//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Silly Species Swapping 
// by Roboshi 
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Silly Species
Chapter 1

The skies above Ponyville were usually the picture of tranquillity but right now they were host to one very un-tranquil Rainbow Dash. She’d promised to help out Twilight with a new bit of magic she was working on and Twilight had asked her to give her wings a good exercise beforehand.
As if Dash needed asking; there wasn’t a day when she didn’t spend her free time practising for the next time she’d get a chance to show off her moves to the Wonderbolts and within a few short minutes she’d given her wings more than a decent workout.

Meanwhile at the library; a lone unicorn could be seen taking down some notes on the latest of many scrolls. She was Twilight Sparkle and she was convinced this day would be one for the history books, the first time her name would appear in the pages of a spell book.
It was normal for a student in the magical arts to work on projects of their own; they would serve as tests to see if a student’s skills went beyond simply following instructions from a book. A normal project would involve the study of the magical properties of one of Equestria’s many creatures or a practical application for a lesser used spell. Twilight however was determined to impress the Princess with her work and she had been working on a spell that could very well change the face of Equestrian life.

She had got the idea after going over some of the more difficult spells she had been using in the last few months; Advanced Telekinesis to subdue the Ursa Minor, Mind alteration to change the diets of the Parasprites and even her growing skill with Teleportation were all worthwhile subjects for study. But there was one spell she knew she could improve on; a spell that was not only difficult but dangerous (A sure-fire way to score big points with the school board) and that was the gift of flight to wingless ponies.

The last attempt at giving wings to a pony was met with mixed results to say the least. While the wings themselves worked well and even proved to be some of the nicest looking anypony had seen, they were far from durable and that was their downfall, or rather Rarity’s downfall. They were made from gossamer and morning dew, not the best materials for flight above the clouds and as Rarity was performing in the best young flier’s competition they evaporated.

The spell was difficult, overly complicated, draining, and dangerous to the subject.

It was perfect.

A spell like this was rarely touched but had so much potential, and after weeks of preparations Twilight believed that she had found the perfect way around it. All she needed was a willing Pegasus with a good set of wings.
“Hey Twilight!” Rainbow Dash stood in Twilights window,
“Ah! Great timing, I was just finished noting down my progress.” Twilight placed her Quill back in the inkpot. “I’ve got to keep a full record of what I’m doing.”
“So you’re gonna work your magic on my wings? Well I’ve gotta say you’ll be working with the best.” Rainbow stretched out her wings once more and fluttered to the floor.
Twilight giggled a little, “I’m sure I am, but hopefully I’ll get to try them for myself.”
“How’re you gonna do that? I thought the spell to make wings was too difficult.”
Twilight opened up a nearby book on her stand, “Magic isn't just about reciting spells from a book, it's also about making new spells, or improving on the old.” Another scroll opened up for Twilight as her quill danced along the paper, “There’s a spell that can take your wings and put them on me.”
“Whoa! Wait a second there Twilight!” Rainbow Dash back up a little, “You mean you’re just gonna take my wings?”
Twilight shook her head “Oh no no no! You see I’m going to combine that spell with a copy spell, so instead of taking your wings I’ll take a set of copies and anyway the spell will reverse in 3 days in case anything goes wrong.”
Even for somepony as brave as Rainbow Dash the prospect was a little unnerving, but she was a loyal pony and she trusted Twilight’s magical abilities. “Ok Twilight let’s do this!”
“Alright, let me just get my notes on the previous page...” Twilight placed the current scroll to one side and replaced the previous scroll, it was clear she hadn’t been making much of an effort to keep things in order. There was someone missing from this situation, “Hey wait a minute!” Rainbow suddenly realised “Where’s Spike? Doesn’t he usually help you with this stuff?”
“I’m not coming out!” A faint, yet angry voice could be heard from upstairs.
“Oh he’s just angry because I had to test the first half of the spell on him.” Twilight rolled her eyes.
“And you made me look ridiculous!”
Rainbow Dash leaned in close to Twilight, “What did you do to him?”
“I give gave him a...” a swift reaction from Twilight made her silence herself with a hoof.
“Pinkie swear?” Rainbow had been told about the problems Twilight had with keeping secrets.
“Urgh! Whatever,” Rainbow let the issue slide, “...let’s just get this magic stuff going. If it works I might have enough time to show you some moves.”
“Ok here I go. I’ll need you to stand still while I work.” Twilight’s horn began to glow, it’s aura growing with power ready to unleash on the two friends.


Fate, however, rarely allows things to go to plan in Equestria. As could be found by the small party congregating outside the very library Twilight and Rainbow were in.
“okie dokie lokie! Everypony’s here!” said Pinkie Pie, (her volume a little lower than usual) “Are you all ready for Twilight’s surprise party?”
“We got your invites Pinkie, but what type of party is this?” The Unicorn Rarity took out the invitation, “You didn’t give many details.”
“You silly! Don’t you remember? It’s been exactly half a year since Twilight came to Ponyville. This is her “Pinkie-special-half-year-in-Ponyville-surprise-party!””
“Uh...” AppleJack avoided Pinkie’s gaze, “Catchy?”
“Um Pinkie?” A faint sound could be heard from the shy Pegasus, Fluttershy, “Where is Rainbow Dash?”
“Oh don’t you worry Fluttershy,” Pinkie hopped up and down, “I knew Rainbow would be at Twilight’s place today so I thought we’d surprise them both. Everypony loves a surprise. And I know Twilight will just love this surprise. So will Rainbow Dash, how could they not, I mean what are they gonna be doing in there? Magic that requires complete silence? That’d be just silly and anyway I’ve got lots of party poppers and streamers in the bag so why would the party be quiet?”
Pinkie Pie had gone fun-on party mode and was pushing the others towards Twilight’s front door.

