It had been an hour already. Everypony was still out cold, lying as if dead. Most ponies would believe they were dead, but no, they were very much alive. And they were in for a rude awakening.
"Urgh...my head." A lavender mare said, stretching and rubbing her head. She drowsily stood, walking around her friends to arouse them. "Girls wake up." She said in a groggy tone. She needed somepony to get up to tell her what happened.
"H-h-huh? Ah'm up ah'm up!" Apple Jack shouted, trying to shake her drowsiness off. "Shoot! My heads throbbin' like somepony's bangin' on it!" AJ rubbed her head. As she did so, she reached for her hat. She looked down behind her. To her surprise, not only was her hat there, two orange wings sprouted out of her back. She had to be seeing things, no way on Equestria did she have wings. To AJ's horror though, somepony behind her started screaming.
"AAAAAAAAHAHHHHAHHAHAH! MY HORN! WHERES MY HORN?!?" Twilight Sparkle asked, now fully awake from the shock. "A-A-A-AND H-HOW DID THESE WINGS GET HERE?!?" The now purple pegasus looked towards the orange farmer. She held out a shaky hoof. "A-A-Apple J-Jack? YOU HAVE WINGS!!!!"
"How in Celestia's name did this happen?" A pink pony asked to nopony in particular. She was rubbing her hoof on her new pink horn.
"REMAIN CALM! EVERYPONY JUST REMAIN CALM!" Twilight shouted.
"Nopony's panicking but you Twi." Apple Jack said calmly. "We'd better find the others."
"Hey!" A scratchy voice sounded,"Could you keep it down? Some ponies are actually trying to sleep!"
"Huuuuuuh!" Twilight gaped at the cyan pegasus. Rainbow immediately went into serious mode, becoming aware of their surroundings.
"What?" She asked curiously, standing up. "Is there something on my face?"
"Dashie you might want to sit down for this."
"Huh? Why Pinki---AH! YOUR A UNICORN!" Dash looked around franticly. "Apple Jack, Twilight, your both--" Raibow couldn't muster her words.
"Pegasi. Yes."
"My head hurts." The cyan mare got into a huddling position, hooves over her head. Thats when she felt it, a horn. There was a horn on her head. She gaped, unable to make any noises. She looked to her backside. Her wings! They were gone!
"Yeah, Dashie. You're a unicorn." Pinkie Pie stated, as if she was reading Dash's mind. In truth, her face told the whole story.
"What happened to the others? Where are th-" Rainbow Dash tried to ask.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH! MY HORN! MY BEAUTIFUL HORN! I-I-IT'S GO-HO-HONE! OF ALL THE WORST POSSIBLE THINGS! THIS IS THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. TH-HI-HING! WH-H-Y?"
"Well, ah guess we know where Rarity is. Hopefully Flutters is with 'er." Apple Jack responded to the shrill cry.
"Well," A purple pegasus started,"The sooner were together, the sooner we'll figure out what's going on. Let's go!"
The ponies began to move towards the screams of agony, but not before Dash shoved the orb in her saddle packs.
"O-oh my. Rarity. Please calm down. Rarity. Please. Everything will be okay." Said a yellow earth pony, she took losing her wings fairly well, and was now trying her hardest to calm down her marshmellow friend.
"Okay?!? OKAY?!? EVERYTHING IS NOT OKAY FLUTTERSHY AND I can't...calm...down..." Rarity calmed down as Fluttershy sang her lullaby. "Thank you Fluttershy."
The yellow pony cringed and blushed a little. "Oh it was nothing Rarity." Fluttershy heard a sound in the distance. Rarity acted as if she didn't hear anything. Probably because she couldn't, Fluttershy had to have super good hearing to find lost baby animals from time to time. "Rarity, I think the rest of the girls are coming this way."
"Fluttershy, Rarity?" Twilight called,"Fluttershy! Rarity!"
"Girls? Girls!" Fluttershy beckoned Rarity to follow her, and started from a trot to a gallop, towards the group.
"Wheew! Hey....Girls...." Twilight panted, getting used to the weight of her new wings.
"Hello, Twilight. Oh, looks like we all have the same problem." Fluttershy responded.
"If ya mean swip-swaped races, then yeah." Dash replied.
"Well, first thing we need to do is get out of these caves. I'll come up with an idea on the way." Twilight said, flapping her wings. The rest of the five ponies nodded, and trotted to pick up their stuff, following the route the came through.
"So, I was thinking we go to Princess Celestia, to see what she can do." Twilight said.
"That's your answer to everything, Twilight." Rainbow Dash replied rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, well this time we kinda have to go, because of the orb. We need to hand it over to the Princesses ASAP."
"Well, what're we waitin' for?" Apple Jack butted in, her wings showed her 'wanting to get moving' expression, almost as good as her face.
"It's just around the corner. We'll be there in no time. We can follow the path me and Cadence did."
