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My pleasure, Balewood! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the newest chapter I've just released!

The lightning mare’s smirk turned colder. “Let me give you a piece of advice, filly: don’t bother. Tear the letter up the moment it arrives. I’ve seen the way you fly, girl: you don’t have what it takes to be a Wonderbolt. You don’t have what it takes to be one of our janitors. But let’s say you ignore me. Let’s say I see you on our practice field in a cadet uniform in a few days. Filly, I will make your life a living hell. In and out of class.”

Lightning Dusk... go fuck yourself.

................

“So… wedding plans?” asked Celestia, in much harder tones.

“I… Princess Celestia, I…”

Celestia only had to shut her eyes for Twilight to fall silent. “Just answer me one question, and be completely honest, please. Are you even truly trying to fix Starswirl’s spell any more? Or do you no longer even want that?”

Celestia, it's your fault for sending twilight the experimental spell in the first place; fix the damn thing yourself, you manipulative twit. I would love it if the Swap doesn't get fixed, Celestia reveals why she sent the spell... and then Twilight rages on her...

7084770 I loved the new chapter, Lero's back at his job, Rainbow's baited into wonderbolts practice, Rarity interested in marriage, applejack overloaded with orders, is Spike falling for applejack. So much potential for major fallout, and the troubles with Swap Jockeys I can't wait to see what you do in the end. Love PartySky since she was introduced and after finding equilibrium she's even better. Thanks again for Writing!

The problem with Swap Jockeys is that the potential exists for there to be geometric progression. Six becomes twelve. Twelve becomes twenty-four. Ad infinitum.

You know, the part of me that wants to go full Black helicopter thinks Celestia Deliberately made sure the swap spell got loose so she can force Twilight to complete it.

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The potential is there, but it doesn't seem likely. Two reasons: 1. Unless the harmonious magic that helps ponies find their destinies is much worse in this 'verse than canon, there really shouldn't be THAT many that are unhappy with their own marks. 2. Even if there are... word should be getting out soon that every swap attempt ends with a swapped pony doing something embarrassingly, criminally insane. No matter how tired you are of mopping, it beats a straitjacket. Still, who knows... it's certainly a troubling trend.

This was a fun chapter. I really enjoy the interludes into other 'verses, even if they don't seem to advance the story much. Hmm... unless Twilight studies the common elements in them sorting by their variances to kind of reach into the fundamental essence of each... well, anyway... Spike... buddy... tell your big sis to remember a soundproofing spell for buck's sake. Rule of funny should not be grounds for that level of trauma. Even if the image of Twilight's adorkable, naughty student roleplay is really damn funny...

Poor Celestia... it's such a tough world when suddenly your star pupil is too busy surviving your mess to actually clean it up. As much as I normally try to sympathize with the Sun Princess (it's tough being a plot device), the harshness in her tone here is undeserved. She's clearly letting her worry over the situation get the better of her. From her point of view, she's trying to save the world from Tirek... and probably whatever else is down the line. Still, the last time she questioned Twilight was Shining and Cadance's wedding... and didn't that just go swimmingly... Princess, Twilight will do the right thing... isn't that why you're trying to elevate her in the first place?

Nice job making Lightning Dust even less likable than her canon. She used to just be Iceman (Top Gun... for those who don't get that reference, google it), but she's clearly taken a level in jerkass. It'll be interesting to see how a Rainbow that has lower competitive instincts but similar talents to before deals with her... and vice versa.

I feel like I need smoother transitions in this comment; I'm bouncing around like Pinkie on espresso... but, oh man... if Rarity gets deswapped after they all get married... I'm getting like one of those 'wake up hungover and suddenly married in Las Vegas Pegasus' type of scenarios. Sure, it doesn't quite fit... but it makes me grin. Rarity's probably my favorite of the Six... but part of that is watching her dramatically freak out. Looking forward to what comes next.

Celestia only had to shut her eyes for Twilight to fall silent. “Just answer me one question, and be completely honest, please. Are you even truly trying to fix Starswirl’s spell any more? Or do you no longer even want that?”

