Twilight Sparkle was drawn out of unconsciousness by the sound of Spike’s voice calling her name. “Come on Twilight! Wake up!” He sounded really worried, and Twilight was surprised that she didn’t feel him shaking her or anything. She shifted slightly before opening her eyes. She blinked them several times to try and clear away the blurry clouds in her vision and, when that wasn’t quite working, brought her front hooves forward to rub her eyes. She stopped as leg-shaped blobs came into view; they were pale blue. I guess it worked, she thought, rubbing her eyes until she could see. Her guess was confirmed as she saw herself laying on the floor a few feet away, with Spike frantically shaking the lavender body’s shoulder as he continued to implore her to wake up. Twilight moaned a little to test her throat and, finding it to be in working order, spoke up.
“Spike?” she said. The baby dragon froze and slowly turned to look at her, his eyes widening in surprise.
“T-twilight?” he asked, coming over for a closer look, “Are you ok?”
“I think so,” Twilight said, slowly getting to her feet. Her vision was suddenly blocked by something falling over her eyes, and after she shook it off she realized it was Trixie’s pointed hat. “It seems the spell worked,” she said, looking herself over. She was wearing the showmare’s starry purple cape and so far as she could tell looked exactly like Trixie, down to the cutie mark.
‘I must disagree with that assessment.’ Twilight leapt a few feet in the air as a disgruntled voice echoed from off to her left.
“What was that?” she asked, looking around once she landed back on the floor.
“What was what?” Spike asked, giving the unicorn a strange look.
“That voice,” Twilight said, “It… you didn’t hear it did you?” Spike shook his head.
‘You can hear me?’ the voice said, ‘I guess that’s one bit of good news. What’s not good is that I seem to be a passenger in my own body!’
“Twilight? Are you ok?” Spike asked, getting worried again as Twilight’s face screwed up in confusion.
“I… don’t know Spike,” she said. She put a hoof to her forehead and closed her eyes as she tried to think. As soon as her eyes closed all the way, she felt something shoving her head to the right and all but the faintest sensations fled away. Her eyes opened, but not by her will. The pale blue unicorn body squirmed and stretched slightly under some power that Twilight couldn’t override. The other entity put a cocky smile on her face and then spoke.
“Ah, that is much better.” The voice was that of the Great and Powerful Trixie.
‘Wait,’ Twilight said, and then stopped in shock, hearing her voice as a faint echo in the air. ‘What… what’s going on here?'
“Trixie?” Spike exclaimed at the same time, “What’s going on here? What happened to Twilight?”
“Oh, she’s in here somewhere, I’m sure,” Trixie said, rubbing the side of her head before picking up and putting on her hat, “Most likely feeling annoyed that she’s no longer in control.”
‘I’m actually more concerned about why this happened,’ Twilight muttered, ‘Trixie, you can hear me, right?’
Trixie sighed and closed her eyes. “Yes Twilight, I-” There was another shifting sensation and Twilight found herself in control of Trixie’s body again. ‘-can,’ Trixie finished, and then made a frustrated noise. ‘I take we we’re going to switch control every time we blink?' she asked sourly.
“I hope not,” Twilight said, “now, where’d that spell scroll go?” A quick look around revealed that the scroll had landed on the floor a short distance away. Twilight picked it up and began reading.
“Um, Trixie?” Spike said tentatively.
“It’s me again Spike,” Twilight said, sparing her assistant a quick glance and smile.
“Oh, well,” Spike said, “So… both you and Trixie are there in that body, right?”
“It seems so,” Twilight said.
“Then, what about your body?” Spike asked, looking at the unmoving lavender body behind him. Twilight dropped the scroll with a gasp and rushed over to her body.
‘Oh please tell me you’re not dead,’ Trixie’s voice said, sounding legitimately worried. Twilight leaned her head and put an ear on her body’s side.
“I hear my heart,” she said, relaxing a little, “and I’m breathing steadily.” A sigh-like echo floated through the air.
‘So this can probably be fixed then,’ Trixie said.
“It probably can,” Twilight said, returning to the dropped scroll, “Spike, take a letter.” As Spike jogged off to find writing equipment, Twilight blinked and Trixie’s mind slid into control. Spike returned with paper and quill and looked expectantly at the blue pony. ‘Uh, Trixie,’ Twilight after an awkward moment passed, ‘would you mind blinking?’ Trixie sighed and complied, letting Twilight take control again. “Ok,” Twilight said. She cleared her throat and began dictating, “Dear Princess Celestia.”
