy grin spreading on his face before circling around the statue a few times, getting all wrapped up in his own little artist's bubble: a semi-trance like state in which he was focused entirely on either painting or analyzing the appearance of what was in front of him. 

"Fresco wonders wot kinda stone this is that it held up so well." the stallion looked repeatedly over it, especially the stone mane of the alicorn, "Who do ya girls think this was supposed ta be of? it looks... a little bit different than Luna or Celestia. Do ya think this is an Alicorn from Pre-PRE-Equestrian times?!"

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