Chapter 4
Rarity slowly cantered through Ponyville, looking left and right. She was searching for Carousel Boutique, but for some reason, she couldn’t remember its location. She wasn’t even sure where in Ponyville she was, even though she knew the town like the back of her hoof. The sun hanging low in the cloudless blue sky reminded her how late in the afternoon it was, and the white unicorn started to get anxious. She needed to get back to serve her customers and design new dresses.
Suddenly, Pinkie Pie bounced past her, broadly smiling as always.
“Pinkie!” Rarity called out, “Could you help me? Where am I?”
“In Ponyville, silly!” said Pinkie, jumping in place, “I’m going to a party! Wanna come?”
“I need to get back to Carousel Boutique, but I’m lost!”
“Okay! Follow me!” replied the pink pony and bounced off.
Rarity suddenly found it hard to move her hooves. They felt heavy, as if they were made of stone. At that thought, Rarity looked down and saw they indeed were.
“Hey! Wait for me!” she cried after Pinkie who had stopped to face her.
“Come on, slowpoke! Hurry up!” said the pony, then continued bouncing away from Rarity and out of her sight.
“Wait, I... I’m lost...” said Rarity, struggling to move her hooves.
With small, sharp intake of breath, Rarity opened her eyes and, still half-dreaming, moved her right foreleg forward and found it easy to do so. She wondered why her left foreleg was harder to move, then she realised she was lying on it in bed. The last strands of the dream fading from her mind, she climbed out of bed quietly so as not to disturb Pinkie or the others. Once all four hooves were on the floor, she noticed she didn’t quite feel the way she normally did. Her stomach felt a little heavier and her energy was returning unusually quickly. There was something else that bothered her, but she couldn’t place it.
She shrugged the feelings off and tried using her magic to make her side of the bed neat, but found herself unable to. That was when she noticed a strange empty feeling inside, like something was missing. Then she figured out what it was that was bothering her, nagging away at the back of her mind — she had gotten out of the opposite side of the bed she had been sleeping on. She checked the bed’s other occupant and stiffened. She was staring at her own purple curls on the back of her own head.
That’s... me? But I’m me! Where’s Pinkie? She should be in the bed! But... is that me? And where’s my magic? My horn’s fine isn’t...
She choked when she looked up and found herself looking at, not her horn, but an overhanging pink fringe of hair.
No, this is a dream! This has to be!
Quickly, she made her way to the mirror in Twilight’s bedroom. In the reflection, staring back at her with the same horrified expression, was Pinkie Pie. She raised a hoof — pink, not white — and the figure in the mirror did the exact same movement.
She squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her teeth to keep from screaming, but despite her efforts, the shrill sound escaped her. In Pinkie’s voice.
Twilight’s eyes flew open and she jerked awake, falling out of bed in the process. She scrambled to her hooves and faced the pink pony, who was standing at the unicorn’s dressing mirror, breathing quickly.
“Pinkie, what’s wrong?” she asked, half-noticing how strange her voice sounded.
She turned her head when she heard another yell from a voice that very much sounded like her own. It took her a few seconds to process what she was seeing. She was looking at herself holding her hooves in front of her, staring at them as if she had never seen them before.
Is this an out of body experience? she thought, It is, right? What am I doing looking at my hooves, anyway?
She checked herself out, not sure what to expect, and gasped when she saw yellow hooves. And to side of her head, she saw a pink mane.
“Hey, what the...?” Twilight turned to the sound of Applejack’s voice, “What’s goin’ on?”
“Oh, for the love of Pete, keep it down, would ya?” muttered Rainbow Dash, rolling over to fix Applejack with an annoyed gaze, but instead stared at her incredulously.
“Oh, come on! Would everyone just be quiet? Sheesh, and you say I’m noisy?” growled Rarity, sitting up in bed, “Pinkie, why are you screaming, anyway?” then her face became a mask of confusion, “Wait, Pinkie? But... what... huh?”
Applejack jumped up, “Okay, what’s goin’ on?” she cried, her voice having strangely lost its usual drawl, “Why is everypony screaming, and why is there another me?” she asked, pointing an orange hoof at Rainbow Dash, “Another thing, why do I sound like Applejack? Why am I the same colour as her? Why—”
“Everypony just calm down!” yelled the yellow pegasus.
