Next morning in Ponyville, Janglur, Rimrose, and Ellayo went to Sugar Cube Corner for breakfast, as it was flapjack day, and Pinkie Pie made the best flapjacks there were. Janglur ordered a big stack for all three of them, heavy on the syrup. After just one bite of those warm fluffy flapjacks, the Swifteyes, as well as the other customers all felt lighter than are and warm inside.

"Every time…" Pinkie Pie chuckled. "How do I do it?"

As everybeast ate through breakfast, Florian, Borrakul, and Runktipp entered the restaurant, much to everybeast's astonish.

Florian bowed to the assemblage. "And now, good creatures of this awesome edifice, we wish to present a historical entertainment… the Duel of Insults! This was an actual incident, involvin' my great ancestor, one Ballaw De Quincewold, an' two vermin, ferrets, who would not let him pass. Picture the scene then, a narrow trail runnin' through a woodland glade, an' here comes I, the gallant hare Ballaw!"

He strode breezily across the floor. Borrakul and Runktipp stepped forward and blocked his way, pretending to be the two ferrets. Of course, they didn't have their costumes with them, because they lost those when they lost the raft.

The hare greeted them civilly enough. "Good morrow to ye both, sirs. Pray stand aside an' let me pass through the woodlands, for I am but a travelin' gentlebeast, wot!"

"Nobeast passes here an' lives ta tell da tale, Bo," Runktipp said, doing his best to sound like a ferret. This was his first time playing this role. Elachim had always done this part before, but of course he was dead.

"Yeah," said Borrakul. "If ya wanna pass through here ya gotta defeat us in combat. What's it gonna be? Switchblades or heaters?"

The hare spread both paws dramatically wide. "Alas, I am unarmed, but stay, I shall defeat ye both, though not with any mere weapon. Nay, I will only use my thunderous voice an' sparklin' wit, an' they will suffice to vanquish you both. In short, I challenge you to a duel of insults, you foul an' feckless ferrets!"

Runktipp and Borrakul scowled wickedly and began their insulting.

"You rotten rip eared rabbit!"

"Ya lanky lopsided lettuce leaf!"

Florian appeared to sway slightly, but stood his ground, jaw outthrust. "Ho-ho! Is that the best ye can do? Well, let a champion show you a thing or two!"

From her table, Ellayo shouted encouragingly, "Go on sir, you show them varmints!"

Others began egging him on. He held up a paw for silence, then launched into his tirade. "You misbegotten muddleheaded mud muckers! Slop pawed fiddle faced bottle nosed baggy bottomed bucket bellied beetle brained beasts!"

The two make believe ferrets looked aghast, falling back several paces under the onslaught, then they recovered and retaliated.

"Stinky string pawed snaggle toothed slop swiller!"

"Filthy frog faced flippin' foozle backed flop!"

The hare threw a paw across his brow and reeled about as if wounded by the barbed words. Excitement broke out among the onlookers as Runktipp and Borrakul swaggered about triumphantly.

Florian, alias Ballaw, was back insulting gallantly. "Toothless twoggle tongued twitterin' tripehounds! Slack gutted slime sided sludge hearted spiritless spit spatterers…"

The ferrets began to sink to the floor under the weight of insults. Ponies rose, clapping and cheering as they urged the heroic hare on to greater efforts.

"Don't stop, you've got 'em now!"

"Show the villains who's boss!"

"You tell 'em what you think of 'em, sir!"

Florian strode bravely forward as he finished off the retreating foebeasts with resounding phrases. "Addle tongued apple necked amateur animals! Baldy backed bumptious birdbrained bootlickers! Craven tailed crumpet faced curs! Despicable dungeon eared doodlebugs! Entrail eatin' eggheaded eyesores! Foul furred frog eatin' felons! Nit nosed chop cheeked dishwater drinkers! Loppy lugged laggards! Begone! Fatous ferrets!"

As Rukktipp and Borrakul dropped to the ground and scrabbled off on all fours, the hare swaggered victoriously through the imaginary woodland glade. Everypony cheered him to the echo, leaping up on the tables and applauding wildly. A few of the customers asked for his autograph, which he was only too obliged to give.

Pinkie Pie brought him a serving of flapjacks and promised him it would be on the house for such a performance. "Well, I was hoping you would," said Florian. "I didn't have any money to give you in any case."

"What were you going to do if she didn't offer you free food?" Janglur asked. "Dine and dash?"

Florian explained that the Wandering Noonvale Companions had fallen on hard times, and they had a hard time finding work. They'd been hoping the trip to Equestria would turn their fortunes around, but the war had spoiled those plans. Even at their own performances in Mossflower, animals threw them flowers more than they threw them money, and those who wanted Florian's autograph, he just didn't have the heart to ask for money. That was his problem; Florian was as kind and merciful as Princess Celestia.

"I wish we had our own theater, instead of having to hop from place to place all the time," he said. "If only there was some way, we could really bring our act up. Get better performances. All we'd need is one full house of observers."

That's when Pinkie Pie looked around at the full house in the restaurant, and remembered that Sugar Cube Corner was one of the most famous places in the entire kingdom. "Why don't you and your troupe perform here every day?" she suggested. "That way, even more customers will flock in for the show, and you'll be entitled to a fair share of money which will get you back on track."

