Rainbow Rocks

by Twinkletail

Chapter 2

Maud let out a quiet yawn as her eyes opened. The previous night's sleep was possibly the finest she'd had in a while, despite its inauspicious beginning.

She'd certainly felt many kinds of illness and discomfort in her time; it was improbable, if not utterly impossible, to avoid such things. Last night's malady, though, felt like something that she'd never experienced before. It wasn't particularly awful, but it certainly wasn't the least bit pleasant. She'd felt dizzy, but not nauseous. Things had gotten blurry at one point, but at least they weren't spinning or turning into other things like when she was young and accidentally got into her father's special drinks. All in all, while she certainly wouldn't want to experience that again, there were plenty of experiences she'd had that were far less preferable. Either way, she figured she was lucky to get up to Applejack's guest bedroom when she did.

Speaking of Applejack's guest bedroom, she was decidedly not there at the moment. She may have been just a bit out of it when she went to bed, but she was absolutely positive that she had not imagined going upstairs. She specifically remembered making her way up the stairs, nearly slipping once, and resting herself on the bed; a bed which she remembered as being comfortable, but nowhere near as comfortable as whatever she was lying on right now. Whatever this was, she wanted to lie on it forever.

Maud gave her surroundings a quick look over. She was back in the living room, where the other girls had also fallen asleep. Her first instinct was to look for Pinkie. She knew that Pinkie was a grown mare now, but she still felt a sense of protectiveness towards her. If her behavior from the last time she'd visited had been any indication, she did need protecting sometimes. She sighed with relief when she saw her little sister sleeping peacefully, only her face poking out of her favorite sleeping bag.

Maud's next instinct was to look for Rainbow Dash. This would serve two purposes. On one hoof, Rainbow Dash was clearly also feeling similarly to how she was feeling last night. She figured that if she was still around, that would be a good sign, and she'd maybe be able to talk to her about it. On the other hoof, she was also very intent on seeing if Pinkie had sidled her way up to Rainbow during the night, or if Rainbow had done the same to her.

Maud was well-aware of Pinkie's feelings for the rainbow-maned pegasus, and it wasn't sitting quite right with her. She knew that it was unfair to judge Rainbow; she was sure that she wasn't a bad pony. At the same time, though, something about her just didn't seem right, at least not as a potential special somepony for her little sister. She was too brash and headstrong, and she just didn't seem capable enough of displaying the genuine feelings that Pinkie would really need from a special somepony. Pinkie was a very needy mare, and Maud just didn't think Rainbow was capable enough of caring for her feelings to be up to the task. It relieved her to see that Pinkie had not acted on her urges, nor had Rainbow moved in to take advantage of her emotions. In fact, Rainbow didn't seem to be anywhere in sight. Maud figured that she must have gone to do...whatever it was that she did.

Maud figured that Pinkie must have brought her downstairs overnight; she was a rather heavy sleeper, after all, so such an occurrence was entirely possible. Getting up from her comfortable cushion, she yawned another big yawn and stretched herself out, as she would often do before heading out for a day of work. On the rock farm. She felt a rather odd itchy feeling at her sides as she stretched, and tried her best to relieve said feeling by rubbing one side against the side of the couch that Pinkie was sleeping on.

A sudden jolt of pain caused Maud to wince. She'd rubbed her side on things to relieve itching all the time, and never felt a feeling like this one. She turned to inspect her side, only to find that she'd somehow managed to hit her wing while scratching.

Maud stared at the wing. This was certainly not here last night.

It was blue. Oddly, ostensibly blue. She was no fashion-minded pony, but she knew for certain that it did not go with her gray coat. Thankfully for her--at least as far as matching was concerned--her coat matched the wing's hue exactly.

This was definitely not right.

Maud turned back to look at her other side. In doing so, she was further distracted by a red bang dropping down into her view. She raised a hoof to bat it out of the way, only to notice that the hoof was also blue, the same powdery blue as the wing and her side.

Maud rarely panicked. Doing so was a much larger expression of emotion than she was used to. In this instance, though, it just felt like the right response. She whirled around, watching a multicolored tail flip and follow her movements out of the corner of her eye.

