What Twilight and her friends did not expect was to see this, the other room was completely intact, except for a pile of books, that they assumed buried Spike. As they were walking towards it, the pile started to groan as if in pain. Stopping where they were a few feet from the pile, Twilight asked, "Is that you Spike, are you alright?"
In response, the tiny purple dragon lifted himself out of the pile so that way he was standing on top the pile. Rubbing his head where a bump was beginning to form. He walked to Rainbow who was off to Twilight's left saying, "Yeah, I am alright Twilight, are you okay, what was that blast that sent me sailing across the room."
"Um Spike, I am over here." Twilight said waving her hoof to show which pony she was.
Spike just immediately snapped his head to see Rainbow, only, talking in Twilight's voice. Almost stunned from the shock, he asked while pointing to Rainbow, "Then who is this?"
"Hey Spike." Rainbow responded while rubbing Spike's head, which caused him to hunch over a little.
"So, I am guessing then that you two swapped minds, well then, who is who with the rest of you?" while pointing to the rest of the group.
As they all introduced themselves as to who was in whose body, he started making mental notes about the swaps. Remembering a few tricks Twilight showed him to help him remember things. When the introduction's were finished Spike then asked, "So, what do we do now, how are you going to fix this Twilight?" while turning to Rainbow once again.
"Spike, once again, I am in Rainbow's body, and Rainbow is in mine."
"Oh, sorry, going to have to get used to that until this is fixed, so, what are we going to do." He responded once he corrected himself as who to turn to when talking to Twilight.
"First off Spike, write a letter, we need to inform the Princess about this, she will know how to fix this." Twilight answered while sitting down and closing her eyes to relax.
Even though she was no longer a unicorn, she could still feel the exhaustion from expelling too much power into a spell. She quickly explained the reason to herself to help calm her down, which was when casting a spell is mostly mental power, not physical. So the more knowledge she has about a certain region or spell type, she could cast more powerful spells in that region or spell type. The spell she cast was in the Pony Anatomy Region, and the spell type she was uncertain of. The region is usually the easiest to notice, because of the spells effects once cast. The side effects usually give way to the spell type, since the spell is recently cast, she was still unsure about which spell type it is. Once you have both of those things, then you could begin to find a counter spell. That was just the beginning, you then had the find the exact spell you cast and figure out the spells properties and all this other stuff that she was too exhausted to list.
What snapped her back to attention was the sound of a bell from the front door which was in the next room. All of the friends were already peeking out to see as to who it was, even Spike. That signaled as two things to Twilight, Princess Celestia now knows about their predicament and two, that she had a customer who wanted to check out a book. Twilight then walked over and took a peek out the door to see who it was. What shocked her was two royal guards were standing there in the main lobby area of the library. They were both white coated, and rather the standard guard, one a unicorn and a pegasus. What made one unique was that he had a saddle bag on his back with who knows what inside, and a scroll hanging from his mouth.
Twilight took the first step out from the room and asked, "May I help you?"
The one who didn't have anything on him answered, "Yes, we are here for Twilight Sparkle, do you know where she is?"
"That would be me, did the princess send you to come find me?" Twilight answered being a little skeptical about how Spike made their predicament sound to Celestia.
"Yes, and that confirmed Celestia's worry's, please go get your friends and pack your things. We were sent here to escort you and your friends to Canterlot and straight to her majesty." The guard responded.
Once he finished speaking, he reached into the other's saddle bag and got out a cloak that looked enchanted. After putting the cloak on top of Twilight, Twilight instantly felt magical wave surge through her. Looking at herself not seeing any changes asked, "What are these cloaks supposed to do?"
"These were cloaks especially enchanted by her majesty herself. It is supposed to cause the pony to disappear to everypony else, but Celestia, Luna, yourselves and the royal guard. Oh also, to others wearing the cloaks if they are ever needed again. That way it will be easier for us to get you all out of here easier."
"Well then, let me go get my friends." Twilight answered, but before she got a few feet away, the guard that hadn't spoken then quickly yelled, "Wait!"
Not know what he needed her for, she turned around and asked, "Yes?"
"Almost forgot, Celestia sent us with this letter for you to read once we got here. She wanted you to relax before she stressed you with your trip, considering how much power it seemed to use up."
"Thank you, that was nice of the princess." Twilight responded anxious to read the letter, picked it up in her mouth and ran off to tell her friends.
Once she got to the other room, her friends then crowded her asking her what the guards wanted. Twilight quickly explained everything to them after setting the scroll down on a table. She then asked Spike to read the letter to her considering that she didn't have her magic anymore. The letter was mostly confusion to the other 5, but to Twilight, she understood perfectly. She then explained to her friends that it was pretty much saying that they shouldn't worry. She was happy to see her friends finally relax and they all started head back out into the other room. Where the guards started handing out cloaks. At first glance, they looked like ragged old cloaks that were just enchanted. Twilight then realized, once they were put on, they started to resemble the capes that Rarity made that one time after Spike had started getting greedy. Even though they weren't exact copies, Celestia got pretty close. What surprised her even more though was that the cape resembled the pony inside the body, not the pony seen outside. That made her happy inside and felt hope that things will be just fine.
