The sunny rays peeked over the horizon, and their lengthy arms reached out towards the leafy forest. The sun ducked beneath the horizon and left behind pinks and oranges, swirls of color and mixtures of nature’s paint in the sky. Two sat together on the edge of a peek, looking into the grand view before them. The ocean (which was a great deal away from them) hid behind the forest and reflected the vibrant hues off its liquid surface. This spot was the only place in all of Ponyville where one could sit back, relax, and enjoy the sunset behind the ocean. It was actually the only ocean that could be accessed by anypony in Ponyville. It was hard to get to, though, due to the fact you’d have to cross through a forest to even reach the sand, but there was an edge perfect for the view. On top the hill, the surface was covered in grass and flowers. If you were to go to the very edge and look down, there’d be a steep arrangement of rock and gravel. The grass was soft enough to sleep on. That evening, though, only two ponies had made their way to that peek. One being a light-hearted, sweet land pony, and the other being a prideful, but caring pegasus.
The pink land pony laid on the grass and watched the sunset while munching on a few pastries from Sugar Cube Corner. They were good, but she’d messed up on the recipe. She’d run out of flower, and tried to make a similar substance by crushing up seeds and mixing it with powdered sugar. When she ran out of eggs, she replaced it with a goopy liquid that had both a similar feel and smell to egg whites, and even though she didn’t know what it was, she mixed it in gallantly with the crushed seeds and powdered sugar, vanilla, vegetable oil, milk, and delectable fruit filling. Once the Cakes found out, they demanded her not to serve them to costumers, so she was stuck with a whole batch of fruity baked-goods. She thought they tasted fine for disobeying the recipe. Great, actually. She’d already eaten five out of the nine she’d been stuck with, and they were good. That’s when her little pegasus friend appeared. They hadn’t planned on seeing each other, it just kind of happened.
“Hey, Pinkie Pie!” the cyan, winged-pony greeted with a smile before even landing on the ground.
“Oh, hey Rainbow Dash!” she replied after she finally managed to swallow her baked treat. “What’s up?”
Rainbow Dash was the fastest flyer in all of Ponyville. Although she could be conceded and overly prideful at times, she was still a good friend, and fun to be around. She had a mane and tail highlighted with every color of the rainbow in a neat alignment of stripes. She had magenta rubies as eyes.
“Not much, you?”
“Today I made these pastries, but I had to replace some ingredients. Mr. and Mrs. Cake wouldn’t even let me serve them to the costumers. I mean, they taste fine and everything. It’s not like I put anything dangerous in them, but they just didn’t let me no matter what I said!”
Pinkie’s overly optimistic behavior and hyped up attitude could often come off as creepy, but Rainbow Dash was use to her mangled fast-paced speech and happy-go-lucky cheerfulness.
“Oh, uh… That sucks…At least you got free pastries, right?”
Pinkie smiled with a nod. “Would you like to try one?”
Rainbow Dash smiled. “I’m up for free food anytime!”
The pink party pony opened the small, brown picnic basket with her mouth and pushed it over to let her friend have her pick. Inside were four crispy, golden pastries. Rainbow chose one filled with a bright red filling, and simply assumed it was strawberry. When she took a large bite of the treat, her suspicions of the flavor were confirmed. It was delicious and fruity, but would’ve tasted ten times better warm.
“Wow, Pinkie. That was better than the last batch of pastries you made!”
Pinkie Pie smiled big from the compliment. “You really think so?”
“Well, sure. They’re crispier, sweeter, and just better tasting.”
Pinkie smiled in thoughts of what this could mean. She could remake the recipe, not tell the Cakes and sell it. When all the ponies tried it, they’d fall in love with the recipe, and business would be better than ever! She could just imagine all the smiling happy faces as the ponies dug their faces into the new recipe. Pinkie’s eyes widened at the imaginary sight in her mind.
“Oh, thank you, Dashie! You gave me the best idea ever!”
In a happy panic, she threw her hooves around Rainbow and squeezed her tightly, nearly taking the life out of her. Pinkie then took the basket in her mouth and galloped off happily. The confused pegasus rubbed her head. Although she was bewildered, she still had the slightest idea of what Pinkie was planning. __________________________________________________________________________________________
A lavender unicorn walked into Sugar Cube Corner with a saddle-bag on her back. She had a flat, purple, mane with a pink and darker purple strip going through it. She entered the shop with a smile and approached the counter. At the time, a light blue earth pony was at the cash register. Her layered, pink mane was done up in an odd style that reminded the costumer of icing on a cupcake.