Maud began to form a hypothesis, but it seemed too ridiculous to be true. Before she could think on it any further, a young filly entered the room. Maud had met her briefly yesterday and recognized her as Apple Bloom, Applejack's little sister.

"G'mornin', Rainbow Dash," Bloom said with a yawn, staring straight at Maud as she headed to the kitchen. Maud looked around for said Rainbow Dash, and when she remembered that she wasn't here, her earlier hypothesis, as crazy as it was, was proven correct.

~~~~~~~~~~

Rainbow Dash's eyes fluttered open, then squinted when met with the harsh sunlight that shone through the window. She was no egghead, but she had enough experience with the weather and with Applejack's house to know that the position she'd taken on the floor should have kept her from this fate. Something was definitely up.

Rainbow rolled over, expecting the cloud duvet to shift under her movements. The wonderful thing about sleeping on clouds was just how much they conformed to one's body atop them. No matter how the pony resting on a cloud moved, the fluffy cushion would hug every bit of pony that touched it. It didn't take Rainbow very long to realize that such a thing was not happening. She looked around, and was very confused to find herself in Applejack's guest room, lying on the bed. She had very specifically remembered falling asleep on the cloud duvet in the living room, and she had kicked her sleep-flying habit back when she was a filly. The only thing she could figure was that Pinkie had moved her overnight as a prank. With how out of it she was last night, it was entirely possible for Pinkie to have hoisted her bodily and brought her upstairs without rousing her from her slumber.

Rainbow rolled over, letting out a yawn. It would be just like Pinkie to pull a prank on her like that. She was a favorite target of Pinkie's pranks, and as long as they weren't harmful, she wouldn't have it any other way. She and Pinkie had taken a pact with each other to never prank anypony whom they weren't good friends with, lest their fun be taken the wrong way. Therefore, every prank Pinkie pulled on one of her friends was not only for fun, but also signified how much she cared about them. She smiled lightly to herself. Pinkie must have valued her as a really, really good friend if she was paying so much attention to her through her pranks,

It was then that Rainbow realized that she couldn't feel her wings. This was somewhat commonplace, for the most part; sometimes she'd wake up with no feeling in a wing if she'd slept in such a way as to cut off circulation to it. This time, though, she found herself unable to feel either wing. She figured that in her weary state, she must have flopped into some manner of position that cut the circulation off to both of them, although she couldn't fathom how she might have contorted herself to do so. She wasn't freaky flexible like that Blossomforth mare.

Rainbow reached one hoof back to give one wing a little wake-up rub. This usually did the trick, but today, it seemed to have no effect. Rainbow's arrival at the conclusion was primarily based on the fact that there seemed to be no wing present.

There was no wing present.

No wing.

Rainbow fell off of the bed with a loud thud, managing to tangle herself in the bedsheets in the process. She was not at all used to having no wings; it wasn't really something that came up very often. Or at all, really, save for her first encounter with Discord. She fought valiantly to free herself from the oppressive bedsheets, finally managing to wrest her head from its fluffy grasp. She shoved one foreleg through the same gap that had allowed her head passage, and was more than a bit confused to watch a gray hoof emerge in place of her own. Rainbow attempted to push this foreign hoof away with her own, only to watch the gray hoof react in exactly the way she had moved her own. A sense of dread filled Rainbow, and she tried to move her hoof to her face. The gray hoof did just that, and Rainbow found herself very confused as she felt the sensations of touching her face not only through her face, but through her hoof.

The flailing began a moment later, and did not stop until Rainbow was fully freed from the bedsheets. She whirled around to get a look at herself. Not only were her wings gone, but her body was covered in gray just like her forelegs had been. Her awesome rainbow tail had been replaced with a pale purple one, and in place of her super-cool cutie mark was that of a plain old rock.

It couldn't be. It just couldn't be.

The door opened all of a sudden, and Rainbow was met with the sight of a worried Apple Bloom.

"You okay there, Maud?" Bloom asked, shifting uncomfortably. "I heard a loud thud."

Rainbow couldn't say a word. She just nodded.

"Phew...thought you mighta hurt yourself," Bloom said. "The others're awake if you wanna go downstairs. Granny Smith's makin' breakfast!" The little filly turned tail and exited, shutting the door and leaving Rainbow absolutely perplexed.