"Oooooh an adventure!" Pinkie bounded.
Everypony rolled their eyes. Then, they quickly made their way through the caves to the main par of the Canterlot Gardens.
"Princess Celestia?" A buff pegasus guard pulled off his helm and bowed before his ruler.
"Yes Silver Shine?" The Princess of the sun replied.
"The Element are here to speak with you." The guard said back. He didn't say or seem surprised that the six ponies switched races, Silver had seen alot in his day of being a guard.
Princess Celestia's face grew serious. "Bring them in." She simply said. Beckoning the guard to hurry.
"Yes my lady." Silver said putting his helm back on before trotting toward the double doors of the main chamber. He nodded to his partner to open the doors. When they were open, six ponies came in.
Pinkie held herself in her usual way, bounding around with a huge smile on her face, Apple Jack also held herself in her usual way, no feeling a real difference with her newfound wings, Twilight came in, flying very wobbly towards the princess when she shouted "Princess Celestia!". Rainbow looked down to the floor in a longing way, while Fluttershy was perfectly fine, and Rarity was walking with less vigor in her trot.
The Princess was speechless. All she could muster was a dumbfounded look on her face. It was very silent in the room. One could probably hear somepony drop a feather.
"It's a long story, Celestia." Twilight said, wobbly lighting down, to focused on what she was doing to be proper. "Say," Twilight finally continued, once safely on the ground,"Have you heard of the Ciceron gem?" She asked, as if she didn't know the answer. The six ponies were now in a half circle in front of Celestia's throne, as a look of recognization worked it's way on her face.
"Yes. You may want to sit for this, my little ponies." The princess finally said, looking at each of their faces with concern. "First may I have the orb? I need to be sure nopony else can get hurt with it." Twilight nodded and looked towards Dash.
"Here." Dash said as she levitated the orb out of her bags. She about dropped it in shock of how easy it was. It was a good thing the yellow aura of her princess saved it before it hit the floor. "That was to easy for comfort." Dash said still shocked at being able to do that.
"Hm. Gather around." Celestia said, sending the orb off somewhere out of view. She walked to and empty white wall, the ponies followed. Her horn began to glow as a projection began.
"Long ago, when my sister and I were just little fillies, me and Luna had an older sister that only the oldest of alicorns know of today. She always had the brightest purples and blues in her hair, her skin a light blue. She was to be in charge of all eclipses, therefor our parents named her Ecli.
"Now, since we knew what we were to grow into, between royal classes, and royal playtime, and tending to the royal pets, mine of course is Philamena, we were aloud to have hobbies. Luna liked to dabble in singing and drawing. Shame she stopped, she was very good at them. I took to gardening and tending to the woodland creatures. Now, Ecli, she, unlike me and Luna, never grew into what she was supposed to.
"Her hobby was rock and other mining things, for collecting. She loved doing that so much, that to Mother and Father's discomfort, she began to show up less and less around the castle, searching for rocks and gems a plenty. She started missing royal classes, playtime, and she stopped taking care of her pet bat.
"She went insane, saying she'd found a new type of rock. A ball of teal, she'd call it. We had no idea what she was talking about. She drew us a picture, explaining where she found it and such. She'd go on and on about it, but we kept doubting her which made her even more crazy.
"It was terrible. At one point, me and Luna never forgot this day, she gained her cutiemark a pile of rocks and gems, and she said she was going away with Cicero to where nopony could ever put her down ever again. And then, poof. She was gone, never to return. Our parents would say she was just on vacation until we were old enough to understand what really happened.
"What you've heard now is all I know. You six may stay in Twilight's old room to rest, if you'd like. I'm sorry I could not be of more help."
All the ponies contemplated what their princess had said. Twilight couldn't help it, she needed to know more. "Princess Celestia, are you for sure certain that there isn't anything that can help us find out more?" She asked.
"I promise you I'll keep an eye out." The princess said. "Silver?"
"Yes, my princess?"
"Please tend to the Elements for me."
"Yes, my princess."
Silver took the six to the spa chamber where they were treated like royalty. They were cleaned, pampered, and relaxed, but Twilight still had to think. What would happen if Celestia didn't find anything else? Would they stay switched races forever? At one point Rarity saw the stress on Twilight's face and told her to relax, and that they'd find something out in due time.
A few hours after being tended to, everypony went to the garden to relax. Everypony, but, Twilight. She made her way through the castle to find Celestia on a small balcony. Twilight used all her might to fly as even and smooth as she could to the princess. "Did you find anything yet?" Twilight asked finally reaching the balcony with a *thud*.
"Not yet my star pupil. But don't worry, we won't stop looking." Princess Celestia smiled down gently at Twilight when a *woosh* surprised her. Twilight's wings shot strait out from her back, and try as she might, she could not put them down. A concerned look spread on Twilight's face, and she shuffled off the balcony, to embarrassed to say anything else. She decided to catch up with the girls.