Fluttershy opened the door to the library and was greeted by the sudden silence of interrupted conversations and six ponies looking at her.
She reacted accordingly. With an “Eeep” and a step back she tried to leave the treehouse again, but the white unicorn stallion behind her blocked the path.
He gently but firmly pushed Fluttershy into the main room, brushed a hoof through his short cropped dark grey mane before he addressed the other ponies. “Good morning, I’m Angel Bunny,” he said. His voice sounded not unlike Big Mcintosh, in fact he even looked quite like the farmer, except for the different colors and the horn. And the blank flank, the pony had no cutie mark despite looking more than twenty five summers old. “Excuse me for skipping the introductions, but I can see the gang is almost all here. I’ll just assume that you ponies are the other pets? And you woke up just like me this morning? As a pony?”
The assembled ponies nodded and voiced their agreement. Angel noticed that Rarity wore a smug face and that she collected a few coins from Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Next to Rarity sat a white earthpony mare with a light violet mane. Just by the way she looked at him he could tell that this was the annoying cat. “Opalescence. Winona”, he nodded at her and at the pony next to her and tried to keep a neutral face. Next to the cat sat a brown pegasus mare, her unkempt long white hair hanging down over her eyes. To his amazement Winona, no other pet could have been it, seemed on good terms with the cat. They resumed chatting right after he had greeted them. How could anyone like to talk to that stuck-up cat?
Next around the table was Applejack. Angel only gave her a quick nod and moved to the next pony. There was no point in waiting if the farmer might inquire after a certain amount of carrots that might have gone missing from her storage last winter. It was better to take no chances with that mare.
Rainbow Dash and her tortoise Tank, now a grass-green pegasus stallion, were talking about something, so again Angel only exchanged nods.
Just as he was about to ask for Twilight Sparkle and her owl the unicorn walked in from another part of the library. “Ah, Fluttershy! And Angel Bunny, I presume?” The stallion nodded. “Have a seat, Pinky Pie and Gummy should be back with snacks soon.” She turned to the kitchen and shouted, “Spike, is the tea ready?”
“It’s done when it’s done, Twilight,” the little dragon replied, “You can’t rush tea, and you know it!”
Just a moment later the library’s door opened again, and Pinkie Pie walked in with a basket full of cupcakes and other food on her back. Behind her a grey unicorn stallion with a bright blond mane carried another basket of baked goods. Angel was stumped at who that other pony might be until he noticed the violet eyes, “Gummy? Is that you?” The unicorn nodded and smiled at him with an even more unexpected mouth full of teeth. Pony teeth, but teeth nonetheless. Angel only shook his head. “Why does this even surprise me? You are Pinkie Pie’s pet,” he asked the universe in general. As usual the universe did not bother to answer.
By now it was getting quite cramped with eleven ponies around the table. Fluttershy and Rarity had already retreated to one of the reading couches in the back and Angel was tempted to join them. But he was still curious about the last pet he hadn’t met yet. Twilight Sparkle’s owl was still missing. He got his wish a few seconds later when he heard a loud crash from the other wing of the library.
“I swear, I will never get used to this clumsy body!” A tan earthpony limped in, his brown mane and the Trottingham accent were enough to identify Owlowiscious. The stallion looked at Angel with a no small amount of envy. “You and the turtle get wings and I’m stuck on the ground? I say, there is no justice in this world!”
Angel gave him sly grin, “Maybe there is more in it than you realize?”
Suddenly Pinkie Pie was next to him and jammed a muffin into his muzzle, the next second she repeated the same with Owlowiscious. “Don’t start to bicker. Have some food and then we’ll find out what this is all about.”
Right on cue Spike rolled in with three pots of tea and a few cups. Six of those were china, six were heavy earthenware with extra big handles. “Training cups, great idea Spiky-wikey,” Rarity commended the young dragon.
After everyone had taken some sweet from the baskets and a cup of tea in front of them, Angel finally did what he had wanted to since they had entered the library. He looked at Twilight Sparkle and asked, “So, miss Sparkle, what kind of spell did you botch this time?”
Before the librarian could even answer Fluttershy was by Angel’s side and looked at him sternly. “Angel Bunny, that is no way to treat a friend! Especially if you want Twilight to create a counterspell for whatever she miscast ... this ... time. I mean ... uhm ... very nice tea, Spike. May I have another cup?”
Twilight sighed. “Anypony else suspect me?” The shuffling of hoofs under the table, a general murmur of “Hm”, “Uhm” and “Oh” and gazes all over the place but at the young librarian's face were answer enough. “Believe me, I’d suspect me too, but this wasn’t me.”
The murmur stopped and Owlowiscious added, “This magic happened right after sunrise, I can attest that Twilight has not cast any magic at that time. I was watching her sleep at her desk the one second, then I fell from my perch and the next second my beautiful wings had turned into these.” He held his fore hooves up and shook his head with a look of loss in his eyes.
“But if it wasn’t you, who could have cast such a spell? And why just our pets?” Rarity wondered aloud. “I have seen any number of cats and dogs when I walked here, nopony else was turned into a pony ...ah... you know what I mean.”
Twilight shrugged and was just about to answer when there was a knock on the door. Twilight looked around, “Who could that be? I placed a “closed” sign on the door.” She walked to the window by the entrance and looked outside. Then she scrambled to the door and opened it wide. “Please, come in Princess Celestia!” she greeted her mentor.
The royal alicorn entered and behind her another, smaller alicorn followed. This pony sported a fiery red coat and an orange and yellow mane. The mare looked almost more of an incarnation of the sun then Princess Celestia herself. Yet she looked embarrassed and avoided to look anyone in the eye.
The princess smiled as she saw the group of ponies. “I see, everyone is already here. Or should I say everypony?” The princess probably expected a bit of laughter, but this joke had already outlived its funniness, and so she moved on quickly. “You probably wonder why you are all ponies right now. Well Philomena here,” she wrapped a wing around the smaller alicorn, ”has something to say to you.”
The phoenix-pony looked at her hooves. “I’m sorry for the trouble I caused. My race has a bit of transformation magic and it seems my transformation spread to you over my link to the princess and through the Elements of Harmony to you. I had no idea that would happen and I did it with no ill intent.” She shuffled her forehooves on the ground. “The transformation will wear off on its own in about a week or so.”
Seeing the mortified phoenix the other pets smiled and nodded to each other. They jumped the sheepish alicorn and gave her a grouphug. A second later Pinkie Pie jumped in too.
Except for Owlowiscious who kept lamenting the loss of his wings nopony had even the slightest word of complaint. Gummy even seemed to like his new body quite a bit, especially his teeth. Later Angel Bunny and all the others apologized to Twilight Sparkle for accusing her, but just as before, she showed a lot of understanding.
As the morning progressed the group of ponies moved to the outside from the stuffy library, but finally the Princess had to return to Canterlot. “Goodbye, my little ponies, until the next national crisis,” she joked. This time she got a bit of laughter, but her subjects exchanged a few precarious looks. Just as the two alicorns were about to lift of, Twilight remembered and said “Please give our regards to Luna. Too bad she couldn’t join us.”
“I’ll be sure to do that,” a grin spread over Celestia’s face. “Right after I’ve told her that her collection of spiders has turned into a dozen preschool foals. I wonder how she will take that.”