Chapter 1
Twilight sat in the library at a large table, humming quietly to herself, leafing through an old book, and occasionally looking away to take notes. It wasn’t just any old book, and while every book was special, this one stood above all others. It was the last journal of Starswirl the Bearded, containing the unfinished spell that had once helped her ascend to alicorn status, as well as various other experiments and spellcraft.
“A true, true friend… friend indeed… hmm mm mmh…”
Starlight walked in cradling two cups of coffee in her magical aura. “Morning Twilight. What was that you were humming? It’s really nice.” She set one of the cups down next to Twilight. “Three sugars, one cream, just like you like it, Teach.”
Twilight blushed faintly, levitating the cup and taking a slow sip. “You know you don’t have to call me that, right? But thank you.” She took another sip, then sighed and leaned back. “I didn’t miss our lesson, did I? I know I tend to lose track of time when I study.”
Starlight sat next to Twilight and smiled. “Nah, it’s still early. So, what’s with the old book? Oh! Is it part of my lesson today? You were singing about a true friend after all, Twilight.” She took a sip of her own coffee. “Wow, Spike makes a good cup of coffee.”
“This? Oh, uhm, no… I mean, you’re free to look over some of the magic theory in this book, but the last part is probably… I mean…” She fluffed her wings a bit, staring down at the page again before turning back to Starlight and smiling. “Actually, you know what? You might be exactly the second set of eyes I need for this. Did the girls ever tell you that story about my ascension?”
“Not really. I know you fixed a spell of Star Swirl’s and created new magic, but, uh...the girls were a bit…” Starlight tapped her forehoof on the table. “Hesitant to go into it. All Rarity would say was, ‘Checkerboard patterns! What was I thinking?’”
“Yes, I can see why they would be a bit embarrassed about the whole ordeal.” Twilight rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. “But, that other thing, about finishing the spell… this spell, by the way.” She held the book up for Starlight. “Don’t read it out loud, please. Anyway, looking over it again, I’m not entirely sure if I fixed it. Celestia said it herself, I made new magic… not fixing some old magic. I’m not even entirely sure if the spell was broken in the first place. It just didn’t have the effect Starswirl was hoping for, whatever that might have been.”
Starlight took the journal in her aura, read through the original spell, and frowned before nodding her head. “Well, it was definitely written by Starswirl. I should know, after all… but it’s odd. It’s a complete spell, of that I have no doubt. Why would it be his unfinished masterpiece if it was already finished? Twilight, you obviously read it out loud, right? What were the effects, if any?”
Twilight took the journal back as soon as Starlight was done with it, frowning. “Well...I think they called it unfinished because it never did what it was supposed to do. It’s an incantation that can swap the cutie marks… no, the very destiny of ponies. When I read it, my friends all thought that the cuties marks they had were their original marks.” She groaned. “Trust me, the only thing worse than Applejack trying to make dresses is watching Pinkie Pie trying to buck apples.”
“Why did it switch your friend’s destinies instead of the destinies of any other ponies? Why them in particular?” Starlight frowned as her eyebrows knitted. She felt there was something she was just missing. Something big.
“That’s what I’m not entirely sure of yet.” Twilight sighed. “What I do know is that it changed the cutie marks of my friends through their connection with the Elements of Harmony, which were in the same room with me at the time. But whether the spell simply focuses on the closest group of ponies with cutie marks and recognized the Elements as such, or if it actively targeted the Elements as a part of the spell. ” She shook her head. “It’s worrying to think about, but I’m too scared of what might happen if I try to cast it again. And I can’t even study the Elements anymore because they’re a part of the Tree of Harmony again.”
“Well, it might be a good idea to try and create a fail safe for this spell, just in case it’s not just targeting the element holders. Sadly, I could see one of the Crusaders reading this if they got their hooves on it.” Starlight shrugged “Besides, who better than you and me to fix the spell you fixed, Teach!”
Twilight smiled and rolled her eyes. “Oh, stop the flattery. You do have a point though… if we can make a reliable counterspell, we could study the spell without the dangers of irreversibly changing somepony’s destiny.”
“I’ll go ask Spike for some more coffee, and sandwiches too. You get the supplies we’ll need, Twilight. Should I tell Spike we’re in Defcon One research?” Starlight stood back up from the table, taking Twilight’s mostly empty cup.
