Prismatic Shift

by Carpetbagger


All The Way Through!

Rainbow Dash stared into the bathroom mirror, horrified by her altered appearance. The trademark rainbow locks of mane of her namesake were no more. Replaced by aqua strands that felt the same as if to add insult to injury. Even her almost glowing cyan coat was gone, changed into a bizarre shade of pink. She felt the same, still full of energy, same memories, brimming with confidence as she's done every day before. But in the mirror looking back wasn't Rainbow Dash. Despite everypony's subtle change in appearance Twilight's library looked like it hadn't changed and the bathroom, even down to the little crack in the upper corner of the mirror was still how she remembered it. She couldn't help but compare her predicament to Daring Do and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and snorted at how badly that adventure was.

"Firefly! Come out of my bathroom. You're... starting to scare me." Twilight called out while knocking on the door. At least a pony that resembled Twilight. Just like Dash, everything about the librarian stayed intact. If that was the case she wouldn't be able to resist the urge to figure out what was going on, whatever color the obsessive bookworm may be. Rainbow Dash took her attention off the door and went back to looking at the stranger looking back at her in the mirror. She just couldn't wrap her head around it.

"That's it!" Twilight shouted in agitation. "If you don't come out... I'll... I'll wish you out!"

"Wish?" Rainbow Dash thought to herself. She stared into her reflection, completely focused on her altered look as if she could wish everything back to normal. As if it were all a dream and she would wake up at any moment where everything was as it should be. Suddenly, a flash of magic danced around the confused Pegasus, teleporting her out of the bathroom and back into the main library, but several feet in the air. Before Dash even had a chance to get her wings out she hit the ground, hard, fast and head first.

"Geeze Twilight, I think you need to practice your blind teleporting. You dropped her on her head... again." A familiar sounding young male voice called out. On the edge of losing consciousness, Rainbow Dash lazily tracked the source of the voice in just enough time to see a pink baby dragon with dark green fins on his head. As he approached, Dash's eyes got heavier while she silently hoped everything would be back to normal once they opened again.


"Oh my! She looks terrible Twilight."

"Y'all weren't kiddin' sugarcube, she looks plum tuckered out."

"Oooh! Do we have any plums? I could go for some right now. I don't care if they're tuckered out or not!"

"Let's get her over to the couch, darling."

"Here, let me help. Two unicorns are better than one."

"So what's all this about, Twi? Ah thought all Tartarus had broke loose."

"I'm not sure Applejack. She looked at me like I was a stranger and locked herself in my bathroom.

"Well, Ah reckon you can be a bit queer sometimes. Tain't nothin' to fret about."

"Ah don't mean it like that and y'all know it!"

"Um, girls, I think she's waking up..."


Rainbow Dash heard the familiar voices, but was too weak to answer them. The last thing she could remember was falling on her head thanks to a Twilight Sparkle look-alike. Getting some of her strength back she opened her eyes and tried to sit up, only to be forced back to the ground by something strong and orange. Dash reopened her eyes to finally see a familiar face. Even if that face didn't look too happy to see her.

"Hold yer horses, we gotta sort this out." Applejack said. Rainbow Dash felt herself smiling when she noticed the farmer looked just like she remembered. Same orange coat, same apple cutie mark, same blonde mane. She let out a sigh of relief that it really was all a dream. But where was Applejack's hat?

"Wait Applejack." An approaching Fluttershy said. Dash followed the direction the shy Pegasi's voice came from and felt more relaxed to see her yellow, pink maned childhood friend standing over her. Even if something seemed slightly off.

"Sorry haystack." Applejack began. "But we need to make sure she's not one of those doppelgangers left over from the wedding."

"Don't you mean changeling?" Rainbow Dash interrupted. Fluttershy and Applejack looked down at her with raised eyebrows. "I'm not a changeling. Twilight's brother and Cadence took care of all of them, remember? It's me, good old Rainbow Dash. You know, awesome! radical! Twenty Percent Cooler!" The Pegasus fired off her more infamous quotes in hopes of convincing her friends.

