Role Reversal

by JaketheGinger


Rounding up the Gang

Spike was in immense disbelief. Staring at him was Twilight Sparkle, who was far younger than she should’ve have been. She tilted her head in confusion, eyebrows furrowed.

“What? It’s just me.” She stated bluntly, completely bewildered by the dragon’s strange reaction.

Spike was many things, but he wasn’t an idiot. He knew that if he told the truth about his predicament, Twilight would think he’d gone completely mad. He needed an excuse.

He tried to regain his composure, closing his mouth shut and narrowing his eyelids slightly in an attempt to look normal. He slowly rose from the floor, standing firm on his two legs. Unfortunately, thinking of an excuse was not so easy.

“Uh...I was being random,” he bluffed. “To see your reaction. Um...keep you on your hooves, you know?”

That was a terrible excuse and Spike knew it. His attempt to cover up his reaction was further hindered by the fact that even as a filly, Twilight was amazingly intelligent. She probably wouldn’t buy this.

“...okay then.” Twilight responded, after a long pause. Her attention was then brought to the now empty bowl. “Well that was quick!” she chimed, trotting over to the table.

Spike then realised something. At first, he thought that Twilight was an incredibly small filly but upon looking around his surroundings he found that everything was smaller than it should be. Either his wish had made everything shrink or he had a huge growth spurt. He needed a mirror just to make sure.

Thankfully, his situation made escaping to be alone much easier. Twilight was now at his command and would unquestionably follow his orders.

“I’m going to find a mirror, just to make sure I look good for the day. Go clean up would ya?” Spike commanded, trying to hide a grin. This was different.

And he liked it. A lot.

Twilight nodded rapidly and set to work cleaning the bowl. Interestingly, she used her mouth to move the item from the table to the sink. Spike thought nothing of this however and proceeded to Twilight’s study room.

Formerly Twilight’s; it was his now.

Spike entered the room and peered around, searching for the mirror. He soon found it resting against the bottom of the bookshelves.

He cautiously approached it, fearing that his body may have changed in horrible and weird ways. Thankfully, his reflection proved that there was nothing to fear.

He had grown to the point that his eye-level was now equal to that of most of the adult ponies in Ponyville. His crest of spines on his head had also been enlarged, looking very impressive now.

His limbs had also compensated for the change. His arms were more than double their original size and it was apparent that they were longer than his legs. That said, his legs had also grown, no longer being the stubby, pathetic limbs that had been before.

The best part of all this was the fact that he didn’t feel compelled to hoard things. The initial shock of his new state had been washed over by joy and curiosity. Spike had connected the dots; he had clearly swapped lives with Twilight. Therefore, it would only make sense for him to have her friends too. He wondered what else he had gained from this transaction of roles.

“Are you alright?” Twilight asked, standing in the entryway. She had interrupted Spike’s train of thought so once again, he was caught off guard. He was quicker to recover this time though.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He replied, thinking of what to do with the filly. The sudden rush of thoughts inside Spike’s mind was starting to become too much to bear. He needed a walk; fresh air would clear his head.

“I’m going for a walk.” He said casually, walking to the entryway, forcefully (but not brutally) budging Twilight out of the way. “I’ll be back at...some point. Until then...well, I think you know what to do.” He continued, heading down the stairs and leaving the library, grinning wildly. He just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to mimic what Twilight had said to him the previous day. He finally felt superior to her.

He energetically swung open the door and slammed it behind him as he left the building. He almost jogged into Ponyville, leaving Twilight behind to do her work.

Twilight sighed as she heard the door slam. She was never a fan of loud, sudden noises. She wasn’t a fan of many things that were sporadic or unexpected. Living in a library almost your whole life (and before that, a castle) had made the outside world seem like a daunting and scary place. The library was her sanctuary. She knew what would happen in here everyday.

Before she started her work, however, there was one thing that she felt compelled to do. She gazed at the mirror, reluctantly heading towards it. She knew that what she saw wouldn’t be anything different from what she saw yesterday but she needed to check again. She had to.