Oh, go fuck yourself, Sunbutt. Clean up your own fucking messes. You have absolutely zero... no, make that negative moral authority here.

-----------

So, the Swapped are becoming even more fundamentally distinct from a simple blended personality, but their backstories are starting to diverge from the commonly-accepted reality. In addition, all of Equestria is going to hell in a handbasket, because reasons. I foresee some variant of the dread Reset Button in the not too distant future.

Swap Jockeys, huh? Well, that's a worm in the apple for sure and certain. And just how long until one these deluded numbskulls gets it into their head that being the special snowflake that they "deserve" to be means pulling that spell out their ass during an audience with an alicorn princess? Or that perhaps they should get to live the life of an Element of Harmony?

Although I should perhaps not drop this suggestion like this, lest the author get sucked into a long-ass plot thread that extends the story's final resolution that much more .

Damned if you do; damned if you don't. Not the best place to be.

So.... Divided Rainbow is ending... Are we going to see the herd in season 4-5-6...?

I still have no idea of what it was that Twilight did to solve the spell, because its so twiested and contrived to fit in, like some of the more horrible shakespearian prose, instead of scientific style clean symetrical structure needed for extremely complex designs.

This is where Sunshine comes along with the Big Red Button, and resets everything so Twilight gets the right (wrong) spell, instead of the wrong (right) spell?

Discord taking Fluttershy on a tour of alternatives is so nice. I wonder if they visited the beach in the realm where Ponyville is Seaponies and Lero is Tentacle Bob?

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So.... Divided Rainbow is ending... Are we going to see the herd in season 4-5-6…?

I won't answer the latter part of the question, but yes, Divided Rainbow is on its final act, and is approaching its ending. I don't have an exact chapter count, but it'll probably be around ten chapters or fewer.

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This is where Sunshine comes along with the Big Red Button, and resets everything so Twilight gets the right (wrong) spell, instead of the wrong (right) spell?

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So, the Swapped are becoming even more fundamentally distinct from a simple blended personality, but their backstories are starting to diverge from the commonly-accepted reality. In addition, all of Equestria is going to hell in a handbasket, because reasons. I foresee some variant of the dread Reset Button in the not too distant future.

Got to be honest, I'm not 100% certain of what you guys mean by a 'reset button,' but I suspect you're talking about a deus ex machina. That I've painted myself into a corner, story-wise. Trust me, I won't be going this route.

He felt halfway certain that he was going to draw the Death card; it’d be just like that one stupid B-movie he once saw! Instead, the title of the upright-facing card he drew was…

“Oooh! Judgement, huh?” a perky, bubbly voice asked from right by his ear. His skeleton felt ready to jump out of his skin. He turned around in his chair and came face-to-face with Fluttershy. How long had she been standing there, listening in?”

“Does that mean somepony’s gonna be passing judgement on you, Lero?” Fluttershy asked. “Or that you’re gonna have to be making a big judgement soon?

That segment represented foreshadowing for the big final story arc we've just stepped into. Our heroes are the ones who're going to have to make the big Judgment Call on whether or not to cure the Swapped.

The rest of what'll happen won't come from out of the blue, but as the direct result of stuff that's happened in past chapters. Take the Swap Jockeys… they've been extensively foreshadowed;

--insists that Cutie Mark Dysmorphic Disorder, or CMDD, is a very real and prevalent syndrome among a considerable percentage of ponykind. “This issue transcends all the usual dividing lines found between tribes, ages, gender, and all levels of the social hierarchy. Mainstream society prefers to dismiss CMDD as a ‘foal’s problem’ which needs to be ‘grown out of.’ But the so-called ‘Humanapping Incident,’ [involving the now-notorious criminals Honeydew and Exit Wound] has served to spark an ongoing--

“Hi buddy! I’ve heard everything there is to hear about you being captured by the Sicklefin gang! Horrible, truly horrible!” The pegasus' grin widened with every word. “They say you were one of the ones who watched it happen with your own eyes: a pony acquiring an honest-to-goodness new cutie mark!”

