Heart Swap

by destinedjagold

02 - An Eggcellent Experiment

The three fillies were outside of their clubhouse.

“...and then we'll meet up back here before sundown!” Applebloom finished with a big grin.

Her two friends however, were giving her a long and worried frown.

Applebloom sighed. “Aw, cheer up! I already promised you guys that we'll go and ask Twilight to help us if things get out of hoof!”

“Aren't things already out of our hooves?” Scootaloo pointed out, and Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement.

“...if things get even more out of hoof!” Applebloom corrected herself. “But come on!” she smiled at them. “This is a perfect chance for us to try and get our cutie marks in a swapped body way!”

“What kind of a special talent would that even be?” Sweetie Belle asked, shaking her head. “Pretending to be somepony else?”

“If changelings can do it, then why can't we?”

“Because we're not changelings, you dummy,” Sweetie Belle deadpanned.

“Uh, yeah,” Scootaloo scratched behind her neck. “What me just said... I'm still not sure if this is such a good idea...”

“The egg itself wasn't a good idea!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

“Come on, guys! Just this once?” Applebloom begged, complete with puppy-dog eyes and a pouty bottom lip.

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. “Ugh, fine... Now I know why my brother and sister can't refuse me if I start looking like that...” She turned to their other friend. “You okay with it, Sweetie Belle?”

Scootaloo sighed, her features drooping. “Like I have a choice?”

“It's settled then!” Applebloom jumped excitingly to the scooter, grabs the handlebars , and then blinked. “Oh. Right. I'm Applebloom now...” She smiled sheepishly as she stepped down from her scooter. “Momma's gonna miss you...”

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. Scootaloo gulped and shakily made her way to the scooter.

“Be careful with it, okay?” Applebloom watched her climb on the scooter. “This baby has been my baby ever since I was a baby!”

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes again.

Scootaloo shakily grabbed the handlebars with two hooves. “Um...now what?”

“Well,” Applebloom turned to Sweetie Belle. “Applebloom, I always take Sweetie back home with my scooter. So...” she gestured with a hoof, waving it at Scootaloo.

“This is getting dumber and dumber by the second,” Sweetie Belle grunted, marching to the wagon attached to the scooter, and climbed in. She then glared at the grinning Applebloom. “If I die, I'll haunt you forever.”

“Sounds fun.”

“I'm dead serious, Scootaloo.”

“Me?” Scootaloo squeaked. “W-what did I do?”

“Not you, dummy! The dummier!”

Applebloom grinned. “You mean you're the dummier?”

Sweetie Belle shot her an icy glare, but she only earned a giggle from her recipient.

“...doesn't that make me the ‘dummier’, too?” Scootaloo thought out loud.

Applebloom chuckled, and then turned to Scootaloo. “Wait...” She picked up her helmet and slammed it on top of their pegasus friend's head. “Safety first!”

“Ow... Thanks...” she rubbed the helmet, as if that would ease her aching head.

“Okay, so... Flap my wings!”

“...h-how am I going to do that?” Scootaloo asked.

Applebloom hummed, eyeing the pegasus' wings. “Hm... Maybe it I touch my wings, you'll feel them and you can work from there?”

“I...I guess?” Scootaloo turned to her and frowned. “You're the pegasus, so you should know more than me...”

“You're the pegasus at the moment,” Applebloom pointed out. She approached her and slowly, but gently touched the base of her friend's wing. It is her wings, after all, so she was careful with them.

Scootaloo jolted in place, feeling weird about the weird and foreign tingling sensation. “T-that feels weird... It's like...something's on my back...”

“Yeah, my wings,” Applebloom deadpanned, stepping back. “Now, try and feel it.”

Scootaloo nodded reluctantly, faced forward, squinted her eyes shut, and started to concentrate.

“...I look stupid...” Applebloom facehoofed.

“Everything is stupid,” Sweetie Belle mumbled, rolling her eyes.

“Hush, you two,” Scootaloo scolded them without moving her head but her lips. “Unicorn-turned-pegasus concentrating here.”

“You didn't really turn into a pegasus, you know,” Applebloom pointed out as she stared at the pegasus' small wings slowly flapping up and down. “It's more like...our minds just switched places.”