~~~~~~~~~~

Maud had to alert Pinkie about what had happened. As ridiculous as it was, she knew her sister well. Just because something sounded ridiculous and implausible didn't remove it from the realm of possibility as far as Pinkie was concerned. In fact, something told her that the sheer impossibility of the situation might actually make Pinkie more likely to believe it.

She tried to make her way over to her snugly-wrapped sister, but everything about her movements felt odd. Rainbow Dash's frame was much lighter and more streamlined than Maud's more solid musculature, and it was something that certainly took some getting used to. Plus, her lack of knowledge of how to properly control a set of wings was not helping matters. It only took two steps before she completely lost balance, tripping over the sleeping form of Rarity. She heard her sister's friend wake with a start and a yelp, but she had no time to apologize as she found herself tumbling forward. Another hoof stumbled into Fluttershy and an errant wing brushed across Applejack's face, rendering the entire group, save for Pinkie, awake. Had she had the wear withal to take a survey of who was in the room, she might have noticed a lack of Twilight in the living room, but she was too busy tumbling over her borrowed limbs to notice. With one final crash, she slammed right into the now-formerly sleeping Pinkie.

"Good morning Dashie!" the delighted Pinkie said. "Aww, thanks for the personal wake-up!" Pinkie's hooves suddenly burst from the sleeping bag and wrapped themselves around Maud, locking her in a tight hug. As Pinkie's sister, Maud was used to energetic Pinkiehugs, but this felt different, though she couldn't place exactly how. She knew why, of course, and considered struggling a bit, but she knew Pinkie well enough to know that she wouldn't just up and try something romantic like that. She opened her eyes in time to see Pinkie's face approaching hers and went into a mental panic, but was relieved when all Pinkie was looking for was a nuzzle. Out of instinct, forgetting she was in Rainbow's body for just a moment, she nuzzled back.

"Dashieee~!" Pinkie squeed. "I knew you secretly liked nuzzlies!" Maud frowned a bit as Pinkie resumed nuzzles. Rainbow Dash clearly wasn't good enough for her sister if returning little bits of affection was typically beyond her. She shook her head and nudged Pinkie away. She had to tell her what happened right now, before any harm could be done.

"Pinkie Pie," Maud said, hearing it in Rainbow's voice. If it weren't for Twilight's spell yesterday, that would have been a shock to her. Suddenly, it came to her, and she was fairly surprised with herself for not having realized it earlier. That had to be why these things were going on. Something had to have happened with that voice-swapping spell that Twilight had cast. She wasn't accustomed to regular unicorn magic, let alone alicorn magic, but perhaps that particular spell, if not regulated, could have side-effects like this. It was a little much for her to assume, but-

"Odash!" Pinkie shouted. Maud stared at her. What was odash? She'd never heard that in her life.

"Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie shouted, directly into Maud's ear. Maud winced. Her ear hurt, but at least she figured out what Pinkie was saying. She sighed. It was now or never.

"Pinkie," Maud said. "I'm not actually Rainbow Dash. I'm your sister Maud in Rainbow Dash's body. I think Twilight's spell yesterday must have made us switch bodies overnight, and Rainbow must be in my body, so we have to get her and Twilight and get us swapped back."

Maud knew full well how ridiculous her statement was. Had she said it to anypony else, they would have laughed in her face. Pinkie, though, was used to weird things like this. Surely, she would believe her. Sure enough, Pinkie's face showed that she was clearly thinking it over. Just as Maud was about to continue, she watched Pinkie burst into laughter.

"Eeeheehee! That's a great one, Dashie!" Pinkie giggled. "What a great prank! Is Maud in on it too? I never took her as much of a prankster but if anypony could talk her into it it'd be you!"

Maud sighed to herself as Pinkie came in for another nuzzle. In reality, she shouldn't have been too surprised. Trying to predict Pinkie's behavior was a futile task. Of course she would go the logical path when she was counting on her to think illogically. She felt Pinkie's cheek make contact with hers and fought the instinct to nuzzle back. If Pinkie was still going to believe that she was Rainbow Dash, then she wasn't going to add fuel to her little crush by returning her affections. Besides, it was already fairly obvious from Pinkie's reaction to the first nuzzle that Rainbow wasn't exactly an affectionate mare. Pinkie deserved somepony better, she thought as she pushed her way free from Pinkie's hug.