“Oh Celestia, I hope it won’t come to that.” Twilight shuddered. “The last time that happened I literally disintegrated. The poor guy had nightmares for weeks.” She stood up as well and started pulling books from the shelves, looking them over. “Besides, we’re just making a counterspell. If we do it right, it won’t even do anything unless someone casts the original spell first.” She hummed and made a note. “Note to self… study the effect of incantations on and by non-ponies.”
“Good luck on getting a non-pony to volunteer for that one, Twilight. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Starlight left the room to head back to the kitchen. “Hey Spike, we need some more coffee and some sandwiches. Twilight and I are going to be working on a reversal to the unfinished spell.”
Spike nodded, pouring two more cups of coffee, and pulling a plate of sandwiches out of the fridge. “Coffee… sandwiches…” He handed everything over to Starlight, then pulled a hardhat and a security vest from the pantry. “If you need me, I’ll be hiding out in the bunker....I mean, uh, the basement.”
“Yeah, that’s about what I thought. Thanks Spike.” Starlight put everything on a tray, but then hesitated. “Did Twilight really disintegrate herself?”
Spike shuddered, clutching the vest tighter to himself. “Please don’t remind me of that.”
“Right. Take care of yourself.” Starlight prepped her shield spell, just in case, and carried the tray into the library.
Starlight stared at the written counterspell, her mane stuck out in places and her coat a mess. “Teach...how did you create a fireball while trying to create a counterspell to a spell that has nothing to do with fire?”
Twilight blushed and waved off. “Oh, um, that happens more often than you’d think. Fire magic is my natural affinity, actually.” She looked away, mumbling. “...my mane literally into flames…”
“Well, that is a story I’ve got to hear. But later. For now, I think we got it. Would you do the honors, Princess?” Starlight summoned a brush from her room to tame her mane.
Twilight nodded, taking a step forward and lifting up the scroll, clearing her throat one more time for good measure. “From another to one, magic flows back. Wrong destiny, returned to the right track.” She tensed and looked around, then slowly relaxed again. “Well, that was about as anticlimactic as we’d hoped, wasn’t it?”
Starlight opened her mouth to answer when she heard a smash right outside of the locked door, which shuddered further as it was furiously pounded on from the outside.
“Twilight! Twilight are you in there? Are you okay? Answer me!”
Twilight gulped, taking a deep breath. “Okay, okay… no need to panic, I’m pretty sure neither of us died this time. Whatever it is can’t be too bad, right?” She walked over to the door, her magic already unlocking it. “We’re both fine! What’s wrong?!”
Rainbow Dash wrapped her forelegs around Twilight and held her tightly. “Oh, thank Celestia, Luna, I’ll even thank Cadance and Discord! I was so scared that something had happened to you that the Princesses were like bawling their eyes out or something!”
“The Princesses… what? Rainbow, calm down!” Twilight stumbled back, awkwardly trying to pry the pegasus off of herself and feeling just a tad bit uncomfortable at the attention. “We’re fine. Why would you think that something happened to me?”
There was a knock on the doorframe and Spike walked in, now wearing a miner’s hat with its lamp lit up. “Sooooo, Twi… do you want to tell us why all the lights suddenly went out outside?”
Starlight walked over to the window and lifted the black out curtain and stared in horror, her jaw dropping. “Teach, he’s right. It’s around two in the afternoon, and there’s no sun… or moon… or stars, even...it’s just...black.”
Twilight opened her mouth, then closed it again and ran over to the window, pushing Starlight aside. “What?! T-that wasn’t us! I mean, it makes absolutely no sense! The spell doesn’t have a single connection to the sky or the sun or… Spike, can you send a message to Celestia to make sure that she’s okay?”
Spike saluted before grabbing a piece of parchment and a quill as Starlight continued to stare out the window.“Wait! The moon!” Everyone turned to the window again to watch as the full moon shakily and far too quickly made its way into the sky.
A sudden gold light temporarily blinded everyone within the room. After a brief moment, the light faded, and Celestia and Luna, both wearing cloaks, became visible. Celestia swallowed hard, visibly distressed. “Twilight Sparkle, We… are in need of help…”
“Princess Celestia, Princess Luna!” Twilight’s ears perked up and she jumped forward, stopping short in front of them. “You’re both okay! What happened? Did Tirek get loose again and take your cutie marks? Did some other dark entity appear? Don’t worry, me and the others will have this fixed in no time… I hope. I mean, probably.”
“Nothing quite that simple i’m afraid my faithful stu— Twilight. Go on Luna, show her.” Celestia leaned down and softly nuzzled Luna’s cheek, encouraging her.