Just in case.

She watched her reflection creep in from the mirror’s edge and stared at the same place she always looked at when she was in the mirror. She sighed deeply, taking in the truth once more.

She was a blank flank.

_____________________________________________________________

Spike had made his way to the Ponyville Park in order to calm himself. He had practically skipped there with a ridiculous smile on his face, which of course caught the attention of many mystified ponies.

The Park was a quiet place, with only a few ponies dotted about. Some quietly conversed with their friends whilst others were alone in their thoughts. Spike ignored them and plonked himself on a bench.

It was a bright, sunny day with no clouds above to block the beautiful blue sky. Spike lay down on his back and basked in the Sun’s glow.

He felt so free, more than he ever had been before in his entire life. It felt like he could do almost anything! Of course, he couldn’t though. Rules applied to everyone.

He also felt powerful. Yesterday, he was the servant. Now, he was the master. He had the authority to command a filly to do whatever he wanted.

All in all, he was extremely glad of these new changes. Everything so far had seemed to work out for the best. Spike closed his eyes and smiled lightly, continuing to take in the Sun’s radiance whilst he thought of all the things he could do now.

“Hi Spike!”

Spike rapidly opened his eyes as soon as he heard the new voice. What he saw terrified him.

Pinkie Pie was looking down at him from the back of the bench with a huge grin on her face, as usual. Her sudden appearance was enough to shock Spike off the bench. He flinched violently as he heard and saw Pinkie, to the extent that he had rolled off the bench and fell face down onto the ground.

Spike groaned from the pain of slamming onto the path. He stood up slowly and wiped his face free from any traces of dirt.

“Pinkie...don’t do that. Please.” he grumbled, turning to face the pink mare, who was still poking out from behind the bench.

“Oh, sorry sleepy Spike!” Pinkie chanted, still grinning happily.

Spike shook his head, “I wasn’t asleep. I was just quietly enjoying the Sun.” Spike protested.

He then sat himself back on the bench and reclined against the back of it. He patted the spot next to him, inviting Pinkie to join him. She gladly accepted by coming around from behind the bench and jumping onto it, placing all four hooves on it and lowering herself.

The simple action of patting the bench made Spike feel happy because Pinkie had accepted the invitation and joined him. It showed that she was clearly interested in him (in a platonic fashion) and wanted to spend her time with him. Spike felt important and loved. He couldn’t help but smile lightly at this simple action.

“So what are ya doing today?” Pinkie asked.

Spike tapped his chin, thinking of an answer. That was a good question and despite having thought of what he could do, he never really settled on what to do first. There were too many possibilities.

“Erm, I really don’t know.” He shrugged. He had nothing. He decided he’d just follow Pinkie around instead. With Pinkie, you can always be guaranteed that something crazy and random would happen.

“Hmmm...” Pinkie copied Spike’s action by tapping her chin with her hoof. She also moved her eyes and lips from left to right repeatedly, creating an exaggerated thinking expression.

“I know!” Pinkie cheered, leaping up into the air. She landed back on the bench, now standing. “We’ll go see Rarity!”

Spike paused for a moment, blinking. In all of this, he had forgotten Rarity. Her beautiful face, her glorious mane and her fantastic personality; things that just made Rarity...Rarity! Spike couldn’t think of a word that would do justice to describe Rarity as a pony, so just her name would suffice.

“Yeah, let’s go!” Spike said excitedly, hopping off the bench. Pinkie soon followed and led the way to Rarity’s boutique, bouncing instead of trotting as she normally did.

It didn’t take too long to reach the boutique. Pinkie barged enthusiastically through the front door, forcing the bell to vibrate violently. This caused an immense ring to resound through the room and the outside world. Spike soon followed Pinkie in, rubbing his head; the ringing was quite ear piercing.

Rarity came galloping into the room from upstairs to see what all the ruckus was about. But upon seeing Pinkie, she rolled her eyes.