The others were so shocked at the timid pony’s loud, authoritative voice that they all stopped and stared at her. Instead of looking away and apologising, she met each of their eyes confidently, although she seemed to keep eye contact with Twilight longer than anyone else, frowning as she did so.
The door burst open and Spike rushed in, almost tripping over his own feet, “What’s going on? I keep hearing screaming!” he raised his hands to Twilight, asking for an explanation.
“Uhhh...” was all the unicorn could utter.
“Listen, everypony,” said Fluttershy, “I think I’ve figured out what’s going on. I don’t know how or why, but I think I know what.”
She walked to the front of the room where everyone could see her, “I think we’ve all somehow switched bodies. Think about it — would the Fluttershy you know do what I’m doing right now?”
“You’re right,” said Applejack, “Okay, who are ya, and what did you do?” she asked, stalking towards Fluttershy.
“I’m Twilight,” replied the pegasus, coolly.
The earth pony stopped in her tracks, “Say what?” she asked, then narrowed her eyes, “Oh, a trick? Well, you’re not foolin’ me! Give us our friend back!”
“And judging from your attitude, I’m guessing you’re Rainbow Dash?”
“Yeah?”
“How can you be if you’re over there?” she asked, nodding at the rainbow pony at the back of the room.
‘Applejack’ turned to the blue pegasus, then back, “Because... because...” her mouth worked, but no sound came.
“Y’know, ah think she’s right,” said ‘Rainbow Dash’, the thick accent of the Apple Family evident, “Ain’t no other explanation.”
“And there’s Applejack,” noted ‘Fluttershy’.
Spike grabbed his head in confusion, “Argh, what’s going on? I don’t get this! Applejack’s Rainbow Dash and Rainbow Dash is Applejack and Fluttershy’s Twilight? Oh, it’s too early for this kinda thing!”
The pegasus put a hoof on his shoulder, “Don’t worry about it, Spike, we’ll get this figured out.”
Spike looked between the bodies of the yellow pegasus and the purple unicorn.
“Twilight?”
Twilight the pegasus nodded.
“What happened?” asked Spike.
“It seems we’ve switched with whoever we were sleeping in close proximity to,” she explained, “I don’t know... maybe I accidentally cast some kind of mind-swap spell.”
“Well change us back, then!” cried Rarity the earth pony, stamping a hoof.
“I can’t if I don’t know what spell was used. Besides, I don’t have my horn, any more. Well, I do, but...” she looked over at Fluttershy the unicorn, still awkwardly sitting in bed.
Fluttershy reached up and tapped the horn lightly with one of her purple hooves.
“My horn is on my other body, too,” said Rarity, tapping a pink hoof and eyeing Pinkie the unicorn, “You’d better be careful with my mane.”
Pinkie blinked, “I’ve heard of talking to yourself, but this is ridiculous,” she said, then instantly smiled, “Hee-hee, it’s kinda funny, too!”
“Must you pull such ridiculous expressions with my face? Besides, it’s not funny!”
“Rarity, please calm down,” said Twilight.
“Sorry, Fluttershy, er... Twilight,” said the pink pony, “I’m just frustrated! My lovely purple curls are gone, my beautiful white coat is no longer mine, and I have business to run! I can’t go to work tomorrow looking like... this!” she said, flicking her pink fringe.
“Ah’m sure...” started Applejack, then put a hoof to her throat after hearing Rainbow Dash say those words, “Usin’ this voice is gonna take some gettin’ used to... anyway, ah’m sure everypony would understand if we told them all what happened.”
“No, no, no! We can’t!” said Twilight, widening Fluttershy’s already large eyes, “I can’t imagine what would happen if Princess Celestia found out!”
“Just say it was an accident,” suggested Rainbow Dash, affixing Applejack’s hat to her head.
“Yeah... mine...” said Spike, “I’ll take the blame, Twilight.”
“You don’t understand,” said Twilight, “I’m not supposed to learn spells of that level, yet. Affecting just one pony was hard, but pulling it off made me feel good. I got... overconfident. I’m sorry, girls...” apologised the pegasus and lowered her head, closely resembling the real Fluttershy, “If the Princess finds out... let’s just not tell everyone, okay?”
