Twilight dropped them a few feet onto the floor of the Ponyville Library and stood for a moment, legs trembling. “Sorry,” she panted. “Not used to teleporting quite this much.”
“Hey, I’ve taken worse knocks falling out of bed,” Rainbow Dash shot back. She glanced down at Applejack who’d fallen in a sprawled heap. “So, what’s the plan egghead?”
Twilight didn’t seem to notice the slight. “First, get Applejack upstairs.” Her horn flared as she lifted the unconscious earth pony by the forehooves, Rainbow Dash grabbed the other end before the poor pony dislocated something. “Second,” she continued, heading for the stairs, her friends in literal tow. “Figure out where the spell went wrong. Finally, actually fix the problem.”
“Oh, so we should be done by dinner then,” Rainbow Dash muttered.
The sarcasm went over Twilight’s head by a wide margin. “Well maybe it’ll be an all nighter.” She paused, half way up the stairs. “Hmm, have I crossed off all night study session with friends off my wish list yet?”
“Er Twilight, unconscious AJ here.”
“Right! Sorry.” They hurried up to Twilight’s bedroom. Occupying the bed were the slumbering forms of Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy and on the spare was Rarity, who’s blue mane was being brushed out, tenderly, by Spike.
“Spike!” Twilight snapped, as she set eyes on him. “I told you to stop doing that.”
“But you’d messed it up,” he protested, not taking his smitten gaze off the pony. “She’d be mad if I left it crooked.”
“It’s creepy,” Twilight growled, dumping Applejack on the bed next to Rarity with such force it bounced the little dragon to the floor. “Stop it. Get us something to drink, or get some books or something.”
“Right away Twilight.” He saluted and raced away.
“Now where did I put that chart,” Twilight muttered, wandering over to a cupboard and began rooting through it. Rainbow Dash hovered over to where Rarity and Applejack lay side by side and grinned as she considered the long list of compromising positions she could put them in. It was too bad she didn’t have a camera. Maybe the CMC would be able to get their hooves on one.
“Okay!” Twilight announced, setting down a large easel complete with oversized cards. “To catch you up. Yesterday, I was perusing a number of books Princess Celestia gave me the last time I was in Canterlot.” She removed the first card to reveal a cartoon version of herself reading. “One of the books was a compendium of spells all to do with the mind and the manipulation thereof. I was naturally, very interested and went to show my friends at our weekly get together.” Another slide, this time of her walking to Fluttershy’s.
“Umm, when did you make these?” Rainbow asked, raising a hoof into the air and looking askance at Twilight.
“Please hold all question till the end,” Twilight replied without looking around. “Now, the spell I thought they would be particularly interested in was an astral projection charm that allowed a pony to project their thoughts into another creature.” Another diagram, this time with a large arrow between the cartoon pony and an owl. “I tested this extensively with Owlowicious without a single problem, the spell was even designed to be cast on all types of ponies and controlled with simple mental phonemes.”
Twilight swapped to another slide, that one explaining the word phonemes and Rainbow Dash facehooved. “So, what went wrong?” she pressed.
“Oh, I have no idea,” Twilight admitted, dropping. “Fluttershy wanted to try out the spell on one of her bunnies and, well I thought there wasn’t anything that could obviously go wrong. So we got a bunny, I cast the spell and ‘poof’, I was the bunny. By the time I’d cancelled the spell everypony was like this and a few moments later you knocked on the door.”
Rainbow Dash rubbed her chin. “So, how have you been pretending to be everypony?”
“The spell’s not supposed to work on ponies but while they’re ‘out’ it seems to just allow you to take possession of them.” Twilight shook her head and sighed. “I just can’t understand what went wrong to lose everypony like this, I’ve been casting the spell all afternoon and everything seems to be fine.”
“Well, only one thing for it,” Rainbow Dash declared, puffing herself up. “You’ve got to cast that spell on me.”
