It was a beautiful day in Ponyville. The weather ponies had done an amazing job keeping the skies clear while the sun was shining far brighter than normal. The grass waved gently as a cool breeze swept across the ground. In the lake, Rainbow and Pinkie were playing with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, while Applejack was peacefully resting on the bank, Spike laying right beside her, his red sunglasses shielding his eyes from the stars blinding rays while he sipped on a smoothie brought from home. Rarity, of course, was sitting under a nearby tree, reading a magazine of the latest fashion trends.
A little ways away, Twilight was struggling to perfect a spell that she had been working on for the past hour, Fluttershy and Angel both curiously watching her.
“Twilight?”
“Yes, Fluttershy?”
“What exactly are you trying to do?” Fluttershy asked, clearly confused as to why Twilight was casting the spell on the tree which Rarity was under. With every jolt of the spell, the wood of the tree would change from white and black to a brown as if Zecora was crafting a potion to constantly change the color of her coat.
“Remember that spell I used for the best young flyers competition in order to give Rarity wings?” Twilight responded, still intently focused on the spell.
“Yes, why?”
“Well, remember how difficult it was?”
“Yes”
“Today I had an idea,” She shared, looking up, excited to share, what was in her opinion, a stroke of genius, “What if, instead of simply giving a pony wings, I actually temporarily change them into a different type of pony. For example, what if I were to turn an earth pony into a pegasus?”
“So why are you aiming your spell on the tree?”
“As an experiment. I’m working on turning the tree from an oak tree to a birch tree and back,” she said, returning to her spell casting.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Fluttershy asked growing ever more interested in Twilights work.
“Actually, perhaps there is,” Twilight responded, contemplating the wisdom of her idea. quickly she looked at Fluttershy as though she were a rat, just waiting to be put through a maze in order find the cheese. It wasn’t long before Fluttershy caught onto her plan.
“You want to cast the spell on me?” She asked, her voice trembling.
“I think it would help to reverse engineer the spell to turn a pegasus into an earth pony”
“Well, uh, I guess... if it would help.”
“Really?” Asked Twilight, surprised by Fluttershy’s willingness. Normally, Fluttershy would be trying everything she could in order to get out of a situation like this, but then Twilight started to realize. Fluttershy has become significantly more bold over the course of the past year.
“Sure! I mean, if you would like.”
Twilight could tell that Fluttershy was shaking ever so slightly yet at the same time was very calm and collected.
“You sure?” She asked.
“It won’t hurt will it?”
“No.”
“Will it be permanent?”
“It shouldn’t be.”
“Oh,” Fluttershy said, taking a deep breath. “Okay.”
“Okay, what?”
“Let’s do this.”
“You sounded a bit like Rainbow Dash when you said that.”
Hearing that, Fluttershy let out a quick smile. She really admired her cyan colored friend and her apparent fearlessness. Often times, she wished that she could be more like her. Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to be afraid of anything, but Fluttershy, on the other hand, was afraid of everything. Often times, she felt like such a coward, so to hear that she reminded Twilight of Rainbow made her feel extremely proud.
Twilight pointed her horn at Fluttershy and a violet aura formed around it. A few seconds later a beam erupted from her horn, engulfing Fluttershy in an intense ray of light. The beam started to grow brighter and brighter as it lifted right off the ground. Then, like a flash of lightning, it was finished. She fell down on the ground with a loud thud.
“Ow! I thought you said it wouldn’t hurt!” She said.
“I didn’t expect you to just fall on the ground like that!”
“So, did it work?” Fluttershy asked rhetorically, getting up off the ground. She looked over to her side and saw a wing.
“Sadly no,” Twilight answered, looking down at the ground.
“I’m sorry, Twilight.”
“Don’t be!” She said, picking her head up. “It just means that I have a bit more work to do.”
Immediately, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and the little fillies came over.
“Uh Sugarcube,” Applejack said, “I hate to be a bother but were gonna have ta get goin’”
“So early? But it’s only six!”
“Yes, but we’re hosting this super awesome slumber party at Sweet Apple Acres for the girls and their class,” Rainbow Dash said, “It’s gonna be a hundred percent cooler now that I’m there.”
“Yeah, It’s gonna be so great!” Scootaloo exclaimed excitedly, “Any party with Rainbow Dash is automatically awesome.”
“Thanks, Scootaloo.”
“Well Girls, let’s go,” Applejack commanded.
“Yay! Cutie Mark Crusaders sleep over!” The three young fillies said in unison.
“Yeah, uh, well have fun.”
“Will do Twilight,” Applejack replied, “See y' all.”
“Bye, Rarity!”
“Goodbye dear,” Rarity said looking over at Sweetie Belle. She quickly returned to her magazine as the girls walked away with Rainbow, Applejack a few feet behind.
As they walked away, Twilight remembered something Pinkie said earlier that day.
“Um, Pinkie?” Twilight asked, looking over at the pink mare still playing around in the water.
“Yes, Twilight?”
“Didn’t you say earlier that you had cupcakes in the oven?”
“Yep!”
“You do realize that was three hours ago?”
“Uh huh.”
“Dontcha think you should check on them?”
“Why?”
“To make sure they don’t burn,” Twilight pointed out with concern for Pinkie’s cupcakes.
“Oh,” Pinkie responded, now mirroring Twilight’s concern, “Probably.”
“You gonna go do that?”
“Do what?” Pinkie asked with confusion.
Twilight facehooved at Pinkie’s antics. She knew that there was no point in reminding her as she would remember any-
“Oh my Gosh!” Pinkie interrupted, remembering her cupcakes. “I’ve got to go check on my cupcakes!”
She ran off quickly before Twilight or Fluttershy even had a chance to say goodbye.
“Well,” Twilight said after a slight pause, “I should probably go home and do more research. C'mon Spike.”
“Ah, Twilight. Do we have to?”
“Yes, Spike. It’s time,” She replied. “Goodbye, Fluttershy.”
“Goodbye Twilight”
As Fluttershy started to make her way home, she was glad that she did not live too far. It was starting to get dark, and she did not like the dark. As she was walking, however, she started to get a throbbing feeling in her head and the closer she got to home, the worse that feeling became.
By the time that she got home the pain was so bad, she could hardly bear it. It was as though hundreds of tiny insects were crawling all around in her head. As soon as she walked through the door, she went into her kitchen to pour a glass of water and grab an aspirin tablet. But as she flew up to grab the aspirin, her wings suddenly gave out on her, and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
The next morning, she woke up, head still throbbing from the previous night. Unaware of going to bed, she guessed that one of her larger animals had noticed her sleeping and brought her to bed. As she instinctively reached up to rub her head, she noticed an unfamiliar sensation in her hoof. Curious, she looked at her hoof and was shocked to find that in its place was a hand. She glanced down to notice that there were feet hanging off the edge of the bed and a strange shape underneath the sheets.
By this point, she was panicking. Immediately she threw off the covers to see what was under them, and what she saw were of breasts bobbing up and down because of her rapid breathing. She got out of bed to stand up, but she hit her head on the ceiling. She crawled over to a mirror hanging on the wall and saw a tiny stub with holes where her muzzle would be normally, and instead of her ears being on the top of her head, they were resting comfortably on the side.
Minutes later, Angel came in bringing breakfast to Fluttershy, expecting her to still be asleep in her bed. Instead, what he saw was a strange, terrified creature looking at him.
“Angel,” She said, “Please go get Twilight.”
He dropped the plate that he was carrying and immediately left the room.