“Gee, I couldn't have figured that one out,” Sweetie Belle grumbled. “Thanks, Applebloom.”

“What's your problem?” Applebloom asked in annoyance.

“Everything,” she grunted before jumping out of the wagon. “Let's just walk and get this over with.”

“I guess that works, too,” Scootaloo nodded in agreement. She then tried to remove her helmet, but failing at it. “A little help here?”

“Damn. You're making me look stupid,” Applebloom sighed as she helped in removing the headgear.

---

“Heya, Applebloom!” Applejack greeted her little sister, wiping her sweaty forehead with a hoof. “Done with your crusades with your friends?”

“Um...” Applebloom fidgeted in place, finding it hard to look at her sister straight in the eyes. ‘Okay... Apple accent, activate!’ “...n-not really. We're just...taking a small break?”

“Ah,” Applejack nodded in understanding. It wasn't the first time she heard her sister say that anyway. “Mind helping me out a bit?”

‘Yes! She isn't suspecting a thing! I'm good at this,’ she smiled. “I guess? With wha—oof!”

A heavy...something was suddenly placed on her back, her legs shaking in an instant. She grunted, pushing her hooves to straighten up, and surprisingly, she managed to do so, and found it almost easy. ‘Wow... Applebloom is strong! Not that I'm gonna admit that to her.’

“W-where...?” Applebloom suddenly found it hard to talk with the something that is weighing on her back. “...uh...”

Applejack chuckled, and patted her little sister's head. “You still got a long ways to go, 'bloom. Take those barrels inside the barn over there, as usual,” and she finished it by pointing a hoof towards the barn, which was kinda a long walk away.

Applebloom gulped. “U-uh...sure thing, Applej—I m-mean, sis?”

It was going to be a looong afternoon, the little filly thought.

‘I'm starting to not like this idea of mine...’

---

“—and watch out for Opal. If you step on her, even on one single strand of her fur, she'll get angry and will hurt you,” Scootaloo warned her unicorn friend as the two of them were walking side-by-side towards Carousel Boutique, which was only a few more houses away.

Sweetie Belle sighed. “Number one-hundred and seventy-two... Watch out for Opal. Got it... Anything else?”

“Well...” Scootaloo squinted her eyes, deep in thought. She suddenly disappeared, a rainbow-streak replacing her wake.

“Sweetie Belle?” Sweetie Belle stared at the fading rainbow streak, and then turned towards the heavens, following her friend's terrified screams. “Well, I guess I'm gonna go through this on my own.”

Finally reaching the door of the boutique, she knocked on the door and waited politely for somepony to open the door from the other side, even though the sign on the door says that the boutique was open.

“Just a minute~” Rarity sang from inside. Finally, the door opened wide, hitting the bell on top. “Welcome to Carous—Sweetie Belle?”

“Hey—” she mentally slapped herself. “Hi, sis!” she grinned, a little too wide. “H-how's it going?”

Rarity was just staring at her.

Sweetie Belle fidgeted in place, her grin twitching. “Can...can I come in?”

“Oh my goodness, Sweetie Belle!” she immediately levitated her little sister up and puller her close, studying her eyes with a critical eye. “Whatever happened to your eyes?!”

“Um...” ‘Come on, brain! Think of something, and quick!’ “C-Cutie Mark Crusaders: Contact Lens Testers?”

Rarity blinked. “Contact lenses?”

“Yup! Can you put me down now?”

Rarity gently brought her sister down on the floor. “I...see... But you should be careful with those, Sweetie Belle. They might hurt your eyes.”

The filly nodded her head. “I know, and it doesn't, so I'm okay!”

“And why were you knocking? You know that you're very welcome to come inside the shop any time you want.”

The filly shrugged. “I just thought it was the polite thing to do.”

Rarity stared at her for a moment, and then arched an eyebrow. “I...see...”

---

“Geez, squirt! You screamed like a filly!” Rainbow Dash chuckled as she ruffled the shaking pegasus filly's mane. The two pegasi ponies were sitting on a puff of cloud above town.