“But, we don’t know why it’s going wrong!” Twilight protested whirling. “You could end up lost too.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Duh, but do I have to get ‘element of loyalty’ on a badge or something. Of course I’m going to do anything I can to save them and it’s not like I can help out with the magic in any other way.”
“Thanks Dashie.” Twilight’s eyes misted slightly.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Enough with the mush make with the magic,” Dash said, waving her on.
“Right, well this time let me teach you the escape clause,” Twilight said, pulling another slide to the front of the stack. “It’s really simple, just focus really strongly on a body part you no longer have.” Rainbow Dash cocked her brow at her. “Um... like when I was the rabbit, I just focused on my hooves and I was back in a jiffy.”
“Okay, focus on the weird, gotcha,” Rainbow Dash assured her. “So who do we test this on?”
Twilight glanced over at her sleeping friends. “Hmm, Applejack’s probably best. She’s got no wings so you’ve got something blatant to focus on and you don't muddy the waters with any magic as you would with Rarity. Pinkie Pie is twitchy if you understand what I mean so might throw you out too fast and Fluttershy is too similar and you might get stuck.”
“Right.” Rainbow Dash walked over to where Applejack slumbered. “So do I need to...”
“Just, keep focused on her as I cast the spell,” Twilight replied, standing next to her and kindling her horn. “You may feel a slight discontinuity.”
“What kind of-
For a moment Rainbow Dash felt like she was floating in infinity. It was quite unlike flying; there was no air, no breeze, no land below or sky above, just a bland nothingness that didn’t even have a definable colour. She focused in on the last thing she’d heard, Twilight’s voice telling her to keep calm and in a rush the world returned.
-dis... Whoa!” Rainbow Dash found herself looking at herself. Or her body at least, it stood about two hands away, staring down at Applejack which was not exactly where she’d expected it to be. Fighting the urge to flinch she looked down at her now purple legs and crossed her eyes, staring at a horn still trailing a few errant sparks of magic.
“Argh!” Twilight yelled, backpedaling wildly, blue wings flapping back and forth as she fought to retain her balance. “What? How?” The blue pegasus sat down heavily on her rump and screamed at the ceiling. “This isn’t supposed to be possible!”
“Oh awesome, I’m a princess!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, straining to examine her new form from all angles. Twilight’s body was just taller enough than Dash’s for it to be off putting, but not enough for it to be utterly alien. The sense of a horn between her eyes was weird beyond description but otherwise she had four hooves and wings so at least that was normal.
“You are not a princess!” Twilight cried. “I am the princess! That is my body and I don’t know why you’re in there. You were supposed to be thinking of Applejack.”
“Oh yeah, I may have not quite done that right,” Rainbow Dash admitted, then shrugged. “Though, there may be an upside to this.”
“No, no, no, no,” Twilight shot back. “No upside! An astral projection spell is now swapping bodies and I don’t even know how.”
“Princess Rainbow Dash.” The alicorn grinned, not paying enough attention to the pegasus’ distress. “I quite like the sound of that. Ooo! Does this mean I can get a rainbow kingdom?”
“No rainbow kingdoms for anyone!” Twilight snapped. “Now let’s get this spell reversed so I can figure out what went wrong this time.”
Rainbow Dash shrugged, fluffing out her new wings. “Eh, I was thinking of staying. I’ve got the wings, the magic, the power, the ear of the princess. It’s a pretty sweet deal.”
“Get out of my body!” Twilight stamped her hooves and raised her wings threateningly.
“Make me!” Rainbow Dash shot back, champing.
Twilight paused; an evil grin crossed her face and she seemed to relax all of a sudden. “Well fine,” she drawled, tossing her head and flexing her borrowed muscles. “Maybe I’ll enjoy being the fastest flyer in all of Equestria for a little while.”
