Mix-up Magic
It’s a nice, sunny day at Ponyville. Everypony is going around doing their daily routines. Rainbow Dash is clearing the sky. Applejack is bucking apples off trees. Pinkie Pie is making cupcakes. Rarity is designing dresses. Fluttershy is playing with her animal friends. And lastly, Twilight Sparkle is working on magic. She recently got a package containing books on more advanced spells, and some vials she’s never seen before. She’s sure there’s information on the vials in the books, and is immediately reading them. The first book she picks up is on transmutation. The first spell she comes across is changing somethings appearance with something else. She decides to try this out. She finds an apple and an orange. She tries out the spell, and at first nothing happens. She tries again, and the apple and orange lift up into the air, spin a little, and gently fall back to their original positions. Disappointed, she goes back to her book to see what she’s doing wrong. Spike says he thinks he sees something, and cuts the apple with his tail. The inside is of an orange. Twilight looks up from her book and is excited the spell worked. Spike congratulates her and tells her he’ll go to bed early, as he was the one to carry the heavy package.
Just then, Pinkie Pie opens the door with the others trailing her. Twilight asks,
”What is going on?” and the others respond with,
“My job is too boring.”
“Yours is a LOT easier!”
“No it’s not! You just fly around kicking clouds all day!”
“At least I don’t stay indoors or play with animals for a living!”
“But the animals need SOMEONE to take care of them!” Twilight gets upset at all the noise, and yells at the ponies to be quiet. She wonders why the ponies came to visit her, and Pinkie Pie responds by saying how bored they all were. Pinkie sees the apple orange and says how she always wanted apples that were really cupcakes! She runs out and comes back with all the cupcakes she made today. Twilight isn’t sure about this, but Rainbow Dash starts arguing with Twilight, about how she has all that magical power but only uses it to study, and she should use it for more practical things. Twilight keeps saying she needs to know the spells before she can use them, and Dash says how easy magic would be if she could use it. Aggravated, she agrees to transmute the cupcakes with the apples Applejack happened to have with her. As she gets prepared, the other ponies begin to argue again. It is getting harder for her to concentrate. Right as she is completing casting the spell, the other ponies are running around and bump into her. She loses it, her eyes go white, and there is a big flash of light. Everypony blacks out.
When everypony wakes up, they all feel different. Twilight looks around to see what happened, when she sees herself. She is frightened, so she looks in the mirror to see if she’s still herself. Nope. She sees Pinkie Pie staring back from the mirror. The other ponies freak out that they look like somepony else, and when they all calm down, Twilight tries to explain what happened. She thinks that she got angry and her emotions increased the intensity of the spell. The pony that now looks like Rainbow Dash goes to check the apples, which are cupcakes on the inside. She exclaims that the spell worked. Twilight can tell that she is really Pinkie Pie. The pony that looks like Twilight yells at the real Twilight to change them back. Twilight now knows that she’s Rainbow Dash. The pony that looks like Applejack is complaining about how her hair is unkempt and she’s wearing an ugly hat, and the pony that looks like Fluttershy asks her if she has a problem with how she looks. The pony that looks like Rarity is just sitting in a corner, because she’s not sure what to say. Rainbow Dash is still exclaiming to change them back, but Twilight can’t, because she no longer has her horn. Rainbow Dash realizes she has Twilight’s horn, so she thinks she can save the day and perform the magic to change them back, but after several tries, she can’t even lift an apple magically. Twilight mocks Rainbow Dash about how she thinks magic is so easy, and tells her,
“If it’s so easy, why can’t she change them back, or even lift the apple?” At this, Rainbow Dash is so angry she yells at Twilight.
“Why don’t you try doing what I do every day?” And Pinkie walks over and says,
“Silly, she can’t do what you do! She doesn’t have your wings! But I can show you how easy it is to fly! Twilight, why don’t you try what I do on a daily basis?” Twilight wonders what that is. Pinkie Pie tells her she makes cupcakes, brightens ponies day, pulls pranks, and throws parties. Twilight asks,
“Do you do all that on a DAILY basis?” Pinkie responds by giggling.
“Oh of course not! I do more things each day, but I just didn’t want to overwhelm you.” Twilight sighs. Applejack hears the conversation and thinks it’s a mighty fine idea for them to do while they wait for Rainbow Dash to learn how to change them back. Rarity and Fluttershy aren’t exactly up for it, but they don’t really have a choice. They’re not going to sit in the library with Rainbow Dash for a long time. So, all the ponies except Rainbow Dash leave.
At this time, Spike comes down because he wants to know what is up with all the noise. Not knowing what just happened, he thinks Twilight is still in the room with him, and not Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash doesn’t want to tell Spike what happened, because she doesn’t want to make it seem like Twilight isn’t good at magic. Rainbow asks Spike if he remembers every lesson Twilight has done in magic, and he says he does. Rainbow Dash asks to review with him all the things they’ve gone over, ever since the beginning. Twilight has done this before, so Spike doesn’t see anything wrong with the request.
Meanwhile, Twilight and Pinkie Pie are going around pulling pranks on ponies. Pinkie Pie is still having fun as usual, but Twilight misses studying. She tries to have fun, but she still doesn’t understand what is so fun about pranking ponies. After a while, Pinkie realizes Twilight isn’t having as much fun as her, so she decides to move on. She tells Twilight to start making cupcakes, which she explains how to do. Twilight thinks she’ll do fine because she’s good at following directions. Pinkie Pie works on her flying, because she’s not used to flying with Rainbow Dash’s wings. She can fly, although not very well and she crashes a lot. She hopes one day she can fly as fast as Rainbow Dash herself.
