“Manaaa-aaa—!” the blue creature cried as it ran to...anywhere, and unknowingly zapped the ponies in the streets with its glowing ears.
“Stop!” Applebloom shouted, chasing after it. ‘For a tiny baby...thing, you sure can run!’ she thought bitterly, as she jumped and dodged the fainting ponies in front of her. “I said stop!” ‘We're gonna be in so much trouble!’
If only the poor creature wasn't crying, it would have recognized one of its parents' voice by now.
“Ung...w-what happened?” Fluttershy rubbed her eyes.
Scootaloo elbowed Sweetie Belle, and whispered, “we can still make a run for it.”
“Why do I feel so weird?” Rarity groaned, eyes swirling.
“We can't hide this forever, you know,” Sweetie Belle whispered back.
“Can anypony please make the room stop spinning,” Applejack groaned. “...and my voice sounds weird...”
“We can pretend that we don't know anything,” Scootaloo nervously whispered back.
Pinkie rubbed her eyes. “Ugh... Pinkie... Please be a dear and don't ever do that again...” She blinked. “Wait... That's not my voice.” She then stared at her hooves. “And these aren't my hooves!”
“AHHHHH!” Rainbow Dash screamed. She grabbed a startled Twilight and held her like a mana gun, pointing at the party pony on the table. “Twilight! It's one of my pond-clones! They're back!”
“I-I'm not Twilight,” Twilight said, voice too soft.
“Quick! Charge that horn of yours and fire!” she pulled the alicorn's tail, making Twilight's face turn red.
“Rainbow Dash!” Spike shouted, glaring at the pegasus.
“What?” Applejack asked, rubbing her eyes.
Spike ignored her. “Stop doing that on me! Wait...” he blinked. “Why am I there while I'm here?”
Everypony on and around the table blinked.
The two fillies by the door gulped. “Three...”
“...two...” They both covered their ears with their hooves.
“...one...”
Granny Smith and Big Macintosh were having a peaceful and quiet evening, enjoying the silence, and especially their meals. The old mare was about to take another sip from her tea when everything slightly shook and faint sounds of screams were heard.
The old mare grinned. “Now that's what I'm talking about,” and she then took a sip.
Big Macintosh rolled his eyes.
“And you should have been there, mister. You're missing the fun your little sister's having.”
Somehow, Big Macintosh doubted that.
“You're me!”
“A-and you're me!”
“Girls!”
“I'm you!”
“But I'm not me!”
“Girls!”
“What the hay happened?!”
“Ohmygoodnessohmygoodnessohmygoodness—”
“I want my body back right now!”
“GIRLS!” Spike shouted at the top of his lungs. He heaved and glared at the mares staring at him.
“...am I considered to be a girl now?” Rarity quietly asked.
“At least my body-self now has glowy-blue eyes!” Rainbow Dash clapped her hooves.
Spike glared at them both.
Rainbow Dash's ears drooped. “Gonna be quiet now...”
“Thank you,” Spike said, before jumping down on the floor, and started climbing up the table. But he can't. “A little help, please?”
“Oh, sure thing, Spiky-wikey,” Pinkie Pie said, and leaned her head forward, expecting something. She blinked. “Uh... Never mind then,” she chuckled nervously.
“Here, sugarcube,” Fluttershy said, and helped the dragon up on the table with gritting teeth. With that done, Fluttershy sighed tiredly as Pinkie Pie carefully stepped down and went back on an empty chair. “Phew... Damn, Fluttershy... You need to workout some more!”
Twilight blushed, and shrank on her seat.
Applejack chuckled. “You have no idea how many times I tried asking Flutters to workout with me and Big Ma—aaaa...” she bit her lip.
Fluttershy furrowed her brows. “Raaaainbow Dash? Are you and my brother doin' somethin' behind my back?”
Applejack blushed, and looked away. “Mmmaybe?”
“Oh my,” Pinkie Pie covered her mouth with a hoof.
Rainbow Dash grinned. “Oh! You have no idea how crazy those two can get! And they can literally try everything in one—mmf!”
Applejack shoved a hoof at her cyan pegasus friend. How she knew about that, she wasn't sure, but she doesn't want to find out either. Or maybe she was just making it up.
Sweetie Belle's pupils shrunk, the information kept on echoing in her head.
Scootaloo was lost.
Twilight blushed and shrunk even further.