“Hello Pinkie, Spike,” she said, nodding politely at the two as she said their names.

Spike stood still, examining Rarity closely. Yep, she was still as glamorous as she ever was. Thankfully, by now, Spike was used to covering up his feelings for Rarity.

“Hey Rarity,” Spike replied, waving slightly at the purple maned mare.

“Hi!” Pinkie greeted, her enthusiasm hardly drained. “We didn’t know what to do today so we decided to see you!” she continued.

“Aw, well I always enjoy your company.” Rarity smiled. “I was looking for one of you, actually. I need you to find the others for me.”

“What for?” Spike bemused.

“Well since it’s such a lovely day, I decided we should have a picnic in the sun! I’m making the food, hence why I need your help.”

“Ooo a picnic!” Pinkie exclaimed, jumping repeatedly. She soon stopped though, “There better be cupcakes.” She said sternly but not menacingly.

“Of course there will be, Pinkie.” Rarity stated, smirking.

“Sounds like fun,” Spike added, “We’ll find the rest. C’mon Pinkie.” Spike then waved goodbye to Rarity and exited the boutique.

Rarity waved back to the pair, “I’ll meet you at the field where we normally have picnics!” she shouted, then headed back upstairs to finish preparations.

“Bye Rarity!” Pinkie bellowed, making sure Rarity could hear. She then bounced out of the boutique in order to follow Spike.
Of course Spike would help Rarity. Perhaps he was a little predictable in that regard but he didn’t care. If he made Rarity happy, that’s all that mattered.

He was also greatly anticipating the picnic with glee. This was the exact thing that Twilight abandoned Spike to do. There were countless occasions like this that Twilight went to, but Spike could not. Well this time, things were different. For the better.

But before that, he needed to round up the gang.

Pinkie asked the all important question first: “Who should we find first?”

“Rainbow Dash.” Spike nodded, instantly having the answer. On a day like this, Spike mused that Rainbow Dash would be sitting on a lone cloud soaking up the sun’s rays. Luckily enough, his guess was right. A tiny white spec could be seen in the distance, right near the Ponyville town hall.

“There she is.” Spike pointed out.

Pinkie peered at the cloud, upon which sat Rainbow Dash. “Yep, that’s definitely Dashie. That didn’t take long!” After saying this, Pinkie immediately sped towards the cloud. Spike was taken aback by this sudden burst of speed and ran after her, struggling to keep up.

However, in his new height he was a lot faster. Before, he needed to take a lot of steps just to cover a couple of metres because his legs were so small. Now, almost half the steps were needed to cover the same distance. In almost every aspect, Spike was superior than he was before.

Spike eventually reached the Town Hall, but the pink party pony was no where to be seen. Looking up, he could see that Rainbow Dash remained undisturbed.

She wouldn’t be for long though.

From behind the Town Hall came Pinkie Pie. In her candy cane flying machine. For Spike, this was the first time ever he had seen Pinkie in this contraption and it sent him into bursts of laughter. It was the most random and ridiculous thing he had ever seen.

Pinkie pedalled at a steady pace and gradually gained altitude. She flew closer towards Rainbow Dash and surprisingly, the noise generated from the propellers of the machine didn’t wake her up.

The two were at such a height that Spike couldn’t hear them very well, but he did pick out a few things. Pinkie started, by yelling a greeting. This caused Rainbow Dash to suddenly wake up, almost falling off her cloud in suprise. Rainbow then shouted something in return, clearly annoyed. That was all Spike could make out, but it did look funny. The rest of the conversation was normal after that and it didn’t take long for the two to fly down and join Spike.

“Hey.” Rainbow grumbled, still adjusting to being awake. She had her sunglasses on, no doubt to cover her tired eyes.

“Morning Rainbow Dash.” Spike snickered. Rainbow was always bad at mornings.