“I’m here to pick up Zecora’s ingredient.” she announced to the shop owner.
“Of course.” Mrs. Cake replied. “I’ll go get it.”
The light blue baker went into the kitchen of the shop. She opened a typical cabinet and grabbed a glass bottle, which contained a thick, clear liquid. She felt it and shook it slowly. The liquid swooshed around and coated the glass walls in the thick substance.
“That’s odd…” she said to herself. “This seems lighter than before.”
She shrugged the feeling off and just made an assumption that her memory was whacked. Mrs. Cake then proceeded back to the counter. Twilight was waiting there patient ally. Nervously, the baker gave Twilight the bottle. She took it, and she too questioned its weight.
“Are you sure this is 26 ounces?” she asked in concern.
“Of course it is! We wouldn’t sell you anything if it wasn’t what you wanted. It’s just a little thin. Once it gets thicker I’m sure it will be heavier.”
Twilight blew away the uneasy feeling there was something wrong, and tossed some bits on the counter. She walked off, trusting Mrs. Cake as best she could. It was the most important ingredient of Zecora’s potion, and she didn’t want to bring her too little of it. It was only a matter of time before Twilight knew if she’d been given a fair deal or not.
Pinkie Pie awoke with a wide yawn. She’d awoken from the most magical dream of lying on giant piles of cotton candy. There were rivers of chocolate miles long and mountains made of ice cream cones. It was sort of a disappoint when she hadn’t even found out how the gumdrop pony got away from the lickerish queen’s army of evil jelly beans. Oh, well. She got up from her way too comfortable bed and made her way down stairs to the kitchen.
Once in the kitchen, she went over to the fridge. As she opened it, a cool blast of air touched her face. Ignoring it, she reached in for the most perfect breakfast batter ever; pancake mix. She took out the potential meal and licked her lips as she thought of the sweet, yummy pancakes drenched in butter with syrup dripping down it. The very thought of such a breakfast made the pink earth pony drool. Before Pinkie Pie completely closed the fridge, she noticed something odd…
Wait a minute… She leaned in and looked closer at the thermometer. This fridge is a full forty-five degrees! I can’t believe Mr. and Mrs. Cake would make it this warm! With that, Pinkie toned down the dial to a nice, cool, thirty-two degrees. She smiled in satisfaction and turned around to meet eyes with…her kitchen…?
Instead of her regular, tiled kitchen and boring walls with cabinets all around, she was in a kitchen with much higher cabinets placed around her. All were wooden and solid. Then, in the very back of the room was a cool, metal sink that looked much different than the one she was used to. The biggest difference, however, was the walls. Instead of the colorful, wooden ones she was used to, there were… clouds.
“Where am I?”
Pinkie instantly covered her mouth. Her manic, high-pitched, girly voice had been replaced with a deeper, tomb-boyish voice that cracked like a teenage colt going through puberty. She knew something was seriously wrong. Pinkie ran out of the kitchen and searched for a mirror. Fortunately, she found one in the third room she looked in. The first one was a closet and the second one was the bedroom she’d started out in.
Quickly, Pinkie approached the mirror and gaped at the pony before her.
Pinkie’s soft, pink coat was replaced by a shade of pretty cyan. The yellow and blue balloons on her flank were replaced by a rainbow lightning bolt coming out of a cloud. Her poufy, pink mane was replaced with a flat, multihued one.
“Rainbow Dash?”
She’d never been more shocked in her life. She was Rainbow Dash. But that must’ve meant…
“Rainbow Dash must be me….”
Rainbow Dash awoke with a jolt. She (unlike Pinkie) instantly noticed a dramatic change from her usual surroundings. Her regular bedroom (which was constructed completely of cloud) was replaced by pink, wooden walls with yellow stripes bordering the bottom. The room was familiar, though, she knew that. She instantly recognized the colorful design to be Pinkie’s room. The question was why she’d waken up in it.