Twilight’s spell was almost ready. The aura around her horn had grown to a tremendous side, generating a variety of sparks that were slowly focusing on Rainbow’s wings and Twilight’s bare back.  Rainbow felt the ground leave her feet. Not an unusual sensation for her, except this time it was not through her own means. Rainbow and Twilight had begun to float above the ground as the sparks connecting the two grew into strikes of lightning…



“SURPRISE!” Pinkie Pie’s party exploded into the room along with Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy all in tow.

The result was definitely not what any of them had hoped. The aura around Twilight’s horn became erratic as her concentration was shattered. Lighting scattered around the room, hitting each of the six ponies and streamers were set of as their charges were ignited. The scene created was a bigger mess than Pinkie’s last party when she had the “brilliant” idea to combine fireworks in a cake.
Twilight quickly tried to regain composure and bring her spell to a close, but the amount of energy she had put in over the time she was charging it had to go somewhere and the library was shaken with a violent explosion that shook the walls and brought the contents of the shelves down on top of Twilight and her Friends. 

“uuuurgh!” Twilight got up from underneath a large pile of scrolls she had fallen into. She looked around the room as 5 other mounds began to form in the sea of books.
“Is everypony all alright?” Applejack asked as she popped her head out from beneath The Big Book of Potions and Lotions.
“My Hair!” Rarity screeched as she too emerged, her mane now sticking in all directions as a result of the lightning.
“Whoho! That was fun!” Pinkie Pie was also sporting a similar look (although she was used to the more “Erratic” style, as Rarity called it).
“Um I’m fine.” Fluttershy’s voice came from another pile, “Is…is it ok if I stay under here for a while?”
“What happened?” Rainbow asked as she got to her feet, however the question was quickly replaced by an even greater one as she attempted to lift off the ground to help her friends.

Rainbow remained grounded, the feeling was totally alien to her, she would just flap her wings and up she’d go. Her wings…HER WINGS. 
“WAHHH!” Rainbow turned her head around and was greeted with a completely bare back, not even a single sign that there had ever been a pair of strong flying wings ready to go. “Where’d my wings go?”
Twilight turned to Rainbow and inspected her wingless state, “Well it looks like the spell half worked.” She awkwardly grinned, “The part where I borrowed your wings must have worked while the copy spell must have failed.”
Twilight inspected her own back to confirm her theory and was indeed met with the sight of a fully functioning pair of wings. A fully functioning pair of yellow wings.
Yellow wings?
“My Horn!” Rarity was quickly searching her forehead beneath her mane for her missing Horn.
“Well lookie here!” Applejack had cleared her pile of books and come up with her own pair of Blue wings.
“Oh No!” Twilight surveyed her friends, “The Copy spell did work, only I didn’t copy the wings, I copied the swapping spell.”
“Who has my beautiful horn?” Rarity was getting frantic, scanning each of the other ponies looking for her beloved horn, “Who has it?”
“Eeep!” a squeak could be heard from the pile Fluttershy was hiding under.
“You in trouble Fluttershy, I’ma comin’ for ya” Applejack leaped to Fluttershy’s aid. However, she soon found her leap to be a little too strong as her new wings took it upon themselves to instinctively add to her take-off and she was sent crashing into Fluttershy rather than next to her. 
“Whoa! I’m real sorry Fluttershy, I didn’t mean to…” Applejack got up and looked over her newly uncovered friend, “Well lookie here Fluttershy, you got Rarity’s horn”
Rarity rushed over to Fluttershy, her frantic searching had gotten her close to genuine anger. This quickly evaporated when confronted with the sight of Fluttershy’s face on the verge of tears, “I’m so sorry Rarity. I didn’t mean to take your horn.”
“Oh darling!” Rarity’s demeanour did a complete reversal, “Don’t you worry in the slightest, I’m just glad it went to a pony with the grace to pull it off.”
“But Rarity, I don’t want to take away your horn.”
“Nonsense!” Rarity did her best to calm Fluttershy down, “It’s not your fault, it was an accident.”
“…and I intend to fix it!” Twilight announced confidently, “I’m sorry everypony, but it shouldn’t take long to reverse the spell.”
Twilight turned towards the pile of scrolls she had just crawled out of and attempted to take out the last page of her notes. The scrolls however remained stationary; it seemed there was one last element of the spell to be discovered. “My horn?!” Twilight scanned her own forehead, she too was missing a horn, the very focusing point of her magic.

“But…But who’s got MY horn?” Twilight was genuinely worried, without magic she had no idea how to reverse the spell.
“Ooooo Lookie what I found!” Pinkie bounced up to the rest of the ponies and parted her mane revealing a distinctly purple horn, much to Twilight’s dismay. 
“Oh dear!” Twilight exclaimed.

(To be continued)