*BOOM*
“Mmph…” Blueblood was roused from his slumber and got up, angrily grumbling, “What is making that infuriating racket?!”
Sighing, he got out of his king-sized bed and went over to his full-length mirror, seeing his bed-mane. Huffing, he concentrated and a brush and comb levitated over. He made quick work of the mess of his mane, taming it back into its regal style, making Blueblood flash his dashing smile, “Now who’s that handsome devil?”
“A pompous blowhard comes to mind!”
Groaning, Blueblood looked to see Soarin leaning against his bedroom doorway.
“It was open, and the thunder woke me up too.”
“Isn’t it kind of early for a thunderstorm?” Blueblood inquired.
“Now that you mention it, yeah,” Soarin gestured Blueblood to follow him downstairs.
Upon reaching the living room, they noticed it oddly dark.
“I thought it was morning!” Blueblood looked at the clock.
“It is!” said Soarin as the blue pegasus threw open their front door and they both gasped at what they saw! Their front lawn looked like winter had come early, and the sky above looked like a chessboard-patterned mess of an unnatural disaster!
“Either Dashie and Thunder are butting heads over at the weather office…” Soarin was beginning to worry.
“...or something is very wrong in Ponyville!” agreed Blueblood.
“I’m gonna go check on Dashie,” Soarin stated.
“I'll head over to Rarity’s store!” responded Blueblood.
The two roomies split up, Soarin flew up cautiously towards the sky, and looked around for any pegasi from the weather team, when a dark gray blur swerved not too far from his position. Furrowing his eyes, he saw, “Thunderlane!”
Thunderlane was ducking and weaving through the messed up weather, trying in vain to get the situation under control. Soarin flew over to him, yelling, “Celestia’s teats, Thunderlane! What is up with this crazy weather?!”
“Ask her!” Thunderlane pointed down to a bridge and Soarin could see a familiar white unicorn mare with a purple styled mane.
“She’s using her magic to… stylize the airspace above Ponyville! See if you can talk sense into her, I gotta try and clean up this mess!”
Soarin nodded and quickly flew down and confirmed it was, “Rarity! Stop this right now!”
“I simply cannot, Soarin!” Rarity narrowed her eyes as she concentrated on the weather clouds. “I must obey my destiny!”
Then, Soarin was blown when he saw upon Rarity’s flank a cutie-mark that should not be there! Specifically, a red, yellow, and blue lightning bolt coming from a cloud.
“Rarity! What’s with that mark?! And where’s Rainbow Dash?!” Soarin yelled over the roar of the wind.
“I assume she’s at her cottage near the Everfree Forest!” Rarity answered
Blueblood shivered as he ran through a flurry of frost as he made his way towards Carousel Boutique. But upon arrival, he was surprised to see, “Macintosh?!”
“Blueblood! What’re ya doin’ here?” Big Mac asked.
“Soarin and I woke up to this crazy weather and I came here to see if Rarity was safe,” Blueblood explained.
“Well Ah woke up t’ find Pinkie Pie on mah farm, doing chores an’ with mah sister’s cutie-mark on her flank instead o’ her own!” Big Mac replied, sounding anxious as he added, “Not only that, Midnight’s missin’! When Ah asked if Pinkie knew where he was, she din’ know who in th’ hay Ah was talkin’ about!!”
“Oh Goddess!” Blueblood threw open the door to the boutique, calling, “Rarity, love! Are you here, are you alright?! ”
But then both stallions gasped to see the boutique was filled with mannequins garbed in the most hideous, poorly-made, and horrendous excuses of garments they’d ever had the misfortune to lay eyes on.
“Oh goddess…!” Blueblood sighed as his horn flared, bringing over Rarity’s fainting couch for him to faint onto.
“Rarity!” Big Mac called, only to be answered by a voice he knew except it didn’t belong to Rarity.
“Big Mac, can’cha see Ah’m busy?!”
Big Mac and Blueblood shared a troubled look and hurried into the backroom to find Applejack, hunched over a sewing machine, a piece of fabric getting backed up as she anxiously tried to fix her mistake. But what startled them was upon AJ’s flank was not her trio of apples but a triskelion of blue jewels!