“Ahem,” Spike cleared his throat. “Alright everypony. Let's just all calm down and not think of anything else at the moment.”
Fluttershy glared and mouthed ‘we're not done yet’ at the nervously-smiling Applejack.
“We need to figure out what's going on,” the dragon said.
Rarity arched an eyebrow. “Isn't that already obvious, Twilight? Wait... You're Twilight, right?”
“...point taken, Rar—who are you?”
Rarity deadpanned.
Spike blinked. “Spike. Right. Anyway, so we've switched bodies.”
“Or minds.”
“Stop interrupting me, Spike!”
“S-sorry. But can you please stand on two feet? You look weird. I look weird!”
Spike blinked, and looked down. He was standing on his legs and on his hands like a pony. “Oh.” Carefully, he stood up, and wobbled a bit. “T-this is weird... But anyway, now that we know that we swapped bodies, or minds, we need to figure out what caused this.”
Pinkie Pie raised her hoof.
“Yes, Pinkie?”
“I'm Rarity, darling,” Pinkie corrected her. “And I think it's safe to assume that the blue and cute...uh...thing, has caused this.”
Spike nodded. “Sounds about right, since the swap happened after that flash of light or whatever it was.”
Rarity whistled in awe. “I never thought I'd see myself as an intelligent dragon.”
Spike ignored her.
“What was that thing, anyway?” Fluttershy asked.
Spike shrugged. “I have no idea.”
Rarity's ears drooped.
Applejack chuckled, and leaned close to the white unicorn to whisper, “not so smart now, huh?”
Rarity pushed her back with a huff.
“So, what's the plan?” Fluttershy asked.
“We'll try and find that thing that caused this,” Spike said. “After that, we'll figure a way to bring us back to normal.”
Applejack nodded. “Sounds good. Okay! I'm going ahead.” She leaped, and fell on top of Spike on the table. “Ow...”
“Swapped bodies, Rainbow Dash,” Pinkie Pie reminded her.
“Get off of me!” Spike complained as Rainbow and Rarity laughed out loud.
“M-maybe we should split up?” Twilight suggested, voice still low, but loud enough to be heard. “That way, we could cover more ground and also not intimidate the poor thing with our numbers...”
“That's a good idea, me,” Spike said, dusting himself. “Okay, so... We'll split up.” He pointed, “Rarity and Applejack, middle of the town.” He turned and pointed, “Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, the western side of town. ” He turned and pointed again, “Fluttershy and T—me, the eastern side of town. I'm gonna go and find some books that will help us return to normal, just in case. Now let's move!”
The mares all blinked at him.
“Um...” Rainbow Dash scratched her head in confusion. “Am I Rainbow Dash now, or still Pinkie Pie?”
Spike blinked, and groaned. He waved a claw to shoo them. “Just...pair up and decide where you girls wanna search.” He turned, and saw the two fillies by the door. “Er...how long have you two been standing there?”
“Ooohhh...” Lyra groaned, rubbing her aching head. “What happened?”
“No idea...” Bonbon replied back, wincing as she too was rubbing her head.
The two mares were on a bench in the park. What they were doing there in the middle of the night, nopony knows.
Shaking their heads, they finally eased their aching heads a bit to hear faint groaning noises around town, and two sets of hooves running towards them. Turning, the mares saw Fluttershy and Applejack running towards them, skidding to a stop in front of them.
“Sorry to interrupt your date y'all,” Fluttershy said, wiping the sweat on her forehead as she panted for breath. “But any of ya seen a tiny blue abomination 'round here?”
Lyra and Bonbon blinked.
“Blue, about this size,” she raised a hoof, guessing the thing's height, “probably crying, has long arms and a long pair of ears.”
Applejack whistled in awe. How she managed to remember all of that, she wasn't sure.
“Uh... Fluttershy?” Lyra asked, confused. “Are you...feeling alright?”
“Yeah,” Bonbon said, confused as well. “You talk like Applejack. And what's with the weird glowing blue eyes?”
Lyra gasped, horrified. “Eep! Don't tell me your changelings!”
The two elements deadpanned.
“Changelings have green eyes,” Applejack said, shaking her head.
“Oh, right...” Lyra chuckled nervously.
Applejack turned to Fluttershy. “We're wasting time! Come on!”
“Right,” Fluttershy nodded her head, and the two ran towards town. “But after this is over, we're going to have a talk.”