“I feel for you,” she empathized, “But you know there is no magical means for ponies to change their cutie marks…”
“Oh, but we believe there is,” countered Cymbal Clang, with a shine in his eyes that Celestia did not care for at all. “Which is why we CMDD sufferers are desperate for full disclosure on what happened when the hu…”

This isn't something Celestia can bail our heroes out of.

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Got to be honest, I'm not 100% certain of what you guys mean by a 'reset button,' but I suspect you're talking about a deus ex machina. That I've painted myself into a corner, story-wise. Trust me, I won't be going this route.

No, the Reset Button trope is a bit more general than that.

Here's an example from the Battlestar Galactica (2003) series:

At the end of the second season, the formerly lone military ship which had been shepherding the civilian fleet has been joined by a second, much more powerful ship. The civilian president has just lost an election to the guy who's been working with the enemy Cylons all along. He orders the fleet to settle the next habitable planet they find, rather than searching for the "mythical" Earth. Then the Cylon fleet shows up and invades the planet, while the Battlestars cut and run.

By the fifth episode of season three, the old president is back in charge, the planet has been evacuated, the new Battlestar has been destroyed, the fleet is back to searching for Earth, and nothing that happened at the end of the last season really matters.

It's looking like we're going to have to not only undo the various swaps and Discord's historical revisionism, but cram the swap-genie back in the bottle and make it appear that none of this ever happened. Otherwise, the swap-jockeys will be back, and will go insane. Additionally, we have to either sort out what the fuck Sunbutt was shooting for without interfering with the previous bits, or ignore the fact that the whole exercise was just as arbitrary as the original episode was.

I'm not worried about a Deus ex Machina, but rather a Shaggy Dog Story where, if the story was in hardcopy, I'd be tempted to throw it across the room after reading the ending, because I just wasted the past *mumble* hours of my life reading a story that went nowhere in the end.

So much going on this chapter! Not sure what to expect, just along for the ride!
Love that Lighting Dust is such a contrast to (unswapped) Rainbows' temperament when it comes to body image and athleticism.
Tia's losing her cool.
You can just feel the weight on Twilights shoulders with all the burdens she's carrying after that last paragraph.

Really enjoying how the story is going along right now! Its awesome work :)

Only thing that ticked me off was the capital wording used for emphasis, otherwise I love it :P

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Reviewing the Magical Mystery Cure, it seems like Twilight was inspired to finish the spell as soon as her friends were cured, but it's not clear that the cure was a prerequisite. Maybe she just needed to be relaxed, and have the other Bearers suited up and available to blast her to smithereens.
Now that her swapped friends have made peace with their new cutie marks, she may be on the verge of finishing the spell and ascending, but it may have nothing to do with unswapping her friends.

Interesting theory. I, personally, am of the opinion that the cure was essential to her understanding how to make the spell work. However, I'm not the main writer, so who knows how it'll play out?

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Oooh, looks like I might want to give Xenophilia: Advanced a chance. I wanna know what happened!

It's a pretty interesting series, it's basically, "How does science actually work in Equestria?" the same ways Xenophilia is "How do relationship work in Equestria?"

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And so ends the story of Honeydew (for now anyway). I definitely enjoyed this story arc, though it was far more over-the-top than I would have expected for the Xeno/Lero-verse.

We kind of wanted to step outside of expectations and have an "Adventure" episode, so to speak... with mixed results. Hopefully we'll get better at it.

I can see where the author was coming from with the whole 'baddies want a piece of the human' kind of thing. Hilarious Futurama reference by the way! No Equestrian will want 'human horn' after this!

Glad you enjoyed it!

The whole Sicklefin gang, and the Diamond dog, it was all just too much, though it was awesome to see what Leros' mares are like in a real fight.

I personally don't have much of an issue with the Sicklefins, they're more or less standard bad guys, and mildly interesting and of themselves. The Diamond Dog was a bit farther than I'd personally go, but hey, not head writer.