Spike soon changed the subject though, “Right...we should find Fluttershy next, then AppleJack. Applejack will probably be at the farm and that’s the furthest away and...Yeah, I’m too lazy to walk a long distance.” Spike shrugged, setting the pace for the other two. Rainbow flew at a relaxed rate and Pinkie steered her machine behind the Town Hall, abandoning it. She quickly reunited with the others afterwards.

Spike walked casually towards Fluttershy’s cottage, where the yellow pegasus would probably be, tending to her animal friends. Perhaps in this world, Fluttershy saw Spike for more than just a ‘cutie’ as she did when they first met.

The three stopped just outside her door and Spike rapped his knuckles softly on it three times. Shortly after this, Fluttershy opened the door just slightly and poked her head out.

She smiled softly as she saw her three friends and opened the door fully. “Hello you three, it’s lovely to see you all.” She spoke quietly.

The three outside all returned the greeting in different levels of enthusiasm. Pinkie was the most enthusiastic of course, with Spike in the middle and Rainbow Dash merely emitted a sound that barely sounded like ‘hey’. Rainbow added to this by yawning, not bothering to cover her mouth.

“We were just wondering if you’d want to come to a picnic.” Spike asked.

“Oh, that would be wonderful!” Fluttershy exclaimed, but even that wasn’t loud. “Do I need to bring anything?”

“Nah. Rarity’s got it covered.” Spike answered, waving his hand dismissively.

“Oh, ok then.” Fluttershy then proceeded to exit the house but was interrupting by the sound of rapid thumping on the floorboards of her house. She turned around, seeing the source of the sound was coming from Angel rapidly beating his foot on the floor. His arms were folded and he wore an expression of annoyance.

Fluttershy walked back in, kneeling down so she was at eye level with the rabbit. “Do you want to come too Angel?” Angel silently replied by nodding firmly.

“Ok then, hop on my back.” Angel did so, perching himself on the yellow mare’s back, postioning himself near the mare’s neck.

“Moving on.” Rainbow stated, flying lazily in the air towards Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack would probably be found here.

Even if she was there, it’d take a while to find her in that big apple orchard.

The journey to the farm consisted of mainly small talk. At this point, Rainbow began to feel more awake. Therefore, she partook in the conversations more and didn’t mumble. She did keep her shades on though.

With each member of the gang that joined the entourage, Spike felt happier. He had a permanent smile fixed upon his face, which even he found unusual. Still, he welcomed this.

Today was perfect and the start of a new life.

Spike saw no reason to go back to the old ways. Everypony seemed happy and so was he. There wasn’t a single problem at all.

At least, as far from he could see anyway.

Upon reaching Sweet Apple Acres, the five were stuck on where to begin searching. Fortunately, a bright idea popped into Pinkie’s mind.

“I know!” Pinkie raised her hoof in the air and waved it in the air a bit.

Spike and Rainbow just glanced at each other, “Uh oh.” They both said. They both knew the ways of Pinkie Pie all too well.
Pinkie was surprisingly silent however. It seemed she wanted approval from somepony else.

Spike reluctantly gave it, “Go ahead Pinkie...” he sighed.

Pinkie cleared her throat, getting ready. She then yelled at the top of her lungs, “APPLEJACK!” She shouted this at such a volume, everyone else flinched in response.

Fluttershy closed her eyes and hid her face behind her pink mane as if it was instinct. Angel frowned and pulled down his ears so they covered the sides of his head, blocking his inner ears from the sound. He was definitely not a happy bunny. Spike gritted his teeth and covered his ear holes with his hands. Rainbow mimicked Angel’s actions, pulling down her ears. She still hovered in the air though.

“She’ll come running.” Pinkie remarked, grinning proudly and standing triumphantly.

“If I wasn’t fully awake back then...I am now.” Rainbow muttered sarcastically.

A much quieter yell than Pinkie’s could be heard: “What in tarnation?!” It unquestionably belonged to Applejack.

Applejack came galloping from the barn at a breakneck speed to investigate the cause of the disturbance. At first, she looked worried. As soon as she saw Pinkie however, her demeanour changed from concern to anger.