Florian bowed. "I take off my hat to you, madam. You have brains as well as beauty."

Just then a wheeled cart came rolling out from the kitchen, apparently moving by itself. It was loaded with cupcakes. Florian leaped in front of the cart and arrested its progress. He pulled off the cover to reveal Dwopple and Nutclaw hiding underneath. Although Mokkan had turned Nutclaw back into a baby, he was re-aging rapidly, and now he was about the same age as Dwopple. The two of them had daubed themselves with flour and ashes and put on gray blanket cloaks in an attempt to disguise themselves as Marlfoxes.

Florian winked roguishly at them. "Ha harr, you didn't know that I'm the only beast in Equestria who can spot Marlfoxes, did you? Now prepare to be slain!"

Dwopple blew a sigh of frustration. "Phwaw! Us allus gettin' catched, 'cos we not real Marmfloxes I 'uppose."

"If'n you don't slain us we gives ya some cupcakes," Nutclaw offered.

"It ain't nice to steal, y'know," said Florian. "Especially not from somebeast who's just offered us a job. Another thing, bein' Marlfoxes isn't good either. You ought to know that better than anybeast, Dwopple, since you were captured by them!"

"I'm sorry," said Dwopple. "But…"

"APOLOGIES DON'T HAVE BUTS!" Florian shouted.

Dwopple and Nutclaw started laughing, because Florian had said the word "buts," which sounded like "butts."

Rarity was sitting nearby. She frowned at Dwopple. "Good heavens, child, what sort of a nanny did you have growing up?"

Dwopple considered. "None weally. Excep' for Auntie Deesum. And Miz Muggle. She's our stage manaja."

"Stage managers are not nannies!" Rarity sniffed. "They don't have the talent for it."

Suddenly, they heard screaming outside. Everybeast in the place ran to the windows and looked out into the town square. They saw ponies running in fright from a new monster that Vannan had created. The monster had mirrors for arms, mirrors for legs, even two large mirrors for its body and its head. Vannan was pleased with it, mostly because of the fact that she could see herself from so many different angles, but that wasn't the best part.

Princess Celestia came flying into the square to face the monster. Vannan stood beside it, twirling her ax. "My, but it's a lovely day for a battle," she mocked. "Only this time, you lose."

Celestia was annoyed. "We're all tired of these games, Marlfox," she snapped. "Why don't you do us a favor and go back to your island, and stay there?"

"Oh okay, I'll go do that now, because you asked so nicely," Vannan said sarcastically. "Go get her, Reflect-Shot."

The monster obeyed and began to move forward. "Let's see what this thing can do," growled Celestia as she charged forward, heading straight for the center mirror, which was the monster's body. She shot a beam of magic at it-

WHAAAOM!

WHAAAOM!

-only to get horribly knocked back. "OOF…!" Celestia felt as though she had just been hit by another alicorn. "What was that…?" she wondered aloud.

Vannan sniggered softly at her feeble attempts.

Celestia got up, and tried again. This time she did a bucking kick with her hind legs, but felt something boot her back hard! "Whoa…! Hey…!"

She began to wonder what was going on. The monster hadn't even raised an arm yet Celestia had defiantly been attacked by something, and she also noticed Vannan was by herself with glee. "Wait a minute…!" Celestia said, and flew in closer to check out the monster as it continued to stomp its way forward.

She flew at the Reflect-Shot's face, until she was just inches away from the glass that was reflecting her. She then reached out with her hoof to touch the glass, but strangely, it felt as if she was touching her own hoof. "What the…?"

Then, she tried something drastic, and gently slapped her reflection in the cheek, only to feel the actual slap herself. "Nya, ha, ha, ha… Haven't you figured out yet?" Vannan laughed. "You should have. The monster's NAME gives it all away! But no, I guess it's freaking rocket science."

Her monster was a giant mirror, if the reflection of anything or anyone was hit on its very special surface, the real thing would suffer the attack. In other words, you'd only be attacking yourself instead of the monster.

"But that's only half your worries," said Vannan. "Let us demonstrate its other unique ability."

At her command, Reflect-Shot raised its mirror arms up, up, up… and began to reflect the sunlight into powerful beams to fire at Celestia.

As she evaded the beams, Celestia's tail caught little graze. "WHOA…! That's hot!" she shouted.

Vannan was overjoyed, and really believed her victory was assured. "Why not make it easy and surrender?" she said. "I promise I'll be gentle."

"Never!" shouted Celestia.

"Ugh! Fine…! We'll do it the hard way."

Celestia didn't know what to do. She couldn't even try to attack the monster while it could reflect everything. The glass was also super strong and couldn't be broken as easily by simple attacks.

Then she had an idea. When the monster was right behind her, and laid its two huge mirror arms close to her sides ready to close in and squash her, Celestia shot straight up into the air, causing it to smash its own arms, and as it harmed whatever reflections were in its sights, that included itself.

"AAH…!" roared Vannan as she braced herself from the bombarding glass shards.

That's when Celestia noticed that the monster had no reflective surface on its backside, so she swooped around and attacked it from behind.

WHAAAOM!

WHAAAOM!

The monster was hit and dissolved.

All Vannan could do was screech and whine as she vanished and was gone, but she vowed to be back!