“So, what? We act like we’re somepony else?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“...For now, yes. Besides, if other ponies found out, they could essentially take advantage of us.”
“Ah see where you’re comin’ from, Twi, but lyin’ about who ah am? Eh...” said Applejack.
“I understand this will be hard, Applejack, but it’s for everypony’s safety.”
“Ah guess...”
“It’s not that hard being me, AJ,” said Rainbow Dash, “Just remember, now you’re the coolest pegasus in Equestria!”
“Yeah, great. But ah’d much rather be mah old applebuckin’ self.”
“You think I don’t want to be me, either? I miss my wings.”
“I know how you all feel. We’ll fix this,” said Twilight.
“How?” asked Applejack.
“With magic. But the only ones who can use that now are Pinkie and Fluttershy.”
“Pinkie Pie with a horn,” said Rainbow Dash, “Now why doesn’t that thought make me feel all warm and fuzzy?”
“I could cover you in nice, warm fur if you wanted,” said Pinkie and pointed her white horn at the orange earth pony, “Abracadabra, alakazam!”
Nothing happened.
“Pinkie, stop that. You don’t even know what you’re doing,” said Rarity.
“...I don’t know how to use magic, either,” said Fluttershy, feeling strange sitting with a magical horn plainly visible on her head.
“We can teach both of you,” said Twilight, “Just remember, you’re not going to learn overnight. But before that, we need to figure out which spell was used in the first place. Let’s get started.”
The ponies walked out of the bedroom and into the main room of the library, but Twilight stayed behind with Spike.
“Spike?” she said.
“Yeah?”
“Listen... I’m sorry I got angry at you last night. I’m the one who should’ve been careful. I shouldn’t have gotten in over my head.”
“It was my fault, really. I dropped that glass...”
“No, I’m putting the blame on myself, alright?” said Twilight with a small smile, “Do you forgive me?”
“Wait, you’re asking me to forgive you?”
She nodded.
“Yeah, of course I forgive you. But I still–”
“Don’t,” she interrupted. Then she held a foreleg out, asking for a hug. The dragon awkwardly walked into her embrace. It felt strange to be hugging Twilight while also seeing her walking around from further away.
They broke the embrace and looked at each other for a moment. The dragon stared into the soft blue eyes of Fluttershy and saw Twilight behind them.
“Come on, Number One Assistant,” said the pegasus, “Let’s help the others.”
“So, uh, what exactly are we lookin’ for?” asked Applejack, running a hoof along the spines of books.
“Basically, magic spells,” replied Twilight, “Specifically, a mind-altering spell that allows the switching of bodies or minds or something to that effect.”
The former unicorn focused on three books and attempted to float them in front of her face, but found she was unable to summon her magic. She was confused at the absence she felt inside her, then remembered she was in Fluttershy’s body. The pegasus sighed and pulled a book out by hoof, wondering how earth ponies and pegasi could cope with having to physically handle everything they wanted to use.
Once she had the book, she again instinctively attempted to use magic to open it and flip though the pages. She shook her head at herself and placed the book on a lectern.
What a bother... she thought as she flipped the front cover open and read through the contents.
Twilight scanned the page and her eyes happened on a spell called Mind Over Matter. She had a feeling it wasn’t what she was looking for, but hoping against hope, she flipped to the page it was listed on — at a, to her, frustratingly slow pace — and quickly read through it. As she suspected, it wasn’t the spell she needed; it was used to raise the mental processes of a pony for a short time, with the side effect of lowering their physical abilities.
Another spell to stay away from for a long, long while... she thought, flipping back to the contents again. Seeing nothing else close to what she wanted, Twilight closed the book and placed it back on the shelf.
Half an hour of searching later, as Twilight was carrying another book to the lectern, she heard Pinkie Pie’s voice calling out to her.
“Twilight, I believe I’ve found it!”
Hastily putting the book on the lectern, the pegasus rushed over next to the pink pony, “Are you sure?” she asked, skimming the page Rarity was indicating with her hoof.