The swap for Exit Wound is definitely a worse fate for her now that she's locked up and unable to fulfill her 'destiny'.

We did want to leave her in a bad place, reaping what her uncompromising paranoid sewed.

I think a big part of why so many enjoy the the xeno/Lero-verse is how down to Earth it is. In the Original you got to see what a typical public outburst is like for Lero and the consequences of that action. It could have been made into an all out courtroom drama (I'm sure Big Mac would love to represent Lero) but it didn't. It didn't really need to be.

We try to play things ad down-to-earth as possible, but it is a world of magic ponies and occasional high adventure- I always imagine Lero attempts to (and his mares try to keep him) stay out of the adventure- it's not really his thing- but sometimes it intrudes on him and his life. Further Tales has something similar in the Hive arc.

Though I did enjoy it for what it is, it just didn't feel 'right' for the story. I was mostly looking forward to reading about Honeydew again it just wasn't at all what I was expecting.

Apologies. If it's any consolation, it is necessary for the end of the story.

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Lightning Dusk... go fuck yourself.

Lightning Dusk? What, the child of Lightning Dust and Dusk Shine in an alternate universe? ^-^

Celestia, it's your fault for sending twilight the experimental spell in the first place; fix the damn thing yourself, you manipulative twit. I would love it if the Swap doesn't get fixed, Celestia reveals why she sent the spell... and then Twilight rages on her...

Well... actually, man, that's sort of what she's doing here. She's asking Twilight if she intends to continue her efforts, or if she has to fix things herself.

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The problem with Swap Jockeys is that the potential exists for there to be geometric progression. Six becomes twelve. Twelve becomes twenty-four. Ad infinitum.

Nah, there's not enough ponies unhappy with their cutie marks to make it that big a problem. It's just wildly disastrous when it happens, so it's noticeable.

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You know, the part of me that wants to go full Black helicopter thinks Celestia Deliberately made sure the swap spell got loose so she can force Twilight to complete it.

Nah, she cares about her ponies too much to do something that risky. Unless she had a dream saying things would work out best that way. Which she hasn't.

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The potential is there, but it doesn't seem likely. Two reasons: 1. Unless the harmonious magic that helps ponies find their destinies is much worse in this 'verse than canon, there really shouldn't be THAT many that are unhappy with their own marks.

They're relatively uncommon- see, people tend to want to swap for three reasons

1) They misunderstood their mark (or its application) in such a way that they're unhappy about it. (Similar to Troubleshoes)
2) They experienced some sort of trauma or disillusionment with their talent- it's not that they dislike their mark, using it triggers unhappy memories.
3) They want to give their talents to someone else they care about that they think need it.

Equestria being what it is, there's not a huge number of ponies where these are the case. It's just enough, as noted above, to be alarming.

2. Even if there are... word should be getting out soon that every swap attempt ends with a swapped pony doing something embarrassingly, criminally insane. No matter how tired you are of mopping, it beats a straitjacket. Still, who knows... it's certainly a troubling trend.

Yeah, once news get out, it'll probably discourage all but the most desperate.

This was a fun chapter. I really enjoy the interludes into other 'verses, even if they don't seem to advance the story much. Hmm... unless Twilight studies the common elements in them sorting by their variances to kind of reach into the fundamental essence of each...

Well, not going to drop spoilers, but sometimes a fun interlude is a fun interlude. But who knows?

Well, anyway... Spike... buddy... tell your big sis to remember a soundproofing spell for buck's sake. Rule of funny should not be grounds for that level of trauma. Even if the image of Twilight's adorkable, naughty student roleplay is really damn funny...

Yeah, poor guy. I'm sure he'll comment about it later.

Poor Celestia... it's such a tough world when suddenly your star pupil is too busy surviving your mess to actually clean it up. As much as I normally try to sympathize with the Sun Princess (it's tough being a plot device), the harshness in her tone here is undeserved. She's clearly letting her worry over the situation get the better of her. From her point of view, she's trying to save the world from Tirek... and probably whatever else is down the line.

