//------------------------------//
// Ponies Against the Witch 
// Story: MLP: Journey Across Time 
// by B. J. Williams 
//------------------------------//

	The ponies had various dreams that night. Pinkie Pie was having a dream about her babysitting the Cake twins. Applejack was having a dream about being with her family during Applebucking season. Rarity was having a dream about selling loads of dresses at her dress shop. Fluttershy was having a dream about the chibi bears. Twilight was dreaming about being back home. Rainbow Dash... you don't want to know.
Basil woke up early that morning; he was hearing something that sounded like monkey chant coming from the girls' room. He went over to the girls room and opened the door. He discovered the girls were still sleeping, but he also discovered a witch. It was a dark gray rhino wearing animal skins and it wore what appeared to be a fire-shaped mask with spikes on the side. On his arm was a magical amulet that shined an orange light. It was casting magic through his sasando.
"Hey!! Who are you!?" Basil shouted. This didn't wake the girls. The witch doctor saw him.
"Damn, I've been spotted." the rhino thought.
"I command you to stop this sorcery." Basil stated as he drawn his sword and he began to clash with the witch. As this is going on, Rarity got up and removed her blindfold.
"What's going on here?" Rarity stated. But Rainbow Dash's voice came out of her mouth. Basil saw Rarity and was all confused. The witch saw her too.
"Shit, they're waking up." the witch stated. "And he flew out the window on a flying gong."
"This isn't over yet." Rarity stated as she followed her.
"Wait, Rarity." Basil stated. "Don't jump out of the…" Rarity jumped out of the window, fell two stories, and hit the trash cans below. "…window." Rainbow Dash woke up.
"Oh Rainbow Dash, will you stop making all of that bloody noise?" Rainbow Dash stated. Rarity's voice was coming out of her mouth. "I'm trying to get my beauty sleep." Then, she lay back down. Basil went over to the window.
"Oh Rarity. Why did you jump of the window?" Rainbow Dash got up.
"What are you talking about? I'm Rarity."
"No, you're Rainbow Dash."
"Hey, I'm Rainbow Dash." Rarity stated as she was getting back up. Fluttershy got up and walked towards them.
"What in tarnation is going on over here?" Fluttershy asked. But Applejack's voice was coming out of her mouth. Basil and Rainbow Dash looked at Fluttershy.
"Wha?" they both stated at the same time. They looked at her funny.
"What? Was it somethin' I said?"
"No, it's not that, Fluttershy." Rarity said.
"I ain't Fluttershy, I'm Applejack." Pinkie Pie got up.
"What's going on?" Pinkie Pie asked. Twilight Sparkle's voice was coming out of her mouth. Twilight Sparkle got up.
"Are we playing a game?" Twilight Sparkle asked; however, Pinkie Pie's voice was coming out of her mouth. "What are we playing? Can I play?" Twilight noticed.
"What the…" Then, the two noticed each other and were frightened by this.
"HOLY SHIT!" The two of them stated at the same time. "What happened to us? Did we just switch bodies?"
"Apparently." Basil replied to the both of them. Then, Rainbow Dash (in Rarity's body) came into the room; she was covered in trash.
"Switching bodies?" she replied. "That is the most retarded thing I heard all day."
"AHH!" Rarity (in Rainbow Dash's body) screamed. "You messed up my beautiful mane." Rarity ran over to clean up her mane.
"Don't touch my mane, Rainbow Dash." Rainbow, at the moment, realized what she noticed. "HOLY CRAP! I'm in Rarity's body?" Twilight could only nod. "NO! THE GIRLINESS! IT BURNS!"
"I don't wanna look." Applejack (in Fluttershy's body) stated as there was a pony still under her blanket. She pulled the blanket and saw Fluttershy in her body. At that moment, Fluttershy woke up. She screamed and fainted. "I knew it but I didn't wanna believe it. I can't believe I switched bodies with Fluttershy. How did we get in this mess?"
"Well," Basil stated. "When I came in, I saw a witch using magic. So, maybe…"
"Did you get a good look at it?"
"I could tell it was a rhino." Then, suddenly Crash came in.
"Somebody saw a rhino?" Crash said.
"Crash, you're here." Basil stated. "We need your help."
"We ended up switching bodies by some unknown magic." Twilight stated to Crash.
"What I sound like?"
"It sounded like monkeys."
"Basil, was the witch a rhino with a sasando?"
"Yes." Basil replied.
"I know who was responsible."
"Who?"
"It is the infamous witch, Buruk Badak. We will need to find this witch if we are to restore you six back to normal."
"But how do we find her?" Applejack asked.
"Well, the witch can't be too far off. He is somewhere casting some magic mayhem."
"Wait, if the rhino is a dude. Shouldn' he be a warlock?"
"Don't blame me for naming him a witch. Blame the author." he paused. "My horn is sensitive to magic and he normally leaves a trail behind him." He scanned the area. "That way." He pointed.
"Let's go!" Applejack turned to Basil. "Basil can you stay here and look after the fillies while we're gone?"
"Do I really have much of a choice?" Basil replied. "I don't even know how to raise kids."
"I'll stay behind and teach you." Pinkie Pie explained. "I have baby-sitting experience." The others headed off. Rainbow Dash fell out of the window again in an even more hilarious manner.
"Honestly Rainbow," Rarity stated. "I don't know you are able to handle a rainbow-colored mane. It's just… well… gay." So the mane six ponies that went out found the witch…
"Ahem." Applejack stated to the narrator. I meant to say warlock. "That's better." Eventually, they find the warlock trying to escape. "Hold it, right there." The warlock turned around.
"So, how did you like my spell?" Badak asked. "It truly must have been a flop." He chuckled.
"You change us back to normal, right now."
"Is that what you want?" He paused. "Well, you need to fight for it." Then, he summoned a couple of giant wasps using his magic. The yellow and black wasps were about the same size of ponies. They had two sets of insect wings.
"Twilight, can't you zap them with your lightning magic?"
"I've ended up switching bodies with Pinkie Pie." Twilight replied. "I can't do magic in Pinkie's body."
"Oh crap." At that moment, Pinkie Pie arrived.
"Never fear, Pinkie Pie is here." Pinkie Pie launched an ice spell but completely missed the wasps. It struck some magical amulet Badak was using. Because of that happy accident, the girls were back in their original bodies. "Hey I'm back to normal." The ponies looked around.
"Same here." The other ponies stated simultaneously.
"I don't know about you girls." Applejack stated. "But I feel like beating the crap out of that warlock."
"I ain't stopping you." Twilight said.
"How can you possibly beat me without any magic?" Badak asked. "Wasps… get them."