Applejack scratched the back of her head and looked to Fluttershy. "It's worse than Ah thought Posey, Firefly here ain't a doppelganger. She's down right delusional."

"Twilight? I didn't know you had a brother." Posey muttered to the confused pink unicorn. "Um, it's okay though. You were probably waiting for the right time to tell us."

While still under Applejack, Rainbow Dash struggled until she could get a look at her hooves. Still the same strange colors as before, she gasped and slipped from under the farmer's grip, backing away cautiously. Applejack and Fluttershy approached her cautiously.

"Firefly, calm down. We're your friends." Fluttershy cooed in a soothing tone. As she approached, Rainbow Dash finally got a good look at her fellow Pegasus and noticed... she was wasn't a Pegasus at all. Even her cutie mark was different. Instead of a trio of pink butterflies, this incarnation of the soft spoken pony had several pink, green stemmed flowers on her flank. Dash backed away even faster but bumped into something while trying to mount a retreat.

"Take it easy, darling." A voice that sounded identical to Rarity's said. Rainbow knew it wouldn't be that easy and turned around to meet whatever strange version of the the fashionista head on. Sure enough, it was the same Rarity in terms of manestyle and speech, but the the rest of the well spoken unicorn was slightly off. Given her blue tinted coat and lavender, rose streaked mane, she couldn't help but think of how the real Rarity would react. She'd probably throw herself across that her fancy red couch, sobbing at how gaudy her altered self looked.

"Yeah double "F," chill out." A voice much like Pinkie Pie's called out. Rainbow Dash looked around for the alternate party pony but there was no trace. Out of nowhere a white, blonde maned pegasus swooped down from above with a very Pinkie like wide grin. Dash shuddered at the thought of a Pinkie Pie... with wings. Giving up, the stunt flyer sat down in defeat and looked at her altered friends.

"Guys, I know this is going to sound weird, but I'm not who you think I am. I mean, I look like her..." Rainbow Dash stopped to shake out her aqua mane and let out a sigh. "...but I'm not her... in here." She concluded, tapping her chest. "I don't know how or why this happened, but we need to find a way to fix it."

"And that's exactly what we're going to do."

Dash looked up and saw Twilight approaching. The pink librarian's horn was aglow with a purple aura and a large tome floating alongside her. She sat down in front of the Pegasus and teleported a pen and quil into existence. Even if she wasn't the Twilight Sparkle she remembered, she was close enough. Twilight licked the tip of her pen and flipped over a fresh pad of paper to take notes.

"Maybe we should start with your memories. Start with something we all would know, like how we first met."

Deciding to get comfortable, Rainbow Dash laid down on her side, propping her head with an upraised hoof. It was going to be a long story, but if it would help to get to the bottom of what was happening, she'd have to endure sitting still.

"It all started the day before the Summer Sun Festival..."


"...and then, Princess Celestia asked Spike to take a letter. But it wasn't really a letter. She said you were going to stay in Ponyville and study the magic of friendship." Over the course of telling her story, Rainbow Dash couldn't help but get excited. Especially when she got to talk about herself. Contrary to what anypony else would think, this was one of her fondest memories. And talking about it only made her miss her real friends even more than she already did. Feeling a weight on her shoulders, Dash sat back down in front of Twilight and pawed at the ground anxiously. "Twilight?"

Finishing up taking her notes, Twilight began flipping through pages in the large book before her. She took a moment to look up at the Pegasus. "Yes, Firefly... I mean Rainbow Dash?" She stammered, still trying to get used to the name. Dash looked up from her slumped state, tears forming in her eyes.

"I... I want to go home..."

Twilight set her pad down and placed a reassuring hoof on the pink Pegasi's shoulder and gave a comforting smile. Applejack, Posey, Surprise, and Sparkler couldn't help but drop everything and gather around the sad Rainbow Dash, hugging her in support. Even if they weren't her real friends, at that moment, gathered together, they felt like them.