Luna nodded and tugged at the clasp with her mouth. Celestia smiled sadly “I’m afraid we are both a bit nervous to use our magic right now.”
After a few moments of tugging, the cloak finally unclasped and fell to the floor. “Can you help us Twilight? Please, Tia and I are not certain where else to go! Were it not for thee… you, we would be forced to beg help from Discord!”
“What do you… mean…” Twilight blinked when the cloak fell down, revealing a completely normal and healthy alicorn at first sight - until her eyes moved down towards Luna’s flank and she noticed a stylized and very familiar mark of a sun. “But that’s… you…” She turned to Celestia, looking at the other Princess’ still covered body, too afraid to ask.
Celestia nodded, unclasping her own cloak with her mouth, revealing the silver crescent moon cutie mark on her light pink fur. “We seem to have…” She shuddered. “I lost control of the sun.”
Twilight stared at them for a moment with wide eyes, whispering to herself. “It swapped your cutie marks… b-but that doesn’t make any sense! We triple-checked the spell, the only way it could have done that is if…” She blinked rapidly a few times, then started to giggle, several strands of her mane springing out as it turned into a full-blown fit of laughter.
“Um Twilight… you remember that one query we had before casting the spell?I think we just answered it…” Starlight stared in shock as she sat down hard, bringing a hoof to her head and began to laugh “It did work! Starswirl’s spell worked perfectly, and no pony ever even knew!”
Twilight took several deep breaths, nearly hyperventilating before she managed to calm down again. “Well, there is good news Princesses. We already know exactly what happened. And we fixed it. Kind of.” She gave them a slightly manic grin, face frozen as she slowly tipped over like a goat, everything going dark for her.
“Twilight!” “Twilight Sparkle!”
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Might I humbly suggest 'just the way you like it'?
And a missing space.
And wrong tense.
Definitely reading more of this.
me think spell was made so that those two will learn what it like to be the other, to stop them form fighting or for something like nightmare moon from happening.......
7840669
I could see them attempting to prevent that, but how does it being this way do that?
7840697 walk a mile in the other shoes, or in this case role,
7840705
Whose role?
7840707 each others, luna and tia, best way to learn how the other is feeling is to switch roles,
this is all guess what though
7840725
Um, none of the quotes suggesting a different wording are from when Celestia and Luna were there, the first one is the only one to do that, and is from the second paragraph.
EDIT, you are not talking about my quotes, sorry.
Ooooohh boy
Yknow, I originally thought this was going to be a spoof of the Leroverse/Xenoverse version of Magical Mystery Cure. That story is getting freakishly long with no end in sight. I thought the description said that Twilight cast the spell again a thousand years after SHE cast it the first time.
Oh. Okay. I see what happened here... This certainly is a most vexing conundrum. I like it.
Whoops.
Celestia nodded, unclasping her own cloak with her mouth, revealing the silver crescent moon cutie mark on her light pink fur. “We seem to have…” She shuddered. “I lost control of the sun.”
Shouldn't Celestia think she's suddenly unable to control the moon with the skill and precision she's built up over the years?
Oh, Twilight. Why in God's name did you listen to Starlight of all ponies concerning whether or not to cast a spell?!
I am simultaneously amused and wanting to headdesk at their actions. More, please? :D
Alright Mr/Ms/Mrs Errand, you have my attention. Please, continue
Missing capital. Otherwise, this seems like a fun idea and I'm interested to see where it goes from here.
I don't have anything to really say yet besides "thats p good more pls," but the title alone makes me wonder how many baby boomers started screeching at the mention of "millennial."
Luna originally being the sun princess but having all that power and love suddenly stripped away would definitely make her transformation into Nightmare Moon more believable. Unless the spell just somehow switched their cutie marks instead of returning them to their rightful owners. I'd love to see how Luna deals with being the sun princess and how Celestia deals with having to learn to dreamwalk and help fight nightmares, since Luna said she had no power in dreams. It would be magic totally unfamiliar to both of them. Luna, used to raising the smaller moon and having less to deal with at night suddenly being forced to hold day court, and Celestia, who doesn't have power over and can't comprehend dream magic....
So, before their first attempt at Starswirl's spell, Luna originally controlled the sun and Celestia originally controlled the moon?
Interesting idea. I feel like I've seen it used somewhere before, too.
I think that one was just a one-shot, though.