“This better not be another one of your pranks, Pinkie!” she spoke to herself in an aggressive tone, which usually deepened her voice, but today she spoke with a much higher pitch. She put one hoof over her mouth in shock once the dramatic pitch change had sunk in.
She felt as though something else was wrong, besides the great difference in pitch of her voice. She got out of the bed and stretched, but when she tried to stretch her wings as she did every morning, nothing happened. She felt nothing at all. In both shock and confusion, she turned around, only to find her normally cyan coat replaced with a light shade of pink. A big poof of pink hair replaced her rainbow tail. Her prized cutie mark was replaced with another, but this one was three blue and yellow balloons. And most of all her wings-her precious, precious wings- had vanished. She gaped, and did nothing but stare mindlessly at her wingless back.
The thing that finally snapped Rainbow out of her trance was a female’s voice from below. “Pinkie!”
Since she had now the same girly voice as Pinkie, she assumed she could use it with no trouble at all. “I’m coming, Mrs. Cake!”
Rainbow Dash was afraid she wouldn’t be able to pull off the hyper and random attitude Pinkie often displayed. She knew she bounced around a lot, talked fast, and normally had many silly and outrageous ideas. She was fun and cute, and Rainbow just didn’t know how she’d be able to pull off Pinkie’s high-spirited attitude.
Once at the bottom of the stairs where she’d heard Mrs. Cake calling Pinkie, she put a spring in her step and bounced instead of walking. It felt very odd at first, because she was so used to either flying or walking, so bouncing didn’t seem like a usual mean of transportation.
“Oh, hey Mrs. Cake,” she yipped in the most cheerful tone she could pull off. “What did you need?”
“I was just wondering, did you by any chance use anything lately that was in a glass bottle?”
Rainbow acted as if she were thinking for a moment. “ I don’t think so, why?”
“Well, there was an order earlier this week, and I just hope you didn’t use any of it. It wasn’t a regular ingredient, though.”
The words Pinkie had said just yesterday ran through Rainbow’s mind. “But I had to replace some ingredients”. Could she have used something in her pastries that caused her to be in Pinkie’s body?
“What kind of ingredient was it?” She’d let her yippy tone down. Her mind had been too focused on the possibility of magic being responsible.
“It’s called ‘Enacid’. It can be made with simple kitchen ingredients, but is a very important ingredient needed for one of Zecora’s potions. She had us make twenty-six ounces of it for her, but when I retrieved the jar, it felt a bit lighter.”
Rainbow dash quickly tried to regain her yippy voice. “Oh, Mrs. Cake. I would never use anything if I didn’t know what it was!”
Mrs. Cake held onto a bit of suspicion and doubt that one could clearly see in her eyes. She let Rainbow go, but told her she’d have to report back to Sugar Cube Corner later to help with the shop.
“Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow yelled, still trapped in Pinkie’s body.
Rainbow decided it wouldn’t look too weird for Pinkie to be hopping around town, calling Rainbow’s name, so she decided to go with it until she could get Pinkie’s attention. She looked up into the sky (incase she saw Pinkie trying out her wings) and asked all around if anypony had seen “Rainbow Dash”. Nopony had saw Rainbow, so she decided to venture off to underneath her cloud house to see if she were still up there.
“Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow called up. She then remembered Pinkie’s nickname for her.
It was then, a little blue head popped out from behind the clouds.
“Oh, hey Rainbow Dash!”
Seeing herself and hearing her own voice from the perspective of somepony else felt very odd and almost gave Dash an uneasy feeling.
“Pinkie! What’d you do?!” Rainbow called.
Pinkie replied in a nervous tone. “I, uh….It must’ve been an ingredient I used by mistake.”
“Yeah it was! Pinkie, Mrs. Cake said there was an ingredient in a bottle that had less in it that she remembered. It was an ingredient for one of Zecora’s potions!”
Pinkie gulped.
“I may have used an ingredient in a bottle….And I may not have known what it was.”
She then smiled a smile that could only be convincing on the face of Pinkie Pie. On Rainbow’s face, it was much harder to not be mad.
“Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow yelled to the clouds above. “Get down here right now!”
The scared pony unfolded her new wings, opened them wide and swooped down to the ground. It wasn’t flying; it was just falling with support. Rainbow didn’t know if she’d tried using her wings out, but the thought of Pinkie Pie flying around in her body was a bit frightening.
