Twilight lifted her head to observe where she was. All that she could see was darkness all around her. She blinked her eyes and looked again. Still black. Confused, her eyebrows furrowed and she began to think of probable answers to her new situation. She didn't know exactly where she was so she naturally assumed that she was either somewhere where it was night or, more improbably, in her own consciousness. Then again, she remembered the last few days were really improbable and more unpredictable than most of her life altogether.
"Hello? Is anypony out there?" She shouted as loud as she could into the darkness. Silence responded. Sighing, Twilight closed her eyes and laid her head down. She remembered the events that had gone on before causing her to be here. At least her suspicions had been confirmed that the Changeling queen was behind her predicament causing her to end up looking just like her. And why had Rarity just burst into the dungeons like that? That had been totally weird-
Rarity. What had happened to her and Cadence after they had both been shocked? Were they even still alive? She hoped that they were both alright. What if they were in a coma? Or worse, dead?! Oh, if that happened everypony would probably blame her thinking that she was still the queen and that the real queen was her! She needed to find a way to fix this. She needed to-
Her thinking was diminished by a loud rumbling sound that seemed to echo all around her. That continued for a couple of seconds before another noise, this time much louder, echoed around the darkness. Twilight covered her ears with her hooves, but she could definitely still hear the voice that was booming.
"Nnngh, five more minutes, Twilight, I'm trying to sleep..." Twilight's ears perked up and she uncovered them. She knew that voice and she would never forget it, Spike, her number one assistant. She couldn't see him in the pitch black area, but she could definitely sense his presence and hear his voice. Frantically, she yelled out to get his attention and for once the voice that came out of her muzzle was her own.
"Spike! Spike, It's me Twilight! Please, turn on the lights or something! I can't see you or anything else here!" She cried and then waited for another couple of seconds before sighing again and furrowing her eyebrows. Maybe she was just stuck here for the rest of eternity where ever 'here' was anyway. Just stuck here punished for whatever she did wrong. Forced to hear the voices of her friends and loved ones forever while they wouldn't contemplate the torturous situation that she was currently in. Maybe-
Light flooded into the room, finally making it possible to see. For some reason, Twilight's eyes didn't get blinded at all. They just saw. Looking at the wall that she was currently staring at revealed that the whole of it was lit up in a moving picture. It was sort of like watching a movie, only not exactly.
Blinking once, she tried to look around the rest of the room to see what it actually looked like but found that she couldn't. Whenever she tried to peel her eyes off of the screen, she would just find herself looking at the same wall, and the same screen over and over again. Sure, she could turn her head different directions but that only resulted in seemingly not moving her head at all.
What the buck is this? Is Discord trying to rise again or something? Because if you ask me seeing the inside of some sheets through a movie screen is kind of his style, she thought to herself. As she did, though, there was a blurred stirring on the movie screen as the view shot up and looked around the room for something.
A voice boomed throughout the room again, the same one of Spike's voice. "Twilight? ...Did I just hear twilight? But that can't be right, she's missing..."
Twilight, surprised, took a chance. "Spike! It is me, it’s Twilight! Help!" She shouted at the movie screen like she pictured a drunk pirate might do during an actual movie with other ponies in the theatre with him. After no response other that Spike's just booming about how it was probably nothing, she groaned. Why can't he hear me now? He seemed to have heard me when I talked before only there was a bit of a time lapse. Maybe the moment where I finish talking and he hears me finish talking is different. Ok, now what if I-
Once again she was cut off by Spike's voice, which she was glad to hear, but only got more confused the more he spoke. "Twilight, I can hear you. Geez, I'm not hard of hearing of anything. Maybe she thinks I am though." He chuckled.
Then another voice came into Twilight’s hearing spectrum, and she knew this one also. "Spike, why're y'all talkin' to yourself? You okay, Sugarcube?" Now that, Twilight knew, was definitely Applejack. Oh, there's AJ! Twilight thought excitedly as her farming friend came into view.
Spike responded, "Oh, hey there Applejack. I'm not really sure - Did you hear that?" Applejack looked surprised as her eyebrows furrowed and she looked around, expecting to see somepony standing there that shouldn't be.
"Twilight? Is that you, Sugarcube? I thought I heard somethin' earlier, but I couldn't be sure. So, y'all finally got out'a that Changelin' suit or whatever? Ah'm surprised that ah'm the only one who noticed."
"Wait, what?" Spike said. "You can hear her too now and now she really was Chrysalis?" Applejack nodded. "Okay then..." He responded.
Something clicked in Twilight. "I guess he couldn't hear me speaking, but he can hear my thoughts instead!" She then began to think. Hey guys, so you can both hear me now? That's awesome! AJ, can you please explain quickly to Spike about what really happened to me and then we need to quickly get down to the dungeons to help out there.
"Sorry, Sugarcube, if there's a pony in need, we need to help 'em right away! Ah'm guessin' one of 'em's Rarity?" Twilight responded with a yes, "yeah, ah sorta guessed when I didn't see her in her bed getting her usual beauty sleep.
As the orange farm pony galloped away with Spike starting to follow, Spike started to worry. "Gosh, I hope she's ok!"
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Rarity was definitely not ok. At the moment, she was screaming her lungs out. Well, they weren't exactly her lungs or necessarily her scream either really. That was part of the problem. She had woken up a few minutes prior to now and had found herself in the body of what was at first Twilight Sparkle and now was the body of the Changeling queen Chrysalis. Now, she wasn't screaming because of the fact of that she was in the body of an evil Changeling overlord but because of the fact that in Rarity's mind green hair and a black body that had holes in the arms and legs was absolutely hideous. According to her this situation was 'THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!'
Her screaming had also woken up Candence, who was now joined into the chorus of shrieks and screams of horror, as she was in Rarity's body. Though according to her, the most terrifying fact was that if the three ponies had done a complete 'body swap' then the only place that the queen could be was in her own body.
And the Changeling Queen was nowhere to be found.
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Twilight was getting a little sick at the up and down motions that Spike's body was creating. 'Um, guys? I think I'm going to be... sick... Ugh, I'm just going to teleport to your head, AJ'... Twilight thought.
Applejack's eyes widened. "Ah, Sugarcube, ah don't think that's such a good idea," She said nervously. "What if somethin' goes wrong and I end up, uh, dyin'? We all know those darn magical difficulties your horn can have; they usually happen when yall're under stress and not thinkin' right, am ah right?"
"Well, AJ, I doubt that you will die or anything! Every time that stuff happens everything turns out fine, so on three." Twilight started to count down, getting ready to teleport into Applejack's mind. "One... Two..."
"Twilight-" Applejack started but was cut off by a "Three," a loud crack, and a distant voice in her head screaming something unrecognizable. AJ's eyes opened wide and she grimaced. "Oh my, Twilight please! Calm down!"
But Twilight couldn't calm down not in the slightest. She had found a secret that Applejack had tried; oh she had tried so hard to keep hidden.
Applejack's secret was out, and now she was in for a world of hurt. After all, Equestria wasn't very fond of changeling's posing as ponies.
Not at all.