“Alright, alright, sheesh...”
The two mares on the bench blinked. They then looked at each other. They then gasped at the same time. And they then pointed at each other.
“You're me!” they shouted at the same time, looking horrified. They then looked at themselves. “I'm you!” they shouted and turned back to each other, sly grins on their faces.
“You thinking what I'm thinking?” Lyra asked.
Bonbon purred.
“No. No. Not this one—uwaaah! Steady, Scootaloo!” Spike said, leaning on the bookshelf for support.
The dragon and the two fillies were inside the library section of Twilight's castle. The fillies were quite thankful not to get an earful about what they have done. Then again, maybe they will, after they tell everypony what happened.
“S-sorry!” Scootaloo said, standing on her hind hooves for Spike to reach the higher portions of the shelf as the dragon stood on her reddened face.
“What's making you so nervous, anyway?” Spike asked as he pulled a book out and mentally read the title. “I promise that things will return to normal, so don't worry!”
When something is right in front of someone's face, it's hard to avoid not to stare. “R-right... I knew that.”
“Why not just use the ladder, Spike?” Sweetie Belle tapped the said ladder with a deadpan.
Spike blinked. “Huh... I forgot that it was even there...”
Applebloom found the creature by the fountain, in front of two fillies.
‘Of course!’ she thought, ‘we found that thing in the pond! So it's probably an aquea—whatever!’ She was about to call the shivering creature's attention when she finally recognized who the other two fillies were in front of it. ‘Ah, ponyfeathers...’
“Whoops! E-excuse me! S-sorry... Step back! Don't touch me!”
“Seriously, Spike?” Pinkie Pie sighed, watching the white unicorn mare to catch up to her, while carefully not touching anything, except her hooves touching the ground. “I know I don't like to dirty myself, but don't you think you're a little bit exaggerating?”
“S-sorry Pi...Rarity,” Rarity said, finally catching up to the pink mare, and both then started to trot. “I just don't want to ruin your perfectly beautiful body, that's all.”
“I appreciate it, Spikey-wikey,” Pinkie smiled, “I really do, but perhaps you should concentrate more on the task at hoof?”
Rarity slightly shook her head. “I-it's not just that though...”
“Oh?”
“Uh... It's kinda...weird, to be walking on four legs...”
“Well, as long as you don't trip with your own hooves and—”
The unicorn tripped on her own hooves and fell on the ground, face-first.
Pinkie winced. “...w-well, at least we no longer need to worry about getting myself dirty, right?” She blinked. She covered her mouth with a hoof, her cheeks blushing a bit. “Oh my... That sounded wrong...”
“What sounded wrong?” Rarity asked, rubbing her aching face.
“Nothing!” Pinkie replied, a little too quickly. “We should continue looking for the blue little dear now, Spike.”
“Whatever you say, Rarity. But...can I ask a question?”
“Hm?”
“It's kinda a favor than a question though... Well, ever since I became...you, well, I feel a weird feeling of absence...down there...if you know what I mean.”
Pinkie's pink cheeks blushed again.
“A-and I've been itching to loo—”
“No!”
“But my min—”
“No!”
“It really feels wei—”
“I said ‘no’, Spike, and that's final!” Pinkie glared.
“Okay, okay! Sheesh... I'm sorry!”
“Turn us back!” Silver Spoon snarled, her glasses almost falling off of her face. “Turn us back this instant!” she stomped a hoof, her glasses finally fell.
Diamond Tiara quickly snatched it before the ground did. “Careful with these!” she pouted, embracing her glasses.
Silver Spoon glared at her. “Not no—wait,” she blinked, surprised. She gasped. “Gah! My eyes! Everything's blurry!”
“I-it's okay!” Diamond Tiara tried to calm the other filly down. “Just wear these glasses and you should be fine!”
“Glasses? I thought you said your eyes were perfect and those glasses were fake!”
“Psst.”
The sobbing blue creature's ears twitched at that familiar voice. It quickly turned, its crying face immediately replaced by great joy after seeing another weird four-legged...thing, gesturing with a hoof for it to come over.
“Mana!” it cried in joy, quickly running towards Applebloom.
The said filly winced. ‘Well, so much for a silent escape...’
“Momma?” the other two fillies asked after the other placed the glasses over the other's face. They turned, and saw Applebloom scooping the weird creature up.
“You!” Silver Spoon snarled. “What do you think your doing?!”