‘Way...way...WAY...above town...’ the shaky Scootaloo gulped, nervously content of being a shaky statue.

“And here I thought you were ready for your very first stunt-flying lessons!” Rainbow Dash lightly punched the filly's shoulder. “What? Don't tell me you're scared!”

‘Scootaloo! I'm gonna kill you if I don't die first!’ Swallowing a very big lump of fear, she nervously turned her head to face the rainbow-maned pegasus mare. “I...I—uh... Um... I'm not s-scared! J-just excited! Yeah!” she squeaked.

Rainbow Dash blinked. “Uh-huh...right...” She then jumped out of the cloud, pulled her wings out and flapped them to get airborne. She turned around to face the filly at eye-level while keeping a good two meter distance from each other. “Well, the basics always help calm the nerves. So let's start with that!”

Scootaloo slowly, slowly noded.

Rainbow Dash nodded with a smile, and then stretched her front hooves to the side. “First is stretching! You gotta stretch those hooves and wing muscles, kiddo! Come on! You've done this before! Heh, even Tank does his stretching faster than what you're doing right now,” she chuckled to herself.

Scootaloo, on the other hoof, was shakily extending her hooves to her side. No stretching has been done by the filly for a number of minutes, even with Rainbow Dash's uplifting speeches.

Which weren't really that uplifting. “Geez... You're more stiff than Big Mac's—erm...”

“D-don't you mean, ‘stiffer’?”

Rainbow arched an eyebrow. At least she noticed that instead of a certain stallion's— “Have you eaten a dictionary this morning? That might explain why you're so booked up!” she laughed. “Don't tell me you and your friends went into ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders: Bookie Monsters!’” and she continued laughing. After her laughter died down, she looked back at the filly, and frowned. “Geez... Are my book puns really that bad? Pinkie liked them, so I thought that Twilight might find them funny, too...” She sighed. “There goes that idea...”

The filly actually liked the last one, but she found it hard to show it because she realized that she was slowly sinking down from the cloud she was currently sitting on. “R-R-Rainbow Dash...?”

“Yeah, squirt?”

She gulped. “I'm sinking...”

Rainbow Dash grinned. “I know! All the more reason for you to get up and start flying! You've stretched those mighty wings of yours already, right?”

Rainbow Dash confirming that she was indeed sinking just made her stomach go in loops. And she was positive that one of her hind hooves was now dangling below the cloud. “H...help?”

“Come on, kid! Flap those wings!” Rainbow Dash encouraged her. “We'll postpone the stunt-flying lessons if you want!”

“I...I don't know how to—” Poof! She was gone. “FLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY—!”

Rainbow Dash hummed in thought while staring at the falling filly. “Huh. I could have sworn that her eyes were blue...” She shrugged. “Probably Rarity's handiwork.”

---

Applebloom slumped down on the ground, breathing heavily after carrying four barrels of apples in one go. She let her tongue out and she doesn't even care if she tasted dirt already.

Big Macintosh chuckled.

The filly's ears twitch, not because of her big brother. She lazily lifted her head up. “Did...did you hear that just now?”

“Hm?” Big Mac stopped pushing a barrel with his head to look around, his ears turning to hear anything. “Nnnope.”

‘It sounded like a filly falling to her doom or something... And I take back what I said... Applebloom isn't as strong as I thought...’

“Tired already, little filly?” Granny Smith chuckled as she entered the barn. “From four barrels? Why, we must've been giving you quite a lot of free time if you've gotten this rusty!”

“Eeyup!”

“I'm not tired!” the filly complained, sitting up. “See? I'm up!”

Granny Smith blinked, and then smiled wholeheartedly. “Now there's the filly I know and love! Now, get back to your big sister Applejack and bring in sixteen more barrels!”

The filly blinked at the old mare.

“Go on. Get to it, little apple! Time's a-wasting!”

“Sixteen barrels?”

“Eeyup,” the old mare nodded.

“You're kidding, right?”

---

“Not this one, darling,” Rarity smiled sweetly, levitating the spool back to her frustrated little sister. “That one's tomato. I need sienna, which is slightly darker than tomato.” She then returned to her sewing machine and resumed her sewing.