“Pinkie, why the heck are ya shouting mah name?!” Applejack interrogated.

“Wanna go on a picnic?” Pinkie asked in the friendliest manner possible. This succeeded in pacifying the farmyard mare, who quickly calmed down.

“’course ah will! But Pinkie...don’t call me so loudly next time.” Applejack patted Pinkie’s shoulder softly and nodded politely at the others to acknowledge their presence.

They all nodded in return, except Fluttershy. A quiet “Hi Applejack.” escaped from her lips instead.

With everyone rounded up, the final course of action was to head to the field where the picnic would take place. Spike didn’t actually remember the way to it but luckily, everypony else did. So he was content to let them lead.

When they got to the field, they all patiently waited for Rarity to arrive. Whilst they waited, they did what best friends do. Talk, play and have fun. Spike was finally at the centre of these events. He relished every second of it.

He just hoped that when he went to sleep, he didn’t wake up in the same old life he once had.

_____________________________________________________________

Rarity eventually came along with baskets full of food and cutlery, as well as a picnic blanket. The set up was done quickly and efficiently thanks to the use of magic.

The food was delicious and freshly made by Rarity. It mainly consisted of sandwiches, pies, cupcakes and apples. Rarity had also added gems into the mix just for Spike to enjoy. Suffice to say, Spike could certainly now add cooking to the list of talents that Rarity possessed which made her all the more special.

It was night now and all of the attendees (including Angel) were lying on their backs, gazing up at the night-time sky. It was even more amazing than it was last night. The stars shone brightly as ever and the moon was in full view, lightly illuminating the land below.

Most of the food was eaten by now – only a few scraps remained. An initial struggle developed when all of them began eating; Angel viciously devoured the food much to the others’ chagrin. But the dispute was settled when Fluttershy threatened to use her infamous ‘stare’ on Angel.

Pinkie had eaten most of the cupcakes but nopony else dared to protest against this lest they face her wrath. Apart from the cupcakes, she barely ate anything else.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash did grow restless and therefore decided to race each other in a friendly competition. It was a simple lap around the edge of the field and Rainbow couldn’t fly but nevertheless, she still won. Despite this, both mares were welcomed with an encore of applause when they returned from their race.

Now, as the dark sky was covered in splotches of bright white, Spike rested his head on his hands and broke the peaceful silence that had occurred. “This day was perfect...” he said blissfully.

“Pfft, nah.” Rainbow Dash said, “The perfect day for me was when we defeated Nightmare Moon. That was awesome.”

This statement brought reminded Spike that he had no idea of what happened in this world prior to this day. He needed to find out because he knew he’d be expected to know all about it. He hoped the others would reminisce about it.

“Yeah! It was! We were all glowy with the Elements of Harmony and Spike breathed loads of green fire right onto Nightmare Moon!” Pinkie added.

That explained a lot. So Spike was the Element of Magic then. It made sense since Spike’s fire was magic, considering he could transport letters to Princess Celestia and receive them. From this fact, Spike assumed that everything Twilight did in the old world, Spike did in this one. He could easily bluff his way through those facts if he was asked about them, if that was the case anyway.

“I’m surprised Rainbow.” Rarity stated, “I thought you would’ve picked the day you first performed the sonic rainboom.”

“Well yeah...that comes in a close second. If not equal.” Rainbow retorted, not wanting to get all soppy in front of her friends.

Spike soon fell quiet, just listening to his friends talking about their perfect days. With all his best friends around him, he felt safe and secure and his levels of joy had skyrocketed to unprecedented levels.

He knew that he was cared about and that the others actively wanted to be around him. A great weight was lifted off his shoulders today and as far as he was concerned, he had no problems to deal with.

Spike spent the rest of the night soaking in the magic of friendship until they all made their separate ways.

But throughout the whole day from the moment he left the library, one thought had never entered his mind.

One pony that was perhaps the most important pony in his life.

The filly that had been left alone to do her chores in the library.

Twilight Sparkle.