“AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!”both mares screeched in a state of blind panic. Each of them had opened her eyes to find...herself staring back. It was like looking into a mirror, except they weren’t.
Hyperventilating, Twilight looked down at her now cyan coloured hooves and rainbow mane. In turn the once pegasus gawked at her custard covered alicorn body.
“What in Equestria happened to us!”Rainbow cried, then immediately clapped her hooves over her mouth. Her voice was completely different and sounded an awful lot like a certain Princess of Friendship.
“We’ve switched bodies, and voices!”Twilight groaned in Dash’s trademark rasp. She suddenly caught sight of the open book with the sparkly black crystal inside it. The remains of a magical aura still glinted around the gem. The former alicorn quickly seized the stone and began to shake it violently, as if hoping to trigger a counter spell. When that didn’t work Twilight poured over the front and back of the mysterious book. However, the only writing on it was the title and even a talented linguist such as herself couldn’t decipher the language it was written in. With a defeated sigh the recently turned pegasus slumped to the floor miserably. Soon an idea struck though.
“I know! I’ll just use my magic to switch us back. I’m sure there’s a book somewhere in my library that covers this. The spell might be quite tricky but I’m sure I’ll be able to master it. After all, I am the Element of Magic,”the princess yabbered eagerly.
“Uh, hate to break it to ya Twi but you can’t exactly do magic anymore, remember?”Rainbow said, gesturing brusquely to the horn protruding from her forehead. The former pegasus seeed to have calmed a lot and now just looked irritated at her situation.
“Ugh, why do I have to be the boring egghead?”she grumbled,”At least you get to be the most awesome pony in all of Equestria.”
“More like the most annoying and reckless pony in all of Equestria,”Twilight sniped back, doubly agitated now that she couldn’t do magic,”This whole mess is your fault too. If you hadn’t-“ She stopped herself, realising arguing would get them nowhere. Ashamed, the once alicorn remembered that she hadn’t even apologised to her friend.
“Look, Rainbow, I’m so sorry about earlier. I completely overreacted. After all, you were just trying to get me to have a little fun. Now that I can see myself I’ve got to admit I do look pretty hilarious. I also should’ve let you explain when you crashed into the tents and asked you earlier to seal our vows with a Sonic Rainboom tomorrow. I know that ever since I opened the school we’ve all had a lot more to fit into our daily schedule and I really do appreciate how hard you work. Also I completely take back that part about my life being more stressful than yours. You really are one of the most amazing mares I know and I just hope you can forgive me,”the former alicorn said humbly.
“Aw, of course I forgive you Twilight. I should also apologise, I really should’ve known better then to prank at such a hectic time. I’m sorry about not volunteering to help. I guess I was also a little jealous too. I mean, apart from Pinkie, you’re the only one of our friends who’s managed to find true love. But I’m also so happy for you. You deserve the perfect wedding and I promise I’ll do everything I can to get us to change back so tomorrow will go off without a hitch,”Rainbow grinned,”And of course I’ll do a Sonic Rainboom. It is a royal wedding after all.”
Laughing, the pair shared a sticky embrace, enjoying their moment of sappiness. There was an unspoken sense of a lesson learned and both mares fully expected to change back. However, no such thing happened.
“Oh, come on!”Rainbow as Twilight exclaimed to nopony in particular,”We did the make-up hug and everything! I mean, it worked for Celestia and Luna, didn’t it?”
“Actually, the princesses had to spend twenty-four hours doing each other’s duties first,”the still cyan pegasus corrected her,”Plus, Starlight only swapped their cutie marks, not their bodies. Wait a second. Starlight! She might know how to fix this. Come on, let’s go and find her.”
Without waiting for a response Twilight picked up the book and crystal before trotting off in the direction of the kitchen. After a few seconds Rainbow gingerly flapped her alicorn wings. They were quite a bit larger than her own and it took her a few attempts to take off. Eventually she managed it and once airborne found it was relatively easy to adapt her flight style. Rainbow found herself enjoying the bigger wing span even though Twilight’s wings weren’t as strong and toned as hers. Once she had caught up with...herself the former pegasus landed gracefully and trotted alongside her friend.
“It’s a shame you don’t do more flying, Twi. There’s tons of underdeveloped muscles in your wings. If you just practiced more you might even be able to get into the Wonderbolts Training Academy,”Rainbow commented casually.
“Well, my hooves are pretty full at the moment, but if I ever want to become an elite flyer you’ll be the first to know,”the princess chuckled.
The two mares rounded a corner and came face to face with Spike.
“Hey Twilight, Rainbow,”the scaly reptile beamed, then he took in the alicorn’s yellow, soggy appearance,”Wow, what happened to you?!”
“Oh nothing. Just a little prank Rainbow, I mean, I pulled on, er, Twilight,”Twilight as Rainbow interjected, it felt weird referring to herself in the third person,”The library’s currently in a bit of a state though.”
“It’s fine, I’ll clean it up,”the purple dragon sighed,”I made that dandelion sandwich you wanted by the way, Twi.” He held up the plate had been carrying, fully expecting the princess to use her magic to levitate it. Of course, the former pegasus had no clue how to control her magic so found herself in a bit of a pickle. She glanced at Twilight for help but the latter just shrugged helplessly. Panicking Rainbow did the first thing that came to mind and snatched the sandwich into her mouth.
“Thanks, Spike. I sure was hungry,”she snarfed, bits of dandelion, spittle and bread sprayimg out of her mouth.
“Um, you’re welcome?”he offered, unnerved by the princess’ appalling manners,”I’ll just be going then.” The scaly reptile quickly spun around and sped off.
Once he was out of earshot Rainbow rounded on Twilight.
“Why didn’t you tell him?!”she demanded,”Now he’ll think you’re going crazy or something!”
“Come on, Rainbow. Spike knows that when I get stressed I do strange things. It’s no big deal. Besides the less creatures who know about our, um, situation, the better,”the former alicorn stated calmly,”Also, once we’ve talked to Starlight you really need to have a bath.”
“I’ll say,”Rainbow as Twilight grimaced, glancing down at her slimy, matted coat.
“I suppose you deserve it though,”the now pegasus pony grinned,”After all, what goes around comes around!”