Eye twitching and teeth grinding, the filly marched back to the tall cabinets of spools, spools and more spools. It's like every color has two tall cabinets! ‘And why in blazes is coffee orange?!’ She climbed up the cabinets to put back the spool, and randomly picks up a slightly darker spool. ‘She could have just labelled these darn things!’ The spool now secured in between her teeth, she jumped back down to the floor with an audible thud! She didn't notice the sounds of sewing had just resumed. She turned and marched back to the fashionista.

Rarity turned to her with a smile. “Ah! Thank you, Sweetie Belle! And it only took you twenty-three tries!”

“Gee... You're welcome,” the filly deadpanned, watching the spool being enveloped by an aura of magic. She took a deep breath and exhaled quietly. She calmed down. “Anything else, sis?”

“Hm...” Rarity stopped her sewing and placed a hoof under her chin. “Oh! I almost forgot!” She turned to her and smiled sheepishly. “I forgot to give Opal her lunch. Be a dear and open a can of tuna for her?”

The filly nodded her head. “Sounds easy enough. I just need to know where the can is, and Opal is.”

“Both are in the kitchen, darling. Do be careful if you're going to use the can opener, though.”

She nodded her head again and went to the kitchen.

“Hm...” Rarity was watching the retreating filly with a critical eye.

---

“Come on, squirt!” Rainbow Dash was flying high above and around the edge of town, up-side-down, and pushing a purple-maned filly up every time the said filly falls back down on her hooves. “Stop playing wingless and start flapping those wings!” she said encouragingly, although her patience was already running thin. “Come on! Don't be scared! Up ya go! I promise I'll catch ya if you fall! Up ya go again!”

Scootaloo was perfectly fine imitating a limp ragdoll now, still in shock from her free fall from earlier.

Frowning, Rainbow Dash stopped throwing the filly up and just held her on her hooves. Catching a familiar reflected light from the corner of her eyes, she grinned and immediately dove down towards the source in seconds.

Scootaloo finally came back to her senses, and as soon as she found herself underwater, strong hooves pulled her up, and she coughed and gasped for breath.

“Glad to see you back, squirt!” Rainbow Dash gently puts the soaked filly down on the grassy edge of the pond.

The filly shivered, and then shook herself dry.

Rainbow Dash was smiling.

The filly, now not-so-soaked anymore, blinked, looked around, and then stared up at the mare. “Um... C-can we uh...”

“Yeah?”

“Um... C-can we...”

“Spit it out, squirt!” Rainbow Dash chuckled.

“C-can we please not do any flying today?” she begged with teary eyes. “I...I think I don't feel like flying for today.”

Rainbow Dash blinked. “Oh... Uh... Okay, I guess?”

---

“Nnnnnnnnnnnnn—” Applebloom gritted her teeth as she tried her very best to push the barrel towards the barn. The fifth barrel. And she has been pushing it for quite a while now. “Gah!” she stopped pushing the barrel with her head and leaned on it to take a breather. She was sure as heck that she was finally in front of the barn now. A small break won't harm anypony, right?

She turned around, and saw Applejack, standing on the very same spot before the filly turned around and started pushing the barrel a few minutes ago.

“Um...hi?”

Applejack approached her with worry. “Are you alright, sugarcube?” She put a hoof on the filly's sweaty forehead. “Well, you're not having a fever. Something wrong? Aside from your blue-colored eyes, that is.”

Applebloom chuckled weakly. “Eheheh... I must've been pretty tired from crusading earlier... Y-yeah, that's it.”

“Uh...huh...” Applejack arched an eyebrow. “Well, I think we've been holding you off from your friends for a while now. Wanna head back to them?”

The filly almost recovered all of her strength right there and then. “Y-yeah. That sounds like a good idea, actually. See ya later, Applejack!”

Applejack just nodded her head with a smile, and watched her little sister slowly walking away towards the clubhouse. “Hm...”

---

“I told you to wait until I poured the darn tuna into your bowl!” Sweetie Belle hissed, keeping the can of tuna out of reach.

Opal hissed back, and started swiping the filly's hooves with her sharp claws, but misses.