“Uh...”
The blue creature happily jumped, grabbed the startled filly's face, climbed up, and slid down and settled behind her back. “Mana!”
“I'm not your mama,” Applebloom replied.
“Your its mommy?!” the other two fillies asked, surprised.
“Um...” Applebloom looked around, other ponies looking dumbfounded at her, while trying to ignore the weird thing that was snuggling on her back. “H-hold that thought.” She kicked her hooves and ran away.
Rainbow Dash was cheerfully bouncing on the path, and over groaning ponies and scattered foods and items that littered the ground. Twilight was ever-so-gently gliding beside her friend as she worriedly stared at the poor ponies lying on the ground.
“We should probably help these poor ponies,” Twilight said, fighting the urge to fly to the nearest pony and help.
“We are helping them!” Rainbow Dash cheerfully replied with a big smile. “We're searching for that weird blod thing!”
Twilight's eyes shrunk. “B-b-blood? We're not gonna hurt the little thing, are we?”
Rainbow blinked, and looked up. “Huh. I meant to say ‘blob’. Eh, maybe it was just a typo,” Rainbow shrugged, and bounced along.
Twilight scrunched her face in confusion. “Typo? What?”
Rainbow giggled. “Never mind!”
Twilight frowned, but then returned to look at the ponies everywhere. “W-well, isn't Twilight good with magic?”
“Yeah?”
“M-maybe I could teleport everypony back to their homes?”
Rainbow stopped bouncing and turned to the alicorn. She blinked in an unreadable expression. “You know how to use magic?”
Twilight landed and looked around. “Well, no. But I could try. Rarity and Twilight make it look so easy and natural.” She looked up, trying to stare at her horn. “Since I'm a unicorn now—”
“Alicorn,” Rainbow Dash corrected.
Twilight didn't seem to care. “—temporarily I hope, maybe I just need to feel natural about magic?”
Rainbow blinked. She sat on a groaning stallion's back. “I have no idea what you just said, Fluttershy eks Twilight, but!” she grinned and started scratching her mane. “It sounds like fun to watch! Now where's that popcorn...”
“Why do you have popcorn inside your mane?” Rarity asked as she stared at the popcorn on her hoof.
Pinkie Pie shrugged. “Remember who this body belonged to, Spike.”
Rarity blinked. “Ah, right. I forgot...” She turned the popcorn up-side-down, letting the contents fall on the ground, before giving the bag to the heaving Berry Punch. “Okay, just take it ea—”
The mare dumped her earlier meals inside, making both elements wince and shiver. The mare hiccuped. “Oohhh... W-why does the great and powe—hic!—powerful Trixie feel so...dizzy?”
Rarity and Pinkie Pie blinked.
“Trixie?” Rarity asked. “What are you doing here?”
“Work...part-time...waittre—uurf!” she went back to the bag.
“Awww yeah!” Trixie's excited voice echoed from the bar in front of the trio of mares. “Who's up for round two?!”
Cheering voices could be heard from inside.
Rarity slowly leaned closer to Pinkie. “W-why are we here again?”
“Let's just walk away, Spike.”
“H-help me!”
Applejack and Fluttershy blinked at the frog on a barrel. Why the latter can understand what the frog was saying, she wasn't sure.
“Please! You girls have got to help me!”
Beside the barrel was a brown earth pony stallion, sitting like a frog. Thankfully, for Fluttershy's sake, his two hooves were covering his preciousness. “Crrrrrrrrrroak...” he said with absent eyes, blinking them one at a time.
“Please! Don't just stare at us! Help us!” the frog pleaded, crying.
“...this is getting weirder and weirder...” Fluttershy rubbed her head, already feeling a headache coming.
Applejack blinked. “Uh... Are you saying what I think I'm thinking?”
“Stallion and frog switched bodies...”
Applejack flinched. “Ouch... Lucky there weren't any flies flying around the castle...”
Fluttershy shivered at the thought.
“Get back here!” a filly's voice shouted from behind them.
They turned and saw Diamond Tiara tailing behind an angry Silver Spoon, who was chasing after—
“Applebloom?” Fluttershy blinked.
Applejack gasped. “The blue thing!” She leaped and yelped when gravity reminded her of something. “Ow... I hate being wingless...”
Fluttershy was about to give chase, but the three fillies and a small number of ponies who were chasing them were already too far away. “Dagnabit...”