‘Why are you writing to the Princess about this?’ Trixie asked.
Twilight gritted her teeth. Because I’m her most beloved student and if anypony knows how to get me out of your head, it’ll be her, she thought sarcastically before preparing to give a less scathing version of the explanation out loud.
‘Oh,’ Trixie said in amazement, cutting her off, 'I wasn’t aware… that explains a lot about you.’
You can read my thoughts? Twilight asked silently, blinking in surprise, and then groaned as she felt herself forced to give way to Trixie’s will again.
Apparently I can… the show-mare replied mentally.
“Uh, Twi?” Spike asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You are speaking to the Great and Powerful Trixie now,” Trixie declared.
Spike threw up his hands in frustration, but kept his grip on the paper and quill. “Stop switching up on me!” he shouted, “This is going to take forever if you girls can’t decide who gets to be in control!”
“Believe me little dragon,” Trixie said with an over-played tragic air, “Trixie agrees with you whole-heartedly, but this an altogether new experience that has caught even the Great and-”
“Yeah yeah,” Spike cut in impatiently, “just give me Twilight back so we can write this letter.” Trixie huffed indignantly at being interrupted. She intended to remain in control to spite the dragon, but in her annoyance she closed her eyes and found herself once again feeling like a sentient puppet in another pony’s hooves.
“Sorry Spike,” Twilight said once she was back in control, “Are you ready?”
“I’ve been ready,” Spike replied dryly.
Twilight cleared her throat again and began dictating from the start, “Dear Princess Celestia, I am writing to request your advice and help with a magical accident I have just had. I’m not sure if you know of her, but a traveling performer-”
‘She knows about me,’ Trixie said, cutting off Twilight’s train of thought again, ‘Through her sister at the very least.’
“-named Trixie,” Twilight continued with a little extra force in her voice, “who has visited Ponyville a couple times before, returned today and, to make a long story short, talked me into letting her attempt a mind-swapping spell on the two of us. The spell collapsed on her with the result of trapping both of us in a single body- Trixie’s body to be precise. My own body, while obviously without any consciousness…” She paused to let spike work his way through the large word before continuing, “… still maintains basic autonomous-”
“Auto…?” Spike asked, giving Twilight the look that meant he didn’t understand the word.
“Automatic,” Twilight offered instead. Spike nodded and resumed writing. “… automatic functions like breathing and operating my heart. Along with this letter I am sending the scroll from which Trixie cast the spell as well as notes on how this… oh, how do I describe it?”
“Bodymates?” Spike suggested.
‘Body sharing?’ Trixie put in, ‘Or… Bipersonality perhaps?’
Bipersonality? Twilight thought, Where’d that come from?
‘It just rolls off the tongue. So to speak…’
Twilight rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Spike. “I think I’ll call it a Multiple Mental Occupancy for now,” she said. Spike raised an eyebrow and set to work writing the phrase down. “Anyway,” Twilight said, getting back into diction mode once more, “…notes on how this Multiple Mental Occupancy seems to operate. I humbly request that you provide as much assistance as you can to reversing this situation as quickly as possible. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.” As Spike finished writing, Twilight began to turn her attention back to the spell scroll, only to blink and have her control stolen away again.
“So, it’s finally my turn again,” Trixie said, stretching out a rear leg before picking up the spell scroll. I do hope you don’t mind if I run things for the moment Twilight, she added mentally in an off-hand manner.
‘We really should figure out if we can control this blink-to-switch thing better,’ Twilight said.
In a moment, Trixie thought as she laid the scroll out on a book stand and began reading it. “What I am interested in,” she said, out loud so Spike could hear, “is where I went wrong with this spell. I won’t let you send it until I figure out my error.”
‘Fair enough,’ Twilight said, reading along with Trixie. She realized rather quickly that reading through the eyes of somepony else was an exercise in patience, especially when that somepony else read at a noticeably slower rate than Twilight was used to. After a few lines, she was able to adjust to Trixie’s rate and started mastering the art of reading out of the corner of her eyes whenever she overtook the showmare. After they made it halfway through the spell, Twilight started to suspect the reason it had failed. If she was right, it was a big error.
“I do not understand,” Trixie said after she finished the first read-through, “I followed this to the letter.”
‘Even that part where this spell is supposed to be cast by a third unicorn who’s not part of the mind-swapping?’ Twilight asked. Trixie’s eyes returned to the start of the scroll and blinked, ceding body control to Twilight. “Right here,” Twilight said, not missing a beat as she placed a hoof below the relevant lines, “This spell is designed to be cast by a mediator on two other subjects. I’d have to read the book you found this in Trixie, but I suspect this was meant as a way to help ponies learn to appreciate one another’s point of view.”
