Starlight stared at the group in front of her as she massaged her temples. “Okay, why don’t we start from the beginning? Trixie, you were going over to Twilight’s office because…?”
“Well, as you already know, The Great and Powerful Trixie is always looking for new ways to spice up her act. And, with the brilliant lessons you’ve been giving Trixie, the next logical step was to try magic that nopony’s ever seen before. So, Trixie thought the best place to start would be the Starswirl the Bearded wing at the Canterlot Archives, but it turns out you need royal permission to go in there. Trixie considered just sneaking in, you know, so she wouldn’t have to bother the princesses, but that would have been wrong. Also, Trixie couldn’t find her lockpicking set,” Trixie added under her breather.
“So, you decided to ask Twilight for permission to access the restricted section of the Canterlot Archives,” Starlight said.
“Yes, exactly! Twilight and her niece seemed to really enjoy Trixie’s last performance, so of course she’d be willing to help Trixie make it even greater and more powerful. Besides, Trixie did help save Equestria that one time, so giving her permission would be the least Twilight could do.” Trixie waited for Starlight to provide some sort of affirmation, but when all she received was an icy stare she decided to just continue with her story. “Anyway, when Trixie got to Twilight’s office it sounded like she was already talking with somepony. So, Trixie decided to wait outside–”
“Trying the old ‘listening to the door with a drinking glass’ bit, probably,” Greater Good snarked.
“No!” Trixie protested. “Trixie didn’t have a drinking glass. You should really talk to Princess Twilight about that, it would be nice to have a pitcher of water or something to drink while we wait for her.”
“I’ll bring it up with Twilight,” Starlight said before turning to Greater Good. “Now, what exactly were you talking with Twilight about, anyway?”
“Oh, I was just making a proposal to see if…Ocellus I think her name is, wanted to make some extra bits helping us track down Chrysalis. Testing to see if our detection spells can reliably pick her out from a crowd, that sort of thing. Twilight seemed receptive to the idea, with a few caveats of her own, and I was already planning my sales pitch as I was leaving. And that’s when I ran into Ms. Great and Powerful here. We got to talking, and it seemed like we might be able to help each other out.”
“Greater Good said he could get Trixie access to the Starswirl the Bearded Wing, and all I had to do was help test out a few spells,” Trixie said. “That seemed like a much better deal than trying to get permission from Twilight. Plus, this way I could even more magic in the process.”
“And the spells you were going to have Trixie test out were…?” Starlight asked in the tired tone of somepony who already knows the answer to the question they’re asking but is still holding out hope they’re wrong.
“Mind transfer magic,” Greater Good replied. “You’d be amazed how many potential applications a spell like that would have in my line of work, but unfortunately nopony’s done much practical research into it. There’s a potion that can do it, but it requires both subjects to take a dose at the same time, and Zebrican alchemy can be a bit…twitchy.”
“Well, that explains a few things,” Starlight said. “So, how exactly did you go from testing out a mind switching spell to THAT?” Starlight pointed her hoof at the massive rockdog sitting next to her office couch. The orthros-sized canine, who resembled a giant rottweiler composed of living stone, was silently glaring at both Trixie and Greater Good with a stare so furious Starlight Glimmer marveled the pair hadn’t burst into flame. Meanwhile, seated next to the rockdog was Moonwhisper, who up until now had been cheerfully panting with his tongue lolling out of his mouth. Starlight Glimmer’s sudden shouting, however, had prompted him to shrink back and whimper.”
“Sorry, Moonwhisper,” Starlight said, causing the rockdog to shoot her an annoyed glance. “No, I meant…you know what, we’re getting off topic. How the hay did this happen?”
“Now, I will admit, part of the blame for the situation might lie with me,” Greater Good said. “The Fort Everfree complex isn’t really a proper substitute for a fully secured magical testing lab, but I figured it wouldn’t really be a problem. The work crews had the day off and civilians aren’t allowed onsite, so even if there were an accident it shouldn’t have affected anypony.”