“You wouldn’t make it past the first cloud,” Rainbow Dash shot back, spreading her purple wings wide. “Awesome flying is a state of mind, not a state of-ow!” Her wing twinged as she flexed it too far and the alicorn shot it a nasty glare. “Okay, so I might need to do some conditioning. I’ll still be the fastest flyer at the games.”
“Oh no you won't,” Twilight teased. “Princesses aren’t allowed to compete.”
“What?” Dash’s jaw dropped.
“Yeah it’s in the bylaws, something about it being unfair so we just get to watch. But if you-”
“Alright! We’ll swap back,” Rainbow Dash snapped, crossing her arms and pouting. “Stupid bylaws, always ruining my fun.”
“That’s what they’re there for,” Twilight assure her, sitting down opposite the alicorn. “Right, so let’s try and synchronize our return phonemes. Just, focus on how you don’t usually have a horn and keep doing it till we switch back.”
Rainbow Dash sighed. Her chance at being a princess seemed to be slipping away, but it wasn’t like she could have pretended to be Twilight for more than five minutes without going crazy with boredom. Instead she focused on the strange crawling sensation that came from having a horn on her forehead. For a moment she wondered whether it’d be worth trying to cast a spell but Twilight’s magic could than helpful when the expert was controlling it, she didn’t fancy giving herself an extra leg.
“Okay, now just concentrate... There.”
The pegasus shook her head. Then did a double take as she found herself observing at Twilight’s body from the outside.
“Ha! Well what do you know,” Rainbow Dash said, beaming as she checked herself over. “We actually fixed something.”
“No need to sound quite so surprised.” Twilight winced as she shook out her wings. “Ow, what did you do?”
Dash shrugged. “It’s not my fault you’ve got no flexibility in those things. Maybe someone needs to spend more time in the air and less time buried in their lab.”
“I don’t think this is getting us any closer to rescuing our friends,” Twilight snapped.
“Hey, did I miss anything?” Spike called suddenly, climbing the stairs with teaset in hand.
“Well-”
“No!” Twilight cut her off. “Nothing interesting happened.”
“Good, well bad I guess, but good I didn’t miss anything.” Spike placed the tray on Twilight’s bedside table and began to pour out the tea. “Oh, the Crusaders are here.”
“Urgh, I forgot about them.” Twilight turned back to her note cards and dropped her voice. “Rainbow Dash, can you keep them busy for a little while while I deconstruct this spell? I can think of a few ponies that I’d like less to have a body swapping spell but not many.”
Rainbow Dash shuddered. “Agreed. I’m on the case.”
Downstairs the Cutie Mark Crusaders were distracted by the quintet of rabbits they were keeping confined in the center of the library. Rainbow Dash drifted down from the upper floor, a bemused look on her face. “Umm?”
“Hi Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo said, stepping forwards and beaming. “Look what we found.”
The rabbit with it’s arm’s crossed thumped it’s foot against the ground.
“Right, sorry Angel,” Scootaloo corrected herself. “Look who found us.”
Rainbow Dash shook her head, she should have recognised the bunny by the scowl. She floated closer to him. “Right, well Fluttershy is under the weather right now-”
Angel jabbed a paw at one of the other rabbits. The one trying it’s best to hide behind it’s own ears.
“I have no idea what you’re trying to say,” Rainbow Dash admitted. “But when Fluttershy-”
This time, every bunny pointed at the shy rabbit, who smiled, weakly. Rainbow Dash cocked her head and did a slow spin.
“See-” Scootaloo began.
“Hold up, I got this.” She pointed at the shy bunny. “Fluttershy.” The bunny hopping on the spot. “Pinkie Pie.” The bunny with a long loop of plant stems over it’s shoulder. “Applejack.” And the bunny with the flower behind it’s ears. “Rarity.”
Rainbow Dash glanced over at the Cutie Mark Crusaders who beamed in unison. Sighed, then called out. “Twilight! You ended up as a rabbit right, could everypony else ended as rabbits too?”