Once everypony had their cloaks on, including the guards, they all waited for Twilight to go quickly pack her things. Once she got back, they headed out to each other's homes and packing things. Rainbow's home on the other hoof was the hardest to collect her things. Since she lived in the clouds and she couldn't walk on clouds or fly anymore, she then asked the pegasus guard to fly up and instructed him what to grab and where it was.
Once that was all done and taken care of, they all sneaked onto a train towards the back and rode it all the way to Canterlot. Once in Canterlot, they were then directed straight to the castle and upon entering, they all removed their cloak’s hoods and they all became visible once again. They walked down several corridors and finally came upon the doors to the throne room. There sitting on the thrones, were the two sisters, sitting side by side. Upon entering, Celestia perked up and walked to the group of friends, which then all bowed out of respect. Upon observation, she knew which one was Twilight, then saying, "Twilight, my star pupil, good to see you. Sometime we should just to sit down and visit with each other as friends, but not in a situation like this."
Twilight raising her head along with her friends, approached and agreed by saying, "I understand, we should, but can you please help us, I bet you would know how to fix this situation we have here."
"Hm, let me take a look." Celestia replied while her horn lit up and apparently started casting a spell.
To the group, they could all feel the magic weave through them as if searching for something, but not knowing what. Once the spell finished, Celestia finally raised her head with a grave look, "My little ponies, you seem to have a spell on you that I do not recollect or know of in any books in our library. How could that be possible though." saying that last bit more to herself than anypony in general.
Twilight's eyes shrank and her smile turned into a frown, panic was soon over taking her. Remember her new technique she learned from Cadence, she closed her eyes, taking in a breath while putting her hoof to her chest, then releasing it while extending her leg. The trick worked once again. Twilight now calmed asked, "What can we do, how can we help?"
"My pupil, this is an even more advanced spell than I thought, a bit complex for me even, but you can help by going on a trip for me." Celestia responded to her pupil with a little more worry to her tone.
"Okay, what trip Celestia, why don't you keep us here to make it easier for you?" Twilight asked a little confused.
"Because my pupil, I have a research facility in the Everfree Forest, it is to research strange spells and their effects. I placed it in the Everfree for two reasons; 1. So no one will stumble upon it and 2. The Everfree gives off strange magic, so that way we are constantly learning about new spells and their effects. Did you know that the teleportation spell was discovered there, in the Everfree?"
For once in Twilight's life, she did not know a fact about such a simple spell. Dumbstruck, she responded, "Really, I thought the origins of the spell are unknown and that it was simply within a unicorn ever since birth."
"That is where you are wrong, but of course, I hid that fact because I didn't want anyone to go into the Everfree searching for new spells and getting themselves killed in the process." Celestia said with a hint in her tone as if to say to Twilight to not go exploring on her own to find new spells.
Getting the hint, Twilight nodded in understanding and asked, "When do we depart?"
Day 1
"Twilight Sparkle here, Princess Celestia has asked me to make video diaries off of the camera's they have here at the Research Facility. I can't say what they are doing here, but I can say things that my friends and I have done here in general, no specifics. Now I have no idea if anyone will watch this, but just to let you know, and yes I am allowed to say this, I am inside Rainbow Dash's body, not my own. There was this spell that I cast that was supposed to be harmless, but due to some complications, I accidentally altered the spell enough to cast a mind swapping spell. Now, I am not going to be the only one who is required to make these video diaries, my friends are going to as well. Now we are asked to do this as much as we can, but to only do it whenever we feel like we need to get something off our chest. To make sure we feel comfortable doing this, the entries will be done inside this tiny room. A room that is sound proof so that way nothing we say can be heard outside. I will be doing these more often than my friends for sure, but I have a feeling they will be doing these a lot as well. One thing though that I want to say before signing off is that I am truly scared, the princess didn't even know what the spell was. She seemed worried as well, and that just had on to my fear. So once again, this is Twilight Sparkle signing off on entry #1."
Upon finishing entry one, Twilight stepped out and took a look at her new home for a while. The Research Facility was known as "Effect", because of the many different spells and effects that happen there. Now the whole facility is completely fenced off on all sides as to prevent any wild creatures from getting in. To add to the creature security, there was a magical spell that would ward off most creatures, but not all. The whole fence covered around 10 acres of land, and the actual facility building took up around half of that. The building was styled where there were 6 domes, each with a unique purpose. There was 1 major dome in the very center with the other 5 branching off like the arms of a starfish. The main dome was where all the research mostly took place. Where there were 2 set aside for bunking quarters, 1 for plants, 1 for gardens, and the other for the extra top secret things.
Now "Effect" was well staffed, with around 100 scientist and 50 guards. The guards were friendly as well as the scientists, who all seem to know each other really well. The scientists weren't all just stallions, but it seemed even amount of mare scientists as well. To Twilight, this was a nice change considering that most professors and scientists she worked with at the castle were all stallions.
Now thinking back to her friends, she began to notice that they haven’t really talked at all, and thinking about it even more, they haven't talked at all since this adventure even began, not even Pinkie, which is really strange. Twilight having finished her journal entry, started in search of at least one of her friends.