“You won't be getting anything if you don't behave, you good-for-nothing fat cat!”

Opal jumped, but Sweetie Belle easily took a step to the side to dodge the tackling cat. “Oof!” she bumps into something soft and warm.

“Ahem...” Rarity cleared her throat, staring at her sister with an arched eyebrow. “Sweetie Belle?”

“What?” Sweetie Belle asked, annoyed.

“I...think I should feed Opal instead,” she said with a frown.

Sweetie Belle turned to her with an arched eyebrow.

Rarity tried to smile. “But thank you for opening the can,” she said as she levitated the can of tuna from the filly's hoof. “Now, um, why don't you run along and play with your friends?”

“Fine,” the filly huffed, trotting towards the front door of the boutique.

“Do take care, alright, Sweetie Belle?”

The bell jingled as the filly opened it, and it jingled again as she closed the door. Rarity didn't get any response from her little sister.

“Weird...” she thought, rubbing her chin, completely unaware that Opal has been jumping from the floor, desperately trying to reach the can of tuna.

---

Scootaloo reached their clubhouse, and immediately, she sat on the steps of the stairs. With a sigh, she looked at her hooves. They were still shaky, but at least they weren't as shaky and uncontrollable as they were earlier. Another sigh escaped her lips as she closed her eyes.

‘I wanna be Sweetie Belle again...’

“Hey there, me!” greeted Applebloom as approached the sad pegasus filly. “Hey, what happened?”

Scootaloo lifted her head to look at her friend. “I just had the—um, you smell...bad...”

“Oh, yeah...” Applebloom smiled sheepishly, scratching her mane. “Applejack made me pull some barrel-full of apples earlier.”

“Ouch,” Scootaloo flinched.

“Eh, it was nothing. So, why are you so down?”

Scootaloo sighed. “I just had the scariest moment of my entire life! Rainbow Dash scooped me up from the ground and put me on a cloud and forcing me to learn stunts or something.”

“What?!” Applebloom shouted. “Oh my gosh! Was it today?! I totally forgot!” She angrily stomped her hoof on the ground. “Darn it! I totally missed it!”

“I-it's okay!” Scootaloo tried to calm her down. “Rainbow Dash said that it was okay to postpone it!”

Applebloom turned to her, and was about to reply when an angry snarl interrupted her. She and Scootaloo turned to the source, and saw Sweetie Belle stomping her hooves towards them.

“Alright! Where's that egg?!” she asked angrily, standing before the two fillies. “I wanna change back right now!”

“Hey! Hey!” Applebloom tried to calm the angry filly. “Chillax, okay? Me and I just got here!”

“Then why the hay are we standing outside here for?” Sweetie Belle asked, and walked up the stairs without waiting for their replies.

Applebloom and Scootaloo looked at each other, and then followed the unicorn filly up in their clubhouse.

Sweetie Belle slammed the door open, letting the setting sun's light to enter their slightly-gloomy clubhouse. Her eyes twitched from what she saw. “I hope this is a prank, y'all! 'Cause I don't find this funny!”

Applebloom and Scootaloo stood beside their friend, and gasped after their eyes laid on the egg. At least, they were all staring on where the egg should have been. Now, there were only a pile of cracked transparent-blue eggshells.

“It...” Scootaloo breathed out.

Applebloom rubbed her eyes, making sure she wasn't seeing things. She blinked, and looked again. “...hatched?”

Author's Note:

The egg hatched. Yey?

Comments

[Blobskin]

I don't know why, but when I saw "PKMN crossover" I immediately thought Pikmin! Then I was like, wait...

[Luckyfanisaac]

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. “Ugh, fine... Now I know why my brother and sister can't refuse me if I start looking like that...” She turned to their other friend. “You okay with it, Sweetie Belle?”

Sweetie Belle doesn't have a brother Apple Bloom is the only one with a brother and sister.

[Luckyfanisaac]

“It's settled then!” Applebloom jumped excitingly to the scooter, grabs the handlebars , and then blinked. “Oh. Right. I'm Applebloom now...” She smiled sheepishly as she stepped down from her scooter. “Momma's gonna miss you...”

I'm so confused.