[Cue Boss Theme from FFIV]

The wasps charged (as in flew at the girls). Twilight zapped a giant hornet killing it. Unfortunately, she got stung by a different one and poisoned her. Fluttershy summoned Leviathan to help against the bugs.
"Leviathan, can you help us out?" Fluttershy asked.
"Of course, mi'lady." He replied. "Any of you bugs thristy?" Then, a lot of water splashed down on the wasps defeating two of them. Rainbow Dash distracted s few of them diverting them from Rarity. Then, her cross spear came around to chop the wasps in two. Rarity aided Applejack in making an opening to stop Badak by killing one of the wasps. Applejack went into the hole and Pinkie Pie followed after her. After seeing this, Badak summoned a whole swarm of them to block their exit and to prevent any more ponies from coming in.
"Hmm. You are the challengers." he stated.
"That's right." Applejack replied. "It's time to kick your ass."
"Yeah," Pinkie Pie stated. "And we aren't talking about a donkey either." Badak chuckled.
"Well, we will see who kicks whose ass." he replied to them. He jumped into the air and cast down Bio. A green goo came from his three-toed uh… arms and splashed down to them. Both of them dodged. Applejack pulled out the gun and fired a few rounds. The bullets hit him; he grabbed the arm that was hit. "Lucky shot." At the time, Pinkie got close enough and stole something from him. "Hey. Stop that, thief." Pinkie Pie leapt back to look at what she got. She saw she got three glowing red down feathers.
"Wait, feathers? That's it? I thought I get something more valuable." she said. Badak used physical attacks on her but she dodged each one. This irritated him. He got the two of them with a shadow spell temporarily blinding them. The swarm that he sent earlier was clearing out. Twilight Sparkle was very weak at this point and fell over dead. Fluttershy was hurt and Rainbow Dash was poisoned.
"Hmph. Try dodging this." Badak cast 'death' on Pinkie Pie. A grim reaper pony appeared sucking Pinkie Pie close to him. Then, he struck Pinkie with his scythe instantly killing her.
"PINKIE!" Applejack shouted. "How am I supposed to face this guy?"
"Simple. You can't."
"I must defeat him in order to avenge Pinkie." she thought. "But how am I going to?" In the meantime, the swarm cleared out.
"Leviathan, can you check what's wrong with Twilight Sparkle?" Fluttershy asked.
"She's dead." He replied.
"No, not Twilight too." Applejack thought. "I need to think of something fast before the entire party drops dead." She thought and she got an idea. Badak was going to launch another shadow spell. But before he could, Applejack threw a flashbang at him and it detonated.
"AH, MY EYES!" As his vision cleared, he noticed Applejack charging at him.
"This is for my friends!" Applejack shouted. She slashed at him with the bayonet at the end of her gun furiously. Then, the final blow she did was a thrust to the forehead. "Think about adding gunpowder." Then, she fired a powered up shot at point blank range. This, literally, blew his brains out as the bullet came out the other end. He dropped several items; one of the items was a dark orange orb (element of deceit). "So, this guy was a bearer of an element of chaos as well?"