“Trixie didn’t even know that Moonwhisper was there. It was supposed to be just Trixie, Greater Good, and the two ponies Trixie was casting the spell on. But…” Trixie trailed off nervously. “Do you remember how Trixie had that tiny little accident involving Twilight’s map when you were teaching her teleport magic?”
“Yes, I remember,” Starlight said, her eye twitching a little.”
“Well, something similar may have happened this time, only instead of Twilight’s table map thing it was Moonwhisper and that big dog-thing. Honestly, I didn’t even know Moonwhisper even had a pet,” Trixie said.
“I wouldn’t call it a pet, exactly,” Greater Good said. “Moonwhisper maintained a pack of trained rockdogs at his old posting, and he probably wanted them at Fort Everfree to help ward off the more aggressive occupants of the forest.”
“That’s fascinating and all, but how the hay are we going to fix this? Twilight has enough on her plate as it is without having to deal with having her coltfriend getting turned into a dog!” Starlight exclaimed.
“Not so much turned into a dog as having his mind switched with a dog,” Greater Good said, earning glares from both Starlight and the Moonwhisper-possessed rockdog. “Besides, who knows, maybe the princess won’t even mind. I mean, he does seem quite a bit cuddlier like this.” This last comment prompted Moonwhisper to issue a low, deep-throated growl of displeasure, with the rockdog inhabiting his body quickly joining in.
“That’s not helping, any of you!” Starlight shouted. “Trixie, can’t you just cast the spell again to reverse all this?”
“I would, but casting that spell the first time really took a lot out of me,” Trixie admitted sullenly. “In fact, my horn still hurts a little, is that normal?”
“It could be, if you really pushed yourself too far. Alright, then why don’t I try casting the spell then? Just show me the scroll or whatever you gave Trixie and I’ll get this cleared up.” Starlight’s suggestion was met by awkward silence from the group as Moonwhisper turned his angry glare towards the rockdog inhabiting his body, who let out an ashamed whimper. “Oh, for the love of Celestia, don’t tell me the rockdog ate the scroll!”
“Less ‘ate’ and more ‘blasted into cinders’,” Trixie said.
“It seems it got a bit overexcited when it transferred into Moonwhisper’s body and it may have launched a few energy blasts, one of which may have hit the scroll we were using,” Greater Good added.
“So, you’re telling me you not only put Moonwhisper’s brain into the body of a rockdog, but the scroll to reverse the process has been destroyed?” Starlight wailed as she smashed her face down onto her desk.
“No, not exactly,” Greater Good assured her. “I mean, yes, the particular scroll we were using was destroyed. But we do have a number of copies of it ready to go.”
“Oh, thank Celestia,” Starlight said, breathing a sigh of relief. “That’s the first good piece of news I’ve heard so far. So, all we need to do is get one of the copies and–”
“They’re kept in the secure vault at EID headquarters. In Manehattan,” Greater Good said, prompting a scream of frustration from Starlight, which the rockdog soon joined with a howl.
Moonwhisper, meanwhile, had began glaring at Greater Good with an expression that Fluttershy, if present, would have translated as “Can I bite him? I would very much like to bite him right now.”
“It’s too bad you didn’t have any of that potion that does this thing.” Trixie mused. “Then we could just feed it to the two of them and that would fix everything.”
“The potion! Of course, why didn’t I think of that?” Starlight exclaimed. “Trixie, you’re a genius!”
“Obviously the Great and Powerful Trixie is. Um…what exactly did Trixie say that made you realize it?” Trixie asked.
“Zecora,” Starlight replied. “From what I’ve heard from Twilight and the others, she knows more about potions than just about anycreature. If there’s a potion that can fix this mess then she’d definitely know how to brew it up.”
“Oh, right the zebra who lives in the Everfree Forest,” Greater Good said. “For some reason I always seem to fort that she exists. In any event, yes, let’s go find her before Princes Twilight finds out about this.”