“Yes, yes, this looks like it!” said Twilight excitedly, “Let’s see; swaps the minds of two ponies in close proximity. If three or more are present, the spell will lie dormant. The two ponies wishing to swap minds must stay within approximately four feet of each other for at least an hour. While the spell is active, it can cause headaches, nausea, and/or drowsiness. May be cast multiple times.”
Her brow furrowed as she silently read over the directions, noting that they were very similar to the spell she had intended to cast the night before.
“Oh boy, this is a tricky one,” she said, shaking her head.
“Just... tell us what to do and we’ll do it,” said Fluttershy.
“Yeah, we can handle it!” added Pinkie.
Twilight’s eyes flicked between the two unicorns, “I doubt either of you will be able to do this right now.”
“Why?” asked Pinkie.
“I’ll put it this way — try and lift this book with your magic,” replied the pegasus, nodding to the book in front of her.
“Alright! Stand back!” said the white unicorn. Twilight rolled her eyes and did so.
Pinkie locked her gaze on the book, a determined look on her face. She pointed her horn at it, leaned forward, waved her hooves, and even stood on her head — an act that caused Rarity to bring a hoof to her face — but the book remained where it was.
“Uh... I dunno how to do that,” said Pinkie on all fours again.
“Fluttershy, do you want to try?” asked Twilight.
“...I know I can’t...” replied Fluttershy quietly.
“It’s okay. I wasn’t expecting either of you to. But like I said, we’ll teach you how.”
“I’ll do what I can to help,” said Rarity, “But I still have to get back to Carousel Boutique tomorrow. Or rather... Pinkie Pie does.”
“And you have to go to Sugarcube Corner tomorrow,” replied Pinkie, “Do you know how to bake cakes? I have to do that tomorrow. But since you’re me, I guess that means you have to do that tomorrow. Or would that still count as me? Hmmm...”
“Oh shoot!” cried Rainbow Dash suddenly, “What time is it?”
“About nine o’clock,” replied Spike, “Why?”
“I just remembered, I gotta be in Cloudsdale around noon to start my weather patrol! But Applejack, you’ll have to do it.”
“Weather patrol?” asked Applejack, “Ah dunno what you do there.”
“Pretty simple — we fly around an area and make sure no clouds are where they shouldn’t be. If they are, we kick them apart or move them.”
“Cloud kickin’ ah should be able to handle, but ah don’t know your patrol route. Or how to fly.”
“You shouldn’t need to worry about the route. You’ll be assigned to a group leader, so just follow them. And flying’s easy, so don’t get worked up about it.”
Applejack unfurled her wings, feeling muscles she never had before stretch, “So you just need to flap these up an’ down?”
“Both in time, yeah.”
“I’d better practice, too,” said Twilight, unfurling her own wings, “I wouldn’t make a very good pegasus if I couldn’t fly.”
“Alright, now the harder you beat your wings, the higher you’ll go,” said Rainbow, “Once you’re at the height you need to be, just casually start flapping.”
She sighed and looked back at her new body, missing her wings.
Applejack gave her wings a few test flaps, getting a feel for how they worked. Then, she gave two great beats and lifted off the ground. Caught off-guard at the sudden increase in altitude, she began frantically flapping, slowly losing height before steadying and hovering a few feet off the floor.
“Hey! Ah’m flyin’! Wow!” she cried.
“Yeah... great,” muttered Rainbow Dash, turning her head away.
“Hey, come on, Rainbow. You’ll have yer wings back in no time.”
The earth pony sighed, “Yeah...”
Twilight, having watched Applejack, lifted herself off the ground and found she was swaying from side to side.
“Twilight, keep your body level,” said Rainbow Dash, noticing her friend was having trouble controlling herself, “You move to whatever side you dip your legs.”
The pegasus managed to level herself out. She experimented dipping her left legs and, sure enough, she floated in that direction. Within an hour, the two pegasi were slowly, albeit a little unsteadily, flying around the main room of the library.
“Applejack. Twilight. You’re doing great,” said Fluttershy.
Rainbow forced a smile, “Awesome. Definitely,” she said, wishing she could join them.
After a few more minutes the two landed.
“Okay, before we do anything else, I say we eat,” suggested Twilight.