Yeah, at this point, things have gone so far off the rails, she's thinking of fixing the mess herself and going to sleep until a dream not involving Lero tells her how to fix it now that things went wrong.

Still, the last time she questioned Twilight was Shining and Cadance's wedding... and didn't that just go swimmingly... Princess, Twilight will do the right thing... isn't that why you're trying to elevate her in the first place?

Yeah, but she realizes that she's effectively asking her to kill someone she loves right now. She... kinda wants to take that off the table for Twilight. She's not heartless... Just really torn.

Nice job making Lightning Dust even less likable than her canon. She used to just be Iceman (Top Gun... for those who don't get that reference, google it), but she's clearly taken a level in jerkass. It'll be interesting to see how a Rainbow that has lower competitive instincts but similar talents to before deals with her... and vice versa.

Lightning Dust has a combination of a huge ego swell thanks to becoming a wonderbolt combined with subconscious memories telling her to go after the mare that ruined her life. So, yeah, Level in Jerkass.

I feel like I need smoother transitions in this comment; I'm bouncing around like Pinkie on espresso... but, oh man... if Rarity gets deswapped after they all get married... I'm getting like one of those 'wake up hungover and suddenly married in Las Vegas Pegasus' type of scenarios. Sure, it doesn't quite fit... but it makes me grin. Rarity's probably my favorite of the Six... but part of that is watching her dramatically freak out. Looking forward to what comes next.

Honestly, I think Rarity's going to freak out after this is all said and done no matter what happens.

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Oh, go fuck yourself, Sunbutt. Clean up your own fucking messes. You have absolutely zero... no, make that negative moral authority here.

I've had my say on this twice before, still applies.

So, the Swapped are becoming even more fundamentally distinct from a simple blended personality, but their backstories are starting to diverge from the commonly-accepted reality. In addition, all of Equestria is going to hell in a handbasket, because reasons. I foresee some variant of the dread Reset Button in the not too distant future.

...Not a reset button, no. I can tell you for a fact that this does not end the same way Magical Mystery Cure ends. This is not to say that some of the stuff doesn't happen, though. Not sure if it'll be different 'enough' for your liking, though.

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Swap Jockeys, huh? Well, that's a worm in the apple for sure and certain. And just how long until one these deluded numbskulls gets it into their head that being the special snowflake that they "deserve" to be means pulling that spell out their ass during an audience with an alicorn princess? Or that perhaps they should get to live the life of an Element of Harmony?
Although I should perhaps not drop this suggestion like this, lest the author get sucked into a long-ass plot thread that extends the story's final resolution that much more .

...Interesting ideas, but not the direction we're taking the story. This one, at least.

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So.... Divided Rainbow is ending... Are we going to see the herd in season 4-5-6...?

Divided Rainbow ends after the events of Magical Mystery Cure are resolved. However, me and Mike have discussed ideas about a sequel. No promises, though.

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I still have no idea of what it was that Twilight did to solve the spell, because its so twisted and contrived to fit in, like some of the more horrible Shakespearean prose, instead of scientific style clean symmetrical structure needed for extremely complex designs.

Magic in some ways seems to be as much an art as a science.

This is where Sunshine comes along with the Big Red Button, and resets everything so Twilight gets the right (wrong) spell, instead of the wrong (right) spell?

Which spell are you referring to?

Discord taking Fluttershy on a tour of alternatives is so nice. I wonder if they visited the beach in the realm where Ponyville is Seaponies and Lero is Tentacle Bob?

Dare I ask who Tentacle Bob is?

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It's looking like we're going to have to not only undo the various swaps

Well, a cure will be found, that can be applied to the swap jockies. I don't think that's too spoilery, since, well, the swap was curable in the show.

and Discord's historical revisionism,

Well, that's easy- he just stops doing it.

but cram the swap-genie back in the bottle

Well, once a cure exists (and it gets generally known how fucking stupid an idea it is), it'll be less of an issue.

and make it appear that none of this ever happened.

Why would we do that?