“Applejack! Wha’ in th’ hay are ya doin’ in Rarity’s shop?!” Big Mac demanded.
“Rarity’s shop? Ah think y’all mean mah shop,” Applejack huffed as she struggled to get the fabric out of the sewing machine.
“Ugh, Applejack, I think… you're not yourself at the moment,” Blueblood grimaced at this hideously-done outfits surrounding Applejack. “Also, in case you haven't heard, but Midnight seems to have disappeared.”
“Blueblood, Big Mac, Ah gotta lot o’ work on mah hooves, an’ Ah don’ have time t’ help y’all look for somepony Ah don’ even know!”
That scolding made Big Mac and Blueblood share a troubled look as Applejack glared at them, “Now git!”
Big Macintosh and Blueblood exited the boutique, the former saying, “First Pinkie, and now mah sister, and neither o’ them even know Midnight?!”
“It’s as if… they never knew him at all,” Blueblood agreed in worry. “and it seems they think that they’ve had these mismatched cutie-marks all their lives!”
“We gotta find out more,” Big Mac declared, “see if th’ other girls are like this, and we gotta find mah brother!”
“If Pinkie Pie isn’t baking at Sugarcube Corner, I wonder who is,” Blueblood brought up, and they both had troubled ideas. “Let’s get over there!”
And the two stallions hurried off, ignoring the messed up weather.
Soarin landed near what was supposed to be Fluttershy’s cottage, except Rarity had told him it belonged to Rainbow Dash!
“Soarin!”
He looked and saw Twilight and Spike coming up the path.
“Twilight! Have you noticed the crazy weather?!” Soarin asked.
“Yes, and I saw Rarity with Rainbow Dash’s cutie-mark!” Twilight confirmed.
“I still don’t know why she woke me up. I love sleeping in the rain," Spike yawned.
“This isn’t about the weather, Spike!” Twilight admonished as the three of them walked the path. “Rarity has Rainbow Dash’s cutie-mark!”
“And she even said this is Dashie’s cottage!” Soarin added as they stepped up to the door. Knocking, he said, “Something weird is happening!”
The door creaked open, and sure enough Rainbow Dash, looking troubled, poked her head out, a commotion could be heard inside.
“Hey guys…”
“Dashie! Why’s Rarity doing your job?” Soarin asked, but before Rainbow could answer they heard a loud thudding, instantly getting Rainbow’s attention as she hurried back in.
Twilight edged the door before she demanded, “And what in Equestria is going on in-”
They gaped at the circus going on inside, animals, birds, critters, all over the place, running amuck, going totally wild! Rainbow Dash flew after a bird that zoomed into a mouse hole, Rainbow crashing headfirst, and the friends gasped to see upon her flank was a trio of pink butterflies!
“First Rarity has Rainbow Dash’s cutie-mark…!” Twilight started.
“And now Dashie has Fluttershy’s?!” finished Soarin.
Meanwhile, Big Macintosh and Blueblood had arrived at Sugarcube Corner as several disgruntled ponies left, muttering in dissatisfaction.
“Was she serious?!”
“That was just embarrassing to watch!”
“I wasn’t amused in the slightest.”
The two stallions shared a confused look.
“Hold on one apple-pickin’ minute, if Pinkie’s over at mah farm, doing mah sister’s chores…”
“Then who's here at Sugarcube Corner trying to do Pinkie’s shtick?” Blueblood nodded in agreement.
“Wait! Please come back!”
They looked and saw Fluttershy at the bakery doorway, calling after the ponies who had just left.
“I- Uh, I have… balloon animals!”
She took a balloon and started blowing, only to run out of breath after only two attempts to blow it up, the balloon sputtering as it zoomed out of her hold, and landed on Blueblood’s nose.
“Fluttershy?” Big Mac addressed her, Fluttershy looking at him with a shameful frown.
“Oh Mackie… I’m… not having the best of days,” she said as she went back into the bakery, but both Mac and Blue gasped! On Fluttershy’s flank was a trio of blue and yellow balloons!
“Her too?!” Blueblood wiped the balloon off his nose. “All right, this is getting ridiculous! This is obviously some kind of strange magic at work, we should go see Twilight!”
“Let’s get over t’ th’ library!” Big Mac agreed.