‘Well,’ Trixie said, ‘we didn’t have another unicorn, so I had to adapt.’
Twilight sighed and shook her head slowly. “I should have insisted on looking this spell over before letting you cast it Trixie,” she said, “But, what’s done is done. Are you finished with the scroll now?”
‘Yes, I suppose so,’ Trixie said after a few seconds of thought. Twilight nodded, rolled up the scroll, and levitated it over to Spike so he could add it to the letter. Twilight then found a few blank sheets of paper, borrowed Spike’s quill, and set to work noting down the aspects of MMO. After noting the means by which the situation was created and how the inactive mind – which Trixie quickly insisted be referred to as “the passenger” – was only capable of speaking to the active, or controlling, mind and experiencing the world through sight and sound, she and Trixie began experimenting with the method of switching control. They determined that the Passenger mind held the power to decide if control of the body was exchanged, although exchanging seemed to be the automatic choice if they weren’t paying attention, and that a switch couldn’t occur less than twenty seconds after the previous one, give or take a second.
At the end of the testing, Trixie ended up in control and took the time to add her own thoughts to Twilight’s notes – despite protests from the latter – before adding them to Spike’s load. “There you go,” she said, “now make yourself useful and get those mailed off before the post office closes.” Spike gave Trixie a withering look before rolling the papers up, tying a ribbon around them, and then sending them off with his magic fire. Twilight couldn’t help but chuckle as Trixie’s mouth dropped open in utter disbelief.
‘It’s ok Trixie,’ she said before the showmare could get mad at the dragon, ‘Spike has magic that lets him send letters to the Princess by breathing fire on them.’
Trixie closed her mouth and looked askance at Spike. You could have warned me, she accused. Spike returned the look.
‘Sorry,’ Twilight responded, ‘We do it all the time, so I forget it’s not a common method of correspondence.’ Trixie huffed and rolled her eyes, turning away from Spike and gazing upon Twilight’s body.
“Now, what should we do about this?” she asked, nudging the comatose body with a hoof, “We can’t just leave it here on the floor, can we?”
“No,” Spike said simply.
‘Let’s put me… it… in my bed,’ Twilight said.
“What?” Trixie exclaimed, “why should this… shell get the bed?”
‘Because it’s my body and I want it to be in good shape when I get it back,’ Twilight said.
“I’m not going to let you just stuff her in a closet or whatever you’re thinking Trixie,” Spike said at the same moment, arms crossed in determination.
“I wasn’t suggesting anything like that,” Trixie protested, “Do whatever you want with it.” She blinked and Twilight took control of their shared body. She took a deep breath and began to focus her magic into levitating her comatose body. The aura of magic surrounded the body, but when Twilight went to lift it into the air it barely rose, the legs still laying limply on the floor. Twilight squeezed her eyes to the brink of closing in concentration and managed to get the body another few inches higher, the legs tucked underneath, and the head propped up. ‘Now, where’s all that power of yours?’ Trixie asked mockingly as Twilight began moving toward the stairs.
It’s with my body, Twilight responded, struggling to maintain the spell as she did so, Not only… do you have… less magic than me… yours is unfamiliar to me.
‘Then let me take care of this,’ Trixie said, 'I know the Great and Powerful Trixie can handle a pony’s weight more easily than this.’ Twilight nodded and blink-switched with Trixie, wincing mentally as the magic suddenly stopped and the unconscious unicorn body fell to the floor like a rag doll. Trixie frowned and re-activated her horn. The lavender body drifted effortlessly upward, floated up the stairs, and into Twilight’s room at the showmare’s command. “If this situation is going to take very long to undo,” she said as she settled the body onto Twilight’s bed, “Then I insist you work at familiarizing yourself with my magic because that last attempt was simply embarrassing.”
‘Thanks for rubbing it in,’ Twilight replied sarcastically. Trixie smirked. ‘Well,’ Twilight said, ‘there’s not else to do until we hear back from the Princess so-’ Her thoughts were cut off by a loud, high-pitched, and cheerfully familiar voice calling from downstairs.
“Twilight! Hey, Twilight, where are you? I’ve got something amazing to tell you!”
‘Oh no…' Twilight moaned, wishing she could do more to convey her distress, ‘Not Pinkie Pie...’