"Ouh, you should try to trick Twilight with that when she comes back!" Pinkie said, giving Maud a poke. It was only then that Maud noticed the distinct lack of Twilight in the room.

"Comes back?" Maud asked, still getting used to this voice coming from her. Even though it was Rainbow's voice, it had taken on a slightly more monotone timbre under Maud's influence.

"Yup!" Pinkie replied. "You know, like when you go somewhere from somewhere else but then you go back to the first place?"

"I know what coming back means, Pinkie," Maud said. "I mean where did she go?" Pinkie's silliness was entertaining, but she didn't have time for it right now.

"Oh!" Pinkie said with a giggle. "Princess Celestia called her and Spike to Canterlot this morning for some sort of princess-y thing! She'll be back tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow...?" Maud asked, Rainbow's voice faltering. Just then, her attention was drawn to loud hoof steps coming from the direction of the stairs.

"Twilight!" Rainbow called out in Maud's voice. She intended to sound far more frantic than she had, but something about being Maud seemed to stop her from emoting as much as she'd have liked. To her credit, she'd certainly put more emotion into it than she'd ever heard from Maud before.

"Wow!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Twilight's a popular pony princess this morning!"

Rainbow opened her mouth to respond, but then her eyes met Maud's. For a moment, they shared an unspoken bond over just how odd it was to be staring at themselves without the aid of a mirror or other reflective surface. It only lasted a moment, though, before Rainbow turned her attention to Pinkie.

"Pinkie," Rainbow said with as much urgency as she could muster. "I'm not actually Maud. I'm Rainbow Dash in Maud's body. I think Twilight's spell yesterday must have made us switch bodies overnight..."

"...And Maud must be in your body, so we have to get her and Twilight and get you swapped back!" Pinkie finished, barely able to contain her laughter. "You two organized this good! I never pictured you as a prankster!"

Rainbow looked to Maud, at a loss. Maud just sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Well, you're gonna have to wait till tomorrow to get switched back," Pinkie said, adding a big wink for emphasis. "Because Twilight's out of town till then!"

Rainbow deflated. There was no way she could be stuck as Maud for a whole day! She didn't even have wings! Before she could raise a protest, the others, who had been sitting and patiently looking on, chimed in.

"Now girls," Rarity said. "We could sit and repeat ourselves all day about how impressive it is that Maud aided Rainbow Dash with a prank or how Twilight is not here, but I do believe that Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and myself have a very important engagement to attend. Isn't that right, girls?" The others mentioned nodded, save for Maud.

"Engagement?" Maud asked. She looked to Rainbow, who looked as confused as she did.

"Oh, um, yes," Fluttershy said. "The four of us are going out for breakfast."

"And Pinkie and Maud are staying here!" Applejack added. "Cause they're...uh..."

"...Making rock candy necklaces!" Rarity interjected. Now Maud was even more confused. She and Pinkie weren't supposed to be making their necklaces until a few days from now.

"No we're not!" Pinkie said, head tilted at practically a 90 degree angle. "We're...ohhhhh! Yeah, necklaces! Right!"

Now both swapped ponies' eyes were on Pinkie. Neither was foolish; it was more than obvious that something fishy was going on. Unfortunately, the opportunity to question further was soon lost as Maud found herself grabbed and tossed onto Applejack's back.

"What the..." Maud uttered.

"We must leave immediately!" Rarity exclaimed, giving a wave to Pinkie and Rainbow. "Ta ta!"

Rainbow and Maud were too distracted to say a word as they watched the distance between their own bodies grow, their sight of each other finally cut off by the closing of Applejack's front door.

Comments

[Discordigan]

Yet another well-characterized chapter, my friend. I'm enjoying this tale very much.

[PaulAsaran]

Okay, now things make sense. You had me momentarily fooled by how they didn't make the switch immediately. Also, it's great how the Mane 6 (other than Rainbow) are all in on it. Which makes me wonder where Twilight really is.