Twilight, Spike, and Soarin arrived at the library almost exactly the same time as Big Mac, Blueblood, and Thunderlane.
“Twilight! Something’s gone horribly wrong, Applejack’s running the boutique!”
“Rarity’s messing up the skyline!”
“Dashie’s on the verge of an animal uprising!”
“Pinkie’s messin’ up mah farm, and mah `Shy is makin’ a dang fool o’ herself! But even worse!”
“What could be worse than all of this?!” Twilight whined.
But she was answered by silence, and looked at the stallions, all looking unsure and afraid to answer.
“Guys…? What’s wrong? What could be worse than all of-”
Then something crossed Twilight’s mind, something she hadn’t thought about since running into Rarity earlier that morning.
“Big Mac… where’s Midnight?”
Looking slightly relieved to hear Twilight say that, but knowing he had to tell her, Big Macintosh walked up to Twilight, and said, “Twi… Midnight’s disappeared. An’ it seems all th’ girls `cept you don’t even know who he is!”
Gasping in horror, Twilight threw open the library door and ran in, Spike following with the guys in tow as he asked the million bit question(s).
“What’s going on, why is this happening?!”
“Last night, I got a special delivery from the princess!” Twilight explained as the guys all crowded into the library. She levitated up a message and Blueblood took it, reading it aloud, the stallions and Spike listening with rapt attention.
“
‘Dear Twilight Sparkle,
The spell contained on the last page of this book is Star Swirl the Bearded’s secret unfinished masterpiece. He was never able to get it right and thus abandoned it. I believe you are the only pony who can understand and rewrite it.
Princess Celestia’
.
"Twilight what's this book and spell that my aunt sent you?”
Twilight levitated up the book in question and they saw it looked more like a notebook, with a dark cover showing two stars and a swirly pattern. She opened the book and held it up for them to see, adding, “Don’t say it aloud!”
The guys looked at the spell, it read:
‘From one to another
Another to one
A mark of one’s destiny
Singled out alone, fulfilled’
“That doesn’t make sense,” Blueblood protested as Twilight put the book down. “It doesn’t even rhyme!”
“I was confused by that too,” Twilight admitted, “which is why I cast the spell to find out what it was. But nothing seemed to happen.”
“Well I think it’s as obvious as a checkboard of bad weather that something did happen!” Thunderlane snapped while pointing out said checkerboard of bad weather through the window.
“You’re right!” Twilight wasn’t looking at them, she was looking at, “The Elements of Harmony! Somehow, the spell affected them, and through their connection, our friends were affected by the spell as well!”
The guys looked at the elements set in the display case, and noticed the jewels on each element except for Twilight’s was the wrong color!
The Element of Honesty was purple.
The Element of Kindness was blue.
The Element of Laughter was orange.
The Element of Generosity was red.
The Element of Loyalty was pink.
But it was the Helm of Faith that made their blood run cold!
The pentagon-shaped white jewel on it… was black!
“But Twilight! All the girls’ elements are a different color, like how they’ve got the wrong cutie-marks,” Soarin pointed out, “but Midnight’s element’s jewel has turned from white to black!”
Suddenly, the pieces began to fit together as Twilight realized in horror, “The spell affected Midnight differently because he didn’t have a cutie-mark…!”
The guys felt their hearts sink as they saw Twilight’s eyes well up with tears.
“Guys…! I-I made Midnight disappear!”
“How could you…?!”
All eyes turned to the doorway, and they saw a heartbroken Twinken.
“Twinken!” Twilight whispered in horror, He must’ve heard the whole thing!
“How could you?!” Twinken began to cry, “You always told me how magic is a power to be respected, so how could you be so stupid as to cast a spell that isn’t complete?!”
“Twinken!” Big Mac scolded, but the colt ignored him as he glared at Twilight with sobbing eyes.
“You made my big brother go away!” Twinken let out a heart-wrenching sob as he screamed with all his might, “I HATE YOU!!!”
“Twinken!” Twilight called after him as Twinken ran away, crying his eyes out.
Twilight slumped to the ground, having never felt so awful as the guys stood there, uncertain of what to do or say. They couldn't tell her it would be okay, because none of this was okay. And they couldn't even be sure if it would be.