[Music Fades]

She, then, sighed in grief as she turned to her fallen friends and a weak Rainbow Dash.She put down her gun and went over to Twilight and Pinkie Pie. Their bodies were as cold as death itself.
"Pinkie. Twilight. I'm sorry. If only I could have beat him sooner." Applejack stated. "If only…" Then, she noticed a bag was moving. Fluttershy went over to it and opened it up. A white winged bunny with very short ears and a long tail appeared. There was a gem in the middle of its head.
"Oh, thank you for rescuing me" it said. "My name is Carbuncle."
"Hi, I'm Fluttershy." Fluttershy stated very sad.
"What's wrong?"
"Two of my friends are dead and was poisoned and near death too." Fluttershy almost burst into tears. "I don't want to lose anymore." She started to cry.
"Let me have a look." She went to Rainbow Dash and saw she was poisoned. Carbuncle lifted her tail and placed the tip on her forehead. "Now, this won't hurt a bit."
"This… is… going to be weird… Isn't it." Rainbow Dash stated.
"Esuna." The gem on her head began to glow a greenish color. Then, Rainbow Dash's poison was removed through her tail.
"Okay, that was awkward." She had a confused face. Then, Carbuncle went over to the deceased Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie. She put her tail on Pinkie Pie's head.
"Raise from your slumber, ponies." Then, the gem on her head began to glow red. Then, Pinkie Pie was revived. She continued to do the same with Twilight Sparkle. The two were back to normal but felt very weird. Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped.
"Wait, you mean to tell me that we can't even take death seriously anymore?"
"Death is still a serious matter. That's why they create Phoenix Downs."
"What's a phoenix down?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"It's right in your hooves." Pinkie looked at the feathers she got.
"Those are it?"
"Yep."
"That doesn't make any sense." Twilight Sparkle explained. Afterwards, they got back to the manor. Twilight Sparkle was outside and Basil walked up to her.
"Hey." Basil stated.
"Hi." Twilight said.
"I heard about your near death experience."
"Yeah, that is embarrassing."
"I feel sorry you had to go through that, I feel guilty for not being there."
"You had to do what you had to do."
"I hope this will make up." Then, from behind his back, Basil gave Twilight a banquet of flowers.
"Oh Basil, they're beautiful. Thank you."
"You're welcome." Basil blushed from this.
"You're very sweet." They gazed into each others' eyes as they held hooves. A romance was about to blossom. Then, a pegasus messenger appeared.
"Excuse me," he said. The two looked at him. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."
"You weren't." Twilight stated sarcastically. "What is it?"
"It is a telegram from King Alvhest of Icerim."
"What is the message?" The messenger pulled out the telegram.
"Dear Basil Rodelero XIV. Stop. I have herd of your group's deeds at Baia Mare and Kitsunejima. Stop. We are in desperate need of assistance. Stop. We need the best pegasus in your group to help the Valkyrie. Stop. I only hope that you can help us soon. Stop." The messenger put the telegram away.
"Why does these telegrams be awkward in messages?"
"Either way, the ponies of Icerim need the Confederacy's aid." Basil replied. "It is one of the provinces in the nation." He turned to the messenger. "Did you contact the king?"
"The king was too busy at the moment." the messenger replied. Basil sighed.
"We'll talk to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. I hope they are up for this." So after discussing this with the two pegasi, the two agreed to go with the messenger back to Icerim.