Rainbow Dash took a few breaths and tried to be calm with the party pony. “Pinkie Pie… You used an ingredient that switched our bodies.”
“Yes. I mean, I didn’t know. If I would’ve known I would’ve never done it. I’m sorry, Dashie, please forgive me. “
Rainbow Dash had been calmed down, but not any less angered.
“I’m still mad at you, Pinkie Pie! Do you even have a solution to this?”
Pinkie Pie stepped a few feet back and whispered in a sad voice. “No, not really.”
This was enough for Rainbow Dash to actually face-hoof.
“But, you know…Twilight knows a lot of magic! Maybe we could ask her if she could think of anything.”
Rainbow’s new, pink face lit up in the cutest emotion. Her light blue eyes widened and sparkled in joy.
“Then what are we waiting for! Let’s go!”
It was the most out of the whole day Rainbow had actually sounded and acted like Pinkie naturally. She grabbed Pinkie’s hoof and ran as fast as she could into town, and all the way to the library.
There was a quick, panicked knock at Twilight’s front door. It was loud and echoed throughout the whole library. The violet unicorn immediately put down the book she was reading and ran down the stairs, all the way to the front door. She opened the wooden door using her magic, only to reveal a rainbow-maned pegasus, and a pink party pony.
“Oh, hi Pinkie Pie! Hi, Rainbow dash! Please, come in.”
The two ponies calmly made their way into the library, despite the panic happening on the inside. They looked at each other and Rainbow Dash winked at Pinkie, telling her to explain.
“Okay Twilight, so, I was in the kitchen like usual, and-“
“Wait! You were in the kitchen, Rainbow Dash?” Twilight said with an unconvinced smile.
“No, I mean, yes, I mean, let me finish! So, I was in the kitchen, and I was making pastries, and instead of using eggs, I used this goopy stuff I found in a bottle, and I-“
Hearing those words, Twilight gaped. “You’re really Pinkie Pie?”
Pinkie put one hoof to her mouth along with Rainbow.
“How did you-“ Rainbow started.
“Easy. Zecora had me pick up an ingredient for her potion. When Mrs. Cake gave it to me, it felt a bit light. Zecora was still able to use it, but even she said there wasn’t enough. That ingredient mixed with sunlight, a seed from a curitica, and rain water can easily make a potion that cab switch two bodies.”
Both Pinkie and Rainbow had a confused look on their face. They both knew Pinkie hadn’t used half those ingredients.
Twilight proceeded to explain. “Because you used the most powerful ingredient, you probably created a temporary switch. Within a week, you two should be back to normal.”
Rainbow and Pinkie were both relieved, yet a bit nervous. How would Rainbow ever be able to run Sugar Cube Corner as a baker? She’d rarely cooked in her life, and when she had, it’d been a complete mess. The thought of Pinkie Pie clearly clouds or even flying at all gave Rainbow chills. The only time she’d ever seen Pinkie airborne was when she’d come up with a kooky contraption to try and fly. She wouldn’t be surprised if she had two broken wings when she returned to her own body! They both looked at each other, gaping, and just knowing it was going to be a long week.
“C-Careful Pinkie! Those are the only wings I got!”
Rainbow watched nervously as Pinkie tried out her new set of wings. They’d gone to an empty field, where nopony would see them. The sight of an Earth pony giving flying instructions to a pegasus may have looked a bit off to most ponies. Pinkie hadn’t done as terrible as Dash expected, but it was still quite frightening whenever she wobbled, lost control, or started flapping frantically.
“Don’t worry, Dash! I was born to be air-born!”
Pinkie giggled but Rainbow found nothing funny in her pun. Her body was on the line, and she couldn’t risk losing it.
A sudden thought accrued to Rainbow at the moment. If she were to break Pinkie’s –well technically her own- wings, she wouldn’t be able to fly. She couldn’t mess them up any more than simply breaking them. But she couldn’t hurt Pinkie… On the other hoof-
Rainbow’s thoughts were interrupted by a loud thud!
“Pinkie!” Rainbow went over to help her winged friend who was now dizzy, stumbling over her own hooves at the bottom of a tree.
Pinkie looked at Rainbow. “It’s okay, Dashie! Your body’s fine!”