7841631
Yep ^^
So Star Swirl's original use of the spell switched Luna and Celestia's destinies around, I take it?
7841643
Yep.
More more more more more more. Please?
I was actually hoping the AU tag was going to be that Celestia and Luna had swapped cutie-marks thousands of years ago without realizing it only to be shocked when the counter spell fixes it, then think that Celestia having a sun mark and Luna having a moon mark is wrong. And Rarity pointing out how much better the swapped marks match their color schemes.
... Unless that's what's going on, I'm a little tired.
P.S.
Has anyone else ever noticed that fanfic writers never write out exact times? Like, it's always, always like this; around this, about that.
It's one of those 'once you see it' things.
"How long was I out?"
"Around a week."
How long ago did he leave?"
About four hours ago."
"What time did you fall asleep?"
"Around nine."
It's very odd.
Ah'm curious. 0.0
7841631 I'm fairly certain it was a major plot point in Rainbow Divided, a story in the Xenophilia verse. It was right around when the story when down the drain.
7841921
Ah! I do believe that was it. Thank you.
Heh, while I have too much appreciation for that story to agree completely with you, I'll confess that's around the point where I kind of took a break from it.
7841921 Don't remind me. Shit, I was so big on Xenophilia and that was a kick to the dick for me. It still hurts my soul.
I hope this doesn't get out of hand, but in all honesty Xenophilia was never that good. Rainbow Divided just pulled the wool off my eyes, if that's the right term? Point is, these days I can't even reread it due to how much it hurts me on a physical level. I get bruises on my liver when I try to read it, and that's before I feel the need to drink myself into a coma. My body's trying to make me stop it faster it seems, thank d-g. I really hope it's obvious but I'm joking in that last sentence, don't want you worrying.
7841951
7841949
7841921
That story was never anything more than Gary Stu wish fulfillment. It was never good and just a prime example of why the fandom is so mocked by those not in it.
You can enjoy such things as a guilty pleasure, but the overwhelmingly positive reception it had pretty much screams how obsessed bronies are with the idea of having a pony harem.
The only, only thing I liked about the story was Dash's self-consciousness at the very start about how she isn't beautiful by pony standards. It's always written as all members of the Mane6 being superhot and desirable, capable of having any pony they want, so it's a nice twist to see the opposite.
If someone knows of a story where it's like this that isn't HiE, I'd like to hear about it.
7842025 You know, on one hand you're right, but you really need to calm down. Xenophilia isn't some sort of Illuminati front that oppresses the brownies or whatever the hell you're trying to say.
Are you okay? Are you being ironic or are you legitimately trying way too hard to be contrarian and edgy?
Even though you're kind of flipping out, this WAS a creative idea! Even though it's a lie because Rainbow Dash is a semen demon and if the fic happens to be canon, I'll kill myself pony standards can EAT SHIT.
7841951 Honestly, while he was pretty gary stu, and got moreso as the verse and that story in particular went on, the biggest appeal to me wasn't the hole 'harem' thing but the fact that it treated the MLP world as an actual distinct world with genuinely different and alien culture as opposed to being just "America 2". As annoying as the sueness and silliness got in that verse is I still find it infinitely more annoying when other stories have things like 1950s american sexism or gender roles when they living in a fucking quasi-theocratic matriarchy with an immortal demigoddess in rule for a millenia. It started a small shift in a part of the fandom of asking "what would their society actually grow to be like instead of just being a reflection of earth"... And then later in the expanded universe idiots that didn't get that point started adding in all the "A-Mare-ica" and other reflection nations into canon ruining that uniqueness as well.
Interesting, though not necessarily profound or great, ideas that ultimately didn't live up to their potential.
7842025 Eh, most stories are wish fulfillment in one way or another. The only question is how overt and how well written is it. It started pretty overt, but backed it up with at least the tease of world building and treating Equestria as its own nation and Ponies as their own species completely separate and alien to humanity as opposed to just being an "America 2" reflection that a lot of stories just roll with.
The story had a few interesting ideas to start with and if it just used Humanface whatshisname(... LERO! that's it) as a vehicle to explore that universe and its culture it probably would have been an objectively better story, but alas what starts as clop with an interesting premise usually doesn't shake its roots. It started out masturbatory (Quite literally at first) so it verring even harder into self insert sue isn't suprising to me, or even something to get worked up about. I'm just a touch disappointed that it never went anywhere really interesting with the whole alien society thing.
