//------------------------------// // 1: Life in Equestria // Story: Transmutation // by RarityTookManehattan //------------------------------// Deep in the Everfree forest, a cloaked figure collected an assortment of magical herbs. In his bed in Ponyville, Discord's body wobbled like jelly during an earthquake. In the castle of Canterlot, Celestia's eyes flew open in response to a strange nightmare. In the dark night sky, Luna's moon shone brightly. Twilight yawned and stretched her legs as the sunlight filtered through the window. "Wake up Spike," she mumbled. "If we keep to the plan, we might finally finish relocating the books today." Twilight opened her eyes groggily and tried to fly out of bed. Instead, she fell to the floor with a loud thump. "What the-?" Twilight tried to examine her wings. Turning on the spot, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror. "Argh!" Her face froze in shock. "No, no, no, no, NO! This can't be happening!" Spike rubbed his eyes and squinted at Twilight in confusion. When his eyes focused his mouth fell open in horror. "Tw-tw-twilight! What happened to your wings and your... h-h-horn?" Twilight Sparkle, the recently crowned alicorn princess of friendship, was no longer an alicorn. In fact, she was no longer even a unicorn. "How could this have happened?" she whispered. At that moment, the doors to her chamber burst open. Rainbow Dash ran inside and skidded to a halt in front of Twilight, whose mouth once again fell open in shock. Her pegasus friend - the young flier of Ponyville and a member of the Wonderbolt academy - stood in front of her. However, she no longer bore her wings, and a horn unmistakably protruded through her rainbow-colored mane. "I was about to ask you to use your magic to get my wings back... but I can see that's gonna be a problem," Rainbow said, her eyes glancing over Twilight's earth pony body. "What the buck is happenin'?" yelled a familiar voice from the doorway. Applejack stood in the light from the hall with a pair of orange wings on her back. The three ponies stared at each other, their shock mirrored in each others' expressions. "We need to find the others and figure out what's going on," Twilight declared. The three of them nodded and ran awkwardly out of the room. Spike fell back into his bed with a groan. "Fluttershy? Fluttershy! Are you in there?" Twilight knocked on the door to her friend's home impatiently. A broken voice seemed to come from within. "I... I'm not feeling well... p-p-please can everypony leave me alone..." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Fluttershy, stop foolin' around! All of us have swapped species, now get out here so we can work out what's happened already!" "It's ok, sugarcube," Applejack added, throwing a disapproving look at Rainbow. "You can come out." "B-b-but... I'm hideous..." Fluttershy sobbed from behind the door. "Don't be silly," Twilight said, shaking her head. "If you'd just come outside we could sort this whole mess out." They heard a few more gulps and sniffles from within the cottage, but the door began to open. "Honestly," muttered Rainbow Dash, "who could get so worked up about losing their wi- argh!" Stood in front of them was one of the strangest creatures they'd ever seen. While it had the pale yellow pony-ish head, pink flowing mane and deep teal eyes of their friend Fluttershy, that's where the similarities ended. The creature had a thin, snake-like body, the middle section of which was brown and fuzzy, the end comprising of a turquoise dragon tail. It had two arms, one of a chicken and one of a bear, and two legs, one of a horse and one of a purple dragon. Its wings did not match - one was pink and translucent, like a butterfly's, while the other was purple and spiked like a dragon's. The overall effect was a mixture of hilarious and terrifying. "You said you'd all swapped species!" the creature cried in horror, its eyes welling with tears. The voice was unmistakeably Fluttershy's. "W-we have," Twilight pointed out hastily. "Just, none of us have become... er... draconequuses." "Listen, sugarcube, Twilight'll find a solution soon and we'll all be back to normal, ok? None of us thinks any less of you," Applejack soothed. A familiar voice from nearby interrupted the conversation. "Oh my! Fluttershy, may I say you are looking marvelously chaotic?" The voice contained a hint of amusement. "Discord! What's going on?" asked Twilight, glancing around wildly. A brown pony with a hurricane cutie mark came trotting down the path to Fluttershy's house. His dark mane was ragged and matched his untamed tail. "DISCORD?" The three ponies yelled in unison. "Yes, yes, laugh all you want! Discord has lost his powers, Discord is just an ordinary pony. Well at least I know my chaotic magic is in the hands of my good friend Fluttershy." Fluttershy's long, thin body shrunk inwards in embarrassment as she saw her friend. "As for the whole situation, I know no more than you do," Discord told Twilight. "I was fast asleep last night dreaming lovely dreams of friendship and magic when all of a sudden my body wibbled like a noodle in front of a hairdryer and I passed out to wake up a pony! I do wish I could use my chaos magic to better illustrate this story," he added dryly. "Ok," said Twilight with a slightly crazy tone. "Let's just find Rarity and Pinkie Pie and figure out what the hay is going on!" "Rarity, are you in there? We need to figure out what's happening," called Twilight, knocking loudly on the door of her friend's boutique. "I'm coming!" Rarity replied. A loud bang followed, along with a string of angry muttering, before the doors flew open. "Sorry about that - I simply can't manage without my magic. I - oh my!" Rarity's eyes widened as they passed over Twilight's earth pony form, Fluttershy's strange new draconequus body and Discord as a young colt. The others gazed at Rarity, who now had a pair of white wings. "I know, rather drab don't you think? I remember the beautiful wings I had when I tried to enter the young flyer's competition..." She sighed wistfully. "But I suppose it could be worse." Her eyes couldn't help but flicker towards Fluttershy. "I'd explain what's happening... but I have no idea," Twilight told Rarity. "Now wait a minute," interrupted Rainbow Dash. "We have one draconequus-" she gestured towards Fluttershy - "two pegasi-" she nodded towards Applejack, and then Rarity - "two earth ponies-" she smirked a little at Discord and Twilight - "and one unicorn." She looked uncertainly up at her horn. "What does that make Pinkie Pie?" At that moment a bright pink blur zoomed past the group. They stared around in confusion before a loud zap noise sounded and Pinkie Pie appeared in front of them with a flash. "Hey guys! You'll never guess what happened this morning!" Pinkie Pie squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, then magically teleported an assortment of cakes in front of them all with a huge smile. A pink horn sat atop her curly-haired head and a pair of pink wings protruded from her sides. She glanced at Discord and gasped dramatically. "Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! Somepony new! My name's Pinkie and I know everypony in Ponyville! Would you like me to throw you a party?! I can use my new alicorn magic to make it super special!" Twilight threw her head in her hooves. "This is far, far worse than I thought."