Rainbow almost felt like yelling in frustration. “Pinkie, you have to be careful! A couple scrapes and bruises are fine, but I don’t want you to end up seriously damaging my body!”
Pinkie gave a sweet salute with a smile. “Don’t worry, Dashie! Just one more try, and I’m sure I’ll get it right!”
The very words made Rainbow’s heart clench and her stomach swirl. Before Pinkie could barely open Rainbow’s wings, the pink earth pony grabbed her friend’s rainbow tail.
“No! I can’t risk it! Sorry, Pinks…It’s too important.”
“But, Dash! What about your job? Won’t your boss get mad if you show up to work with no excuse?”
Dash thought for a moment. It was extremely rare she missed work, but it was even more rare for her to miss work for an entire week. Sure, during work she slacked off and procrastinated, but she at least showed up and got everything she needed to done. Then Rainbow smiled slyly.
“But, we will have an excuse!”
There was a small building in the midst of Ponyville. The establishment was only one story tall, and was painted a bright hue of orange and vermillion. Although the building was the office of the weather team, it was placed on the ground in case an earth pony or unicorn had questions about the weather. For the Rainbow and Pinkie, however, it would easy access to the boss. If Rainbow missed a full week of work with no reason, chances are she’d get fired. Her boss was already upset with her for causing a colossal downpour right outside of Ponyville and causing a flood in the lake. She was lucky he even spared her flank from that incident, and she didn’t want to make him upset in any way again.
“Now remember,” Rainbow reminded Pinkie for the millionth time. “Address him by, ‘Mr.Skies’, use a respectful tone, and say ‘yes, sir’ and ‘no, sir’. And no funny busyness!”
Pinkie responded with a salute. “You got it, Dashie!”
Rainbow took a deep breath and held the door opened for her jumpy friend. She did a silent prayer that Pinkie wouldn’t mess up. Earlier that day, Rainbow put an ace bandage tightly over Pinkie’s left wing, and the excuse would be she had an injury and wouldn’t be able to fly. Rainbow’s boss knew she was a bit of a rebel, and it didn’t surprise him to any degree that she got herself into such a plight.
Pinkie waltzed in with a large grin, which looked way too weird on Rainbow’s face, especially considering her ‘injury’. A lone stallion sat at a desk in the very front of the building. He was stamping some papers and sipping on a mug of steaming coffee. He had hazel eyes, a blue coat, and highlighted blue and white mane. He had a small bronze nametag that read, “Cloudy Skies” across it. Pinkie approached him with the glued-on grin and leaned one hoof against his desk.
“What’s up, Mr.Skies?”
Rainbow watched silently in the background and facehoofed at the casual tone. Mr. Skies looked up from his work.
“Oh, good morning, Rainbow Dash,” he greeted, lacking all enthusiasm in his voice.
“What’s wrong? Not happy to see me?” Pinkie giggled at her own joke and Rainbow hid her face in embarrassment.
Cloudy did nothing but sigh. “What do you want, Dash?”
Pinkie cleared her throat. “Oh, yeah, well, you see, my wing is broken. You know me, always crashing and stuff!”
Her boss peered over the desk and looked at the bandaged wing. “What’s the story behind this one?”
Pinkie thought for a moment. “Well, you know…I was flying…in…town. Yeah. I was in town, and I couldn’t see where I was going, then the sun blinded me and I crashed right into a house.”
“Shouldn’t you know better than to fly in town? Especially going fast enough to possibly hurt somepony or yourself.”
“W-well I wasn’t originally in town, you see… I flew into town from somewhere else. I was on the edge of town, and I crashed into town.”
Both Pinkie and Rainbow knew one thing: Pinkie was an awful liar.
“Well, Rainbow. Since your wing is apparently broken, you have until the day it recovers to get back to work. And you’d better hope you’re not caught faking this, because if you are, you will be fired, young mare! Got that?”
“Yes, sir!” Pinkie chimed.
Cloudy said nothing more and got back to stamping papers. Pinkie and Rainbow silently left the building, but Rainbow spoke up the very moment they emerged into the great outdoors.
“Pinkie, are you crazy? You almost got me fired!”
Pinkie smiled and giggled. “But I didn’t. Now that everything’s good and situated, let me show you how to do my job.”