Rainbow Dash would usually be cleaning the sky of clouds at this time of day, so she decides she’ll try that right now. She clears a few clouds and gets tired. She never before realized how tiring flying back and forth clearing clouds actually is. Pinkie Pie would also like to perform tricks. She knows Rainbow Dash can fly really fast, so she gives that a try. Pinkie goes about half as fast as what Rainbow Dash usually goes at. She flies back up to Cloudsdale to take a break.
Meanwhile, back at Applejack’s farm, Rarity is trying to buck trees. She’s not used to so much manual labor, and she’s afraid to get dirty, so the task is naturally hard for her. Sometimes, she wouldn’t hit the tree hard enough and not all of the apples fell into the baskets. Sometimes, she’d miss and get dirt everywhere, including on herself. She hated the work, and just wanted to go back and sew clothes together. Big Mac comes along and wonders what is wrong with his sister. Rarity responds with the truth and how Twilight accidentally switched the ponies’ bodies around. Big Mac is shocked at the news and how he hasn’t been talking to his sister the entire time. He asks her who she is, and Rarity is shocked that he didn’t recognise her unique voice.
Meanwhile, at Fluttershy’s hut, Applejack is working on taking care of the animals. She does like taking care of them, but they don’t listen to her, making it frustrating for her. She tries to feed the animals, giving them various apple products, but they don’t seem to enjoy them very much. She starts to get aggravated, so she begins to yell and be harsh to the animals. The animals start to run away from her, which just adds to her anger. Angel quickly figures out something is up so she goes up to Applejack and attempts to calm her down, but ends up getting in a fight with Applejack. After a few minutes, Applejack gives up and decides to check in on Rainbow Dash to see where she is with changing them back.
Meanwhile, at Rarity’s shop, Fluttershy works on sewing clothes. She doesn’t really mind it, but she would much rather have more animal friends with her, because Rarity’s cat is still growling at her because the cat thinks she’s Rarity. After a few minutes, she gets her cat to stop growling and appreciate her, and after a while the cat realizes she’s Fluttershy. The cat and her attempt to design clothes, but they don’t look quite as good as when Rarity designs them.
Back at Pinkie Pie’s bakery, Twilight is having a good time making cupcakes. She is following the recipe well, and the cupcakes don’t turn out bad, but they don’t quite taste as good as when Pinkie Pie makes them. Twilight is satisfied with them nonetheless, so she decides to throw her friends a party for trying out each other’s routines. She gets started when Pinkie Pie comes in, tired. Seeing the decorations she instantly gets up and starts to work on them right away. Pinkie Pie explains her adventure in Cloudsdale as Rainbow Dash, saying how it was the awesomest prank she’s ever thought of. She went around talking to everypony and being silly. Pinkie realized that she probably did enough damage to Rainbow Dash’s reputation, so she quickly flew down to her bakery to check on Twilight. By the time she’s finished explaining, she has half the room decorated already. Twilight reminds her that she’s not supposed to help, which makes Pinkie Pie upset and so she flies out.
Back in the library, Rainbow Dash is trying hard to learn spells. She can perform very minor spells at this point, but nowhere near as much as Twilight. Spike notices, and he asks why she can’t perform magic like she used to. After several tries to do a certain spell and failing, she decides to tell Spike about what happened. Spike is shocked to find out he spent an afternoon with Rainbow Dash and not Twilight. Dash asks if there’s another way around the reversal of spells, and Spike remembers the vials in the package. He doesn’t know which vial does what, so he tells Rainbow Dash to look for something about it in the books. As he searches, he sees Twilight and Applejack come in, and Spike is glad to see her. Twilight says she made a party and wants the three of them to come. For once, Twilight wants to go to a party and Rainbow Dash doesn’t. Applejack doesn’t object because she’s still upset about the animals and thinks the party will calm her down. Twilight convinces Rainbow Dash to go and tells her the books will still be there when she comes back, an excuse Pinkie Pie’s made to Twilight many times.
They go to the party, and Spike sees Fluttershy. Spike forgets it’s Fluttershy and still thinks it’s Rarity, so he goes and talks to her. Fluttershy talks back in a nice manner, since she loves baby dragons. The party goes on, but the friends don’t have as much fun as they usually do at one of Pinkie Pie’s parties. They also try the cupcakes, which they also say aren’t as good. This upsets Twilight, but she still tries to enjoy herself. She wonders how Pinkie can stay so happy when at times like these and gains a bit of respect for her.
After the party, the ponies go back to the library and Rainbow Dash mentions how one of the vials might be able to turn them back to their original selves. The ponies cheer at the thought of being themselves again. Rainbow Dash begins to study while Twilight tries to entertain the group, but she can only entertain Pinkie Pie. The other ponies talk amongst themselves on how their days went and how much they didn’t know about what each one did. Everypony is happy with each other when Rainbow Dash discovers which vial reverses magical effects. Rainbow Dash quickly uses it on all of the ponies as they revert back to their original colors. Everypony is glad to be themselves again, and Twilight says she’s proud of Rainbow Dash for finding that out. Rainbow Dash says it’s nothing, and Twilight begins to tell spike to take a letter, but Rainbow Dash tells her she’ll do it.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today my friends and I switched places, and I think we learned that each and every one of us is special and unique. Friends are supposed to be different, and each friend you have is good at something. Even if you’re better at something than your friend, they’re better than you at something else. I can’t believe how much work Twilight puts into her studying!
Your faithful student’s friend,
Rainbow Dash.