“Why do you talk like Applejack?” the frog asked.
“Don't you have an important matter to trouble with?” Fluttershy turned and glared at it.
The frog blinked. “W-well... I've always wondered if frogs can breathe underwater.”
Fluttershy rolled her eyes, but then her eyes then landed on her wings. “Hm...”
It was hungry, tired, thirsty and sleepy, but the little blue creature would never say no to a pony-back ride from its mommy.
“Mana!” it cried excitingly.
“I'm not your momma!” Applebloom yelled back, annoyed.
“Get back here!” her pursuer shouted behind her.
“Ahhhhhh!!!” a mare shrieked, thrashing her hooves as she was levitated, dropped, levitated again, thrown side to side, dropped, and etc.
“S-s-sorry!” Twilight apologized, horn fluctuating. “J-just tell me wh-where you live and I'll teleport you there. I pr-promise not to burn you like the rest...” she took a quick glance at the pile of blackened and unconscious ponies, flies swirling above them. And they weren't dead yet, Rainbow Dash assured her.
“Aaahhhhhhhhh!!!”
Rainbow shook her head. “Dunno where that is, even though I already know where everypony lives.”
Twilight's eye twitched, her horn's magic immediately gone.
“Aaahhh—” thud!
Twilight turned to her friend, smiling. “W-well, Pinkie Pie... Can you tell me where that mare lives?”
“I'm a stallion!” the mare shrieked, and then looked down at her hoof that wasn't there. She cried. “I was a stallio-ho-o-ooon!”
Rainbow shrugged. “I dunno. I know where that mare lives, but I have no idea who that stallion inside her head is.”
“Mana!”
Applebloom passed them by.
The mare shrieked again. “N-no! I'm not a mommy! I don't wanna give birth! I don't wanna experience it!”
Twilight gasped. “It's the blue...thing!”
Rainbow gasped, then cheerfully bounced after the fleeing fillies.
Twilight gave chase, but immediately went back and smiled at the sobbing mare. “W-we're gonna help you, and the rest, I promise! You just have to be patient, okay?”
The mare shivered, sobbed, and then looked up at her. “I...I'll try. Thank you, princess.”
“Oh, no. I'm not Twilight.”
The mare blinked. Her eyes watered. She cried. “We're doomed!”
“Gah!” Crash!
A yellow pegasus dived towards the garbage bins in an alleyway, accidentally throwing a screeching stray cat up in the air.
Stifling a giggle, Applejack rushed over and helped the groaning pegasus mare out. “You okay?”
The pegasus glared at her, ignoring the half-rotten banana peel on her head.
The earth pony mare stifled another giggle. “I'll take that as a ‘no’ then.”
Fluttershy shook herself, throwing the gunk off of her. “Remind me to stay on the ground no matter what specie I end up turning into in the future.” That said, she turned and galloped towards where she saw the filly was running.
Applejack galloped close behind.
Rarity scratched her hind leg with the other. She looked at Pinkie Pie, who was busy talking with a few confused ponies on the side of the road. Squinting her brows, she turned and looked do—
“Spike.”
She immediately rose her head back up.
Pinkie Pie just turned to her with a frown, and trotting towards her. “They vaguely saw anything. All they knew was there was a flash, and then they found themselves in another pony's body.”
“Well, that's not helpful,” Rarity smiled nervously.
Pinkie Pie arched an eyebrow, opened her mouth to ask, but her ears twitched, and so was Rarity's, and the two turned towards the noise, and saw Applebloom running towards their direction, being chased by two other fillies, and a few more ponies. The two stepped clear from the path.
“Wasn't that...on her back... Spike!” Pinkie gasped, and galloped after them. “The creature was on Applebloom!”
Rarity stood and waited until Pinkie was out of sight. She smiled, sat down, and finally looked down. “Wow... So that's what a real thing looks like.” She nervously lifted a trembling hoof. “I wonder if—”
“In public? Seriously?”
Rarity froze, pupils shrinking.
Fluttershy was glaring at her, while Applejack was looking away, pretending to not have seen anything.
“Uh...” Rarity gulped. “...I can explain?”
‘I dreamed to become as popular as Rainbow Dash one day...’ Applebloom thought, her hooves burning as she pumped more blood to keep them running. ‘Crowds cheering. Literally be anywhere I go.’
“What is that?”
“It's the thing!”
“What thing?!”