7841869
Probably because if you were to have a character start giving specific times, people would wonder how said character knew this and start making fun of the fact that they have a magical, convenient stopwatch.
"How long was I out?"
"Nine hours and twenty-six minutes."
"...Crap! This convinient plot device makes me late for the next plot point!"
Btw this story was featured.
7842189
Okay, let's see if I can explain this better.
What I meant by specific times was more like, lets say somebody asks you a time related question, like, "How long ago did something happen?" and the exact answer is two hours and five minutes, the answer you will give will be, "Two hours ago." Not, "Around two hours ago." No one feels the need to clarify that they are not being exact like people in these stories always do.
See, usually when people in real conversations give a time, it's an estimate, but that fact is implied. You don't say stuff like, "I was on vacation for about a month," just because is was actually thirty-five days, you just say, "I was on vacation for a month." or, "It's a two and half hour movie," instead of, "It's around two and a half hours," because it's actually two-thirty-six.
People aren't this... wary of giving precise, incorrect times, and so don't see the need to cover their bases by adding an arbitrary about/around to every mention of time ever spoken.
The quote from the last comment? Nine times out of ten, "It's two in the afternoon" would have been said instead.
Get what I mean?
7842044
Just really hate that story. And what is a semen demon exactly, and is that your head canon for Dash? That small bit is confusing.
7842151 I too was not down with the harem thing. Hell, I even wanted to drop the story because of it, but I was younger and retarded. I kept going until "it" happened, as already discussed.
You know, this really summarizes the fandom quite well to an extent. We get better, we're doing well, and then some dumbshits ruin it all for everyone. And we keep trying.
We have long since crossed from endurance to insanity. I dunno I had a better way to say this in my head.
7842260
It means I want to fuck her.
EDIT: For the record, I usually say "around two in the afternoon" or "about a week" in real life, due to my cripplingly low self-esteem due to doubting myself 24/7 and overall fear of failure.
Don't give me that look.
Tracking.
7840916 I believe they're both used at some point in the song.
Great story
Alright, you have my interest. Tracking.
Two critical comments though:
I know they need a reason to try and reverse engineer (or whatever they're going to try) the spell in order to create a counterspell, but using the cutie mark crusaders as reason for this is a bit far out. If Twilight stores powerful spells where even they can get their hooves on them (and cast them!), she has no business having anything like it in her castle. Or any spell scroll, for that matter.
Researching a failsafe to minimize the risk of analysing the spell in depth would actually be totally sufficient and a very sound reason all on itself. I guess that's the real reason Twilight wants to do it, but the CMC thing irked me.
That... sounds a bit weird and in the wrong universe.
Anyway... I like the premise of the counterspell having restored the princesses' original destinies. Reminds me of your story (in my favourites folder) where they swapped bodies and got stuck. you seem to like that theme.
7842260
I don't have any idea what your conversation is about, but I'd like to point out that for me, clarifying that figures are estimations comes naturally. I inherently hate telling half truths and that's reflected in my language, almost to the point of being a tick.
That's probably odd of me, but I do regularly observe others using such clarifications, typically when they're uncertain of the information they're conveying.
Wait wait. Comments tell me Celestia and Luna had switched up marks all this time? ... Then what about their names? Luna = Moon. Celestia = Sun. I mean, these are the thematic references in their very names. Having the Moon Horse in control of the sun as her original destiny makes no fucking sense.
7843443
It'll be touched on in the next chapter. But let's just say destiny decided to make fools of their parents.
7843507
Curse you destiny!
When the spell was first worked, the "Mane Six" didn't realize their cutie marks had changed, so they accepted their new roles as though they'd always been that way--despite having no skills to carry those new roles.
So, Celestia and Luna should have done likewise, with them accepting that Luna had always had control of the sun and Celestia the moon (and possibly the stars in all of their celestial glory?). They might be confused about why they were suddenly making mistakes, though.
7843840
Rarity states after the spell is undone. "Oh What a terrible dream I had, or maybe i'm still having it." But that was after only a day or a few days. The Princesses were changed for over one thousand years so it's not like coming out of a dream for them.
7842795
A good point, but this is the CMC and a spell with unlimited potential for cutie-mark-related hijinks we're talking about. They would get their hooves on it somehow even if Celestia herself locked it away in her Royal Vault of Dangerous Artifacts.
7844333 Okay, you may have a point there.
Definitely a good start
Oh, I'm so looking forward to reading more of this story!
Eh?
I require more horse words to contemplate this conundrum.