Otherwise, the swap-jockeys will be back, and will go insane.

See above.

Additionally, we have to either sort out what the fuck Sunbutt was shooting for without interfering with the previous bits, or ignore the fact that the whole exercise was just as arbitrary as the original episode was.

We've already kind of implied what she was shooting for, it'll get a bit clearer.

I'm not worried about a Deus ex Machina, but rather a Shaggy Dog Story where, if the story was in hardcopy, I'd be tempted to throw it across the room after reading the ending, because I just wasted the past *mumble* hours of my life reading a story that went nowhere in the end.

Well, we're not going nowhere, just have no idea where we're going will please you. I think one thing that's going to happen will be something you'll enjoy, though.

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Really enjoying how the story is going along right now! Its awesome work :)
Only thing that ticked me off was the capital wording used for emphasis, otherwise I love it :P

Trust me, his editors are annoyed by that, too.

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Tentacle Bob is from the alternate fan forums, and is a Freindly Tentacle Monster, named Bob. Very popular with the ladies.

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Honestly, I think Rarity's going to freak out after this is all said and done no matter what happens.

While I certainly wish her a speedy recovery from such... I'd be disappointed were it otherwise.

Well, not going to drop spoilers, but sometimes a fun interlude is a fun interlude. But who knows?

Oh, I was just having a laugh; they can be as much or as little a part of the resolution as seen fit. I think I may have been joking on the idea that solutions can come from the most unexpected places. Or my mind wandered, who knows... To the rest of your reply, I'll take a page from MItch Hedberg and just say 'yeah'. Frankly, it's all well covered.

Thanks for the reply and the work you're all putting in on this story.

Wonder if Spike will feel the same way about Applejack after the swap is fixed. So Twilight's stuff being stolen. That was certainly random.

Nice work MT!

Glad to see that Celestia is now applying some pressure to Twilight, though it or get in a difficult position herself (she had a thousand years to try to fix the spell, but refrained).

Looks like the swap magic is escaping, would be interested to see who was responsible for the theft.

We're staying to get to the stage where equilibria ponies are getting as much of a right to exist as preswap ponies. Marriage, relationships, and new hopes and dreams will further complicate things. The show had so little time with ponies swapped, we never got to see the effects of the unswapping. Are memories returned? Is everything forgotten? Is it some strange hybrid?

The spectrum of outcomes allows for this story to end in tragedy, comedy, or disaster!

Great chapter.

How do you always manage to update this when I can't read it for a week?

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It's a gift.

“So… wedding plans?” asked Celestia, in much harder tones.

“I… Princess Celestia, I…”

Celestia only had to shut her eyes for Twilight to fall silent. “Just answer me one question, and be completely honest, please. Are you even truly trying to fix Starswirl’s spell any more? Or do you no longer even want that?”

Look at who has the nerve to talk here.

Man, fuck Celestia. Seriously.

All I can say is FINALLY.

FINALLY we're moving on to getting the shit solved!

FINALLY pieces will be put back together instead of the bullshit that's been going on!

I wonder if Celestia was the one to orchestrate the theft of the Swap Papers. After all, that would create more incentive for Twilight to find a cure for a newly fabricated Swap Jockey dilemma...

“Aaaaahhhhh!” exclaimed Rarity from upstairs. “Our sweet prince… ooooohh… makes for a simply divineseesaw, doesn’t he, Rainbow?”
“Yes!” cried Rainbow Dash. “Oh, yes, yes, YESSSS!!!”
Spike had never seen Scootaloo’s ears flatten back so fast.

There's a clip from American Dad in which Steve proclaims "Please stop involving me in this. I am a child!"

As for the swap stealing, likely an unintended side effect of Discord's spell, why doesn't the crown just release a statement that a spell is circulating that claims to swap marks but really just causes insanity?

All those "swap Jockeys" who are doing it to others against their will really need to die slow, agonizing deaths. Once they've been restored to normal, that is. Lightning Dust too for being such an arrogant cunt. And after their dead, their spirits should also be tortured for eternity.