“Eek! Why does that filly have it?!”
“Applebloom?! I should have known...”
“Chase it!”
“Chase them!”
“I want my body back!”
“Me too!”
“But I didn't expect it to be like this!” Applebloom yelled, slightly turning to her left, and just in time too, for a horseshoe passed by from where she was. “Go away!!!”
“Turn us back to normal first!” the mob behind her shouted back.
“Eureka!” Spike exclaimed, quickly pulling a book out and holding it above his head like a trophy. “I've found—uh oh...” Because of his haste, he was slowly leaning backward, dangerously close to falling down to the floor from the ladder he was on. “Waaahh—” but thankfully, he was only on the first step of the said ladder. He blinked as he laid on the cold crystal-like floor. “...oh.”
Scootaloo chuckled, and offered a helping hoof. “You okay, Twilight?”
“Eheheh...” Spike chuckled nervously, accepting the offered hoof. Now on his feet, he opened the book and started looking for the right spell, the two fillies stood behind him and looked over his shoulders. “Let's see... Tee, tee, tee... Transfer! There you are. Transfer items... Transfer kidneys?” She flipped to the next page. “Ah, here it is. Transfer minds! Hm...”
He skipped the magic's introduction and history section, and read straight into the application theory.
He licked his lips. “Hm... Sounds easy enough. Okay!” He took a deep breath, exhaled to calm his nerves, and closed his eyes.
The two fillies behind him blinked, and then looked at each other, confused.
Sweetie Belle tapped his shoulder.
Spike's closed eye twitched.
Sweetie Belle tapped his shoulder again.
“Not now, girls,” he grunted. “I'm concentrating.”
“On what, exactly?” Scootaloo asked.
Spike sighed and turned to them. “I need to see if this spell works.”
“How, exactly?” Sweetie Belle pressed.
“Magic, of course!” Spike rolled his eyes. “Now, if you please just let me concentrate?”
Sweetie Belle sighed. “Twilight, no offense, but you seem to have a memory of a goldfish.”
“What's that supposed to mean?”
“You're inside Spike's body,” Scootaloo pointed out.
Spike blinked, and then looked at one of his claws that held the book. “Ah...right... I forgot...”
“Again,” Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes.
“Yes... This is a problem. Hm...” he turned to the unicorn filly. He opened his mouth, hesitated, closed it, blinked, and asked, “...you're not Sweetie Belle, are you?”
“Nope,” was Sweetie Belle's simple reply. “I'm Applebloom.”
Spike nodded, and turned to Scootaloo.
“Sweetie Belle,” the pegasus filly said.
Spike nodded. “Right. No use waiting here and doing nothing then...” He walked passed the two fillies, heading to the doors. “Let's move back down and wait for the others.
The three descended the second floor by the stairs and went to the table. Spike sat on Twilight's chair, blinked, went down again, went behind the chair, pushed the chair closer to the table, went back, and laid the book on the table.
“Phew...” Spike wiped his forehead as the other two fillies sat on a chair close to him. “Right. I guess we should start training Applebloom how to be a unicorn.”
“What?” the unicorn filly blinked. “Why?”
“Well, for one, you're a unicorn. Two, we need to test and see if this spell will work. Three, there are no other unicorns here at the moment.”
“Can't you just write Princess Celestia a letter, asking for help?”
Spike nodded. “I'll do that if there will no longer be any other options left for me to try. I'm a princess now, and I should practice responsibility and not always depend on my teacher.”
Sweetie Belle nodded. She admired the princess' sense of responsibility. ...wait.
The filly chuckled, interrupting Spike's and Scootaloo's discussion.
“Sorry,” the unicorn filly chuckled lightly. “I just find the thought of Spike being a princess rather silly.”
Scootaloo blinked, then giggled. “Heheheh. Wouldn't that be funny?”
“It won't be if the effect is permanent and can't be fixed with magic, which I doubt that it couldn't,” Spike said, reading the spell. “There aren't really any other ways to switch minds other than magic, so I am one-hundred percent sure that—what's that noise?”
The castle's tall double doors were open, and the three craned their necks to see what was outside, which was Applebloom, running towards the castle, while being chased by a large group of angry ponies.
The two fillies' ears drooped, nervously turning to Spike.
Spike closed his eyes, took a breath, and sighed. “Inner peace...”
Chaos entered, but Discord was in another castle, unfortunately.