“We’ll get it, right Spike?” said Pinkie.
“Sure,” said the dragon with a nod.
Spike and Pinkie Pie made their way to the kitchen.
“Be careful with my mane while you’re doing that,” Rarity called after them.
While they were eating, Applejack was struck with a thought, “Hey, since we’re gonna be actin’ like each other, ah think we should start learnin’ ta talk like each other. Me, ah gotta try and lose this accent when talkin’ to everypony else.”
“Good point,” said Rarity, “Pinkie, do you think you could try and be more refined in your speech?”
“‘Kay!” replied Pinkie, “Uh, I mean, okay!”
“Try, ‘Certainly, dear’.”
“Um... certainly... dear.”
“That’s more like it. And I’ll have to be more, shall we say, animated.”
“Let’s see! Let’s see!” cried Pinkie excitedly.
Rarity rolled her eyes, “Must I? Now?” she asked.
“Yeah! Do it!”
Swallowing her pride, the pink pony repeatedly jumped up and down, “Wooooo,” she said, half-enthusiastically, then sighed, “This is so degrading.”
“Alright! Go Rarity!”
“Eh, not bad,” said Applejack, “Just a little more energy and you’ll be pretty close.”
“Yeah. Then times that by, like, a thousand and it’ll be perfect,” added Rainbow Dash.
“Oh, by the way,” said the blue pegasus, “Do ah... I... sound like Rainbow Dash right now?” she asked her friends, consciously trying to subdue her accent.
“Um... that ain’t bad,” said Rainbow, doing her best not to overdo Applejack’s drawl, “How ‘bout me?”
“None too shabby, yerself. Ah mean, you’re not too shabby, yourself.”
Twilight giggled, “This is weird. But I think if we all stick to it, we should be able to pull off each other without anypony noticing. I’ll have to start speaking more quietly. And Fluttershy? I’m afraid you’ll have to speak up a little more.”
“I’ll try,” responded the unicorn.
“After you’re finished eating, Fluttershy, Pinkie, me and Rarity will get you started on using magic.”
“And with any luck, we’ll be our old selves again soon,” added Rarity, “Very soon, I hope.”
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Great concept but the reasoning behind keeping it secret seems forced and weak in it's reasoning. Great job so far though!
I approve of this.
1498659
Depends on when this is, actually. If it's set after twilight goes through that whole 'tardy' thing in Lesson Zero, than maybe a bit. Hmm, not enough to stop me from going on, I've gotten past far more contrived things in stories that are pretty good otherwise.
But a good point.
Hmm. Applejack and Dash switch. Sounds vaguely familiar!
1498659 I have to agree with you there. In my own horrifyingly un-complete body switching story I have Pinkie complaining Twilight shutting down the idea of hiding it with the line "think of the hijinks Twilight, think of hijinks." I love that line so I'm a little biased.
That being said I'm loving this story anyway. it's fun.
Oh I see, it's a body swap story.
If I wouldn't have already faved it before, I'd do it now.
Twilight needs to take responsibility.
i feel i should preface this comment: This isn't bad, and i'm not saying it's a bad story.
That out of the way, i feel like you missed out on an opportunity with this spell. Safeguards or not, a spell like this has some serious ethical implications, and opens the way for some less traveled story paths. Think about it: this spell can fundamentally change a part of a character's personality. There would be massive temptation to use it to remove perceived character flaws, and that could backfire in ways that could have been both comedic and still make a good story(It would have also made a good dark or sad story, had you chosen that route).
As i said, i'm not saying this story is bad. i just feel like you missed out on a relatively more original and thought provoking concept.
2658751
"I'm am adverse to killing other ponies."
"Anypony want cupcakes?"
.
.
.
I would love to see this happen in a canon episode for one specific reason: to see Rarity's body infused with Pinkie Pie's character.
This is especially funny due to the fact that Ashleigh Ball voices both RD and AJ.
It would make a lot more sense for them to just go on a retreat, take vacation or possibly claim they are going off on a mission as the Elements, instead of try to learn how to fly/do magic/whatever and impersonate one another and do each other's jobs in a single day. But I guess that isn't the story you wanted to tell.
I am reading on, with diminished enthusiasm.