“Theoretically,” Twilight called back from somewhere in her bedroom.
Everyone waited a beat for Twilight to asked another question. When no question came Rainbow Dash continued, “Twilight, everypony ended up as a rabbit.”
“What?” Twilight stuck her head over the balcony at regarded the scene below. “Oh, you found them!” she exclaimed, elated.
Rainbow Dash looked down at bunny Applejack who shot her a look. “I think it’s fair to say that they found us.” Applejack nodded.
Twilight beamed. “This is wonderful,” she announced, leaping down to ground level with a single flap of her wings. Angel, forwarded or just more experienced escaped her grasping hooves but she swept the rest of the bunnies into a rabbit crushing hug. “I thought I’d lost you guys.”
“Twilight, you might want ease up on the hugs,” Rainbow Dash suggested, making a face that was mirrored by Scootaloo as the rabbits struggled for freedom.
“Right, we can fix things now,” Twilight agreed and hurled herself back into the air. Rainbow Dash followed her through the air followed by the Cutie Mark Crusaders who had to take the stairs. “Now, is everyone where they should be?” Twilight asked, placing each bunny on their respective forms. “Figuratively speaking of course.”
The bunnies watched her expectantly. “Oh right, um well there isn’t a reversal to the spell per say,” she explained, blushing. “Just concentrate on being yourself and you should snap back.” Four pairs of black eyes stared back at her, incredulous. “No, really it is that simple. I probably should have explained before casting-”
“Oh sweet Celestia that was awful,” Rarity exclaimed, sitting up and brushing the bunny from her chest. “All that dirt, and hopping.” The bunny shot her a nasty look and Rarity blanched. “Oh, right. Um, thank you dear,” she said, patting it on the head. The bunny huffed and hopped away.
“I liked it,” Pinkie Pie announced, leaping to her feet. “It was all like. Boing, boing, boing-” She punctuated each word with a bounce.
“Argh, Twilight,” Applejack exclaimed, wincing as she tried to stand. “What did you do to my hip?”
“Girls, you’re alright!” Twilight eyes were more than a little damp as one by one her friends woke up.
“Thank you Angel,” Fluttershy whispered to her bunny companion, as she fluttered out of the bed. Angel looked even more annoyed than normal to see her back on her hooves.
“Oh Twilight,” Applejack sighed. “Why’d-rgh!” She shot her back legs a nasty look. “No seriously, what did ya do?”
Rainbow Dash burst out laughing. “She tried applebucking. It was hilarious.”
“Why did you try applebucking?” Applejack demanded, rounding on the alicorn.
“Because I spent most of the day running around town trying to convince Rainbow Dash nothing was wrong,” Twilight admitted, hanging her head.
Rainbow Dash stuck her hooves on her hips “I still don’t know why you didn’t just tell me.”
“I... kind of panicked,” Twilight sighed. “I know you’re still mad about the cutie mark incident.”
“Yeah, death by rabbits!” Half the room glared at the pegasus and Rainbow Dash sighed. “Fine, I guess I have been dragging that out.”
“See sugarcube, if you’d just told her straight away we could have sorted this whole thing out at Fluttershy’s,” Applejack chided, wrapping an arm around Twilight and smiling.
“I guess.” She sighed again. “Well, looks like this is one for the friendship journal.”
“And Rainbow Dash, did you learn anything today?” Applejack pressed.
Rainbow nodded. “Oh yeah. Twilight’s impressions of everyone are hilarious!” She burst out laughing, rolling around in midair as everyone stared daggers at her.
“What?” she demanded. The next few moments were a blur of many hooves and angry yelling before she found herself thrown bodily through the library’s front door. Experience allowed her to catch herself before she hit the ground and she turned around and shouted back. “Well I thought it was funny!”
Rolling her eyes she glanced at the Ponyville town clock, made sure her mane conveyed the correct level of awesome still and set off like a bolt.
She was late.