31 - She Arrives
It wouldn't be for another day that any help arrived, but it did. It was not in the form of Celestia. It was another unicorn that Twilight greeted with a big hug, which confused her.
"Um, do I know you?" asked Moondancer with a quirked shaggy brow.
"Oh, right." Twilight backed off and pointed at herself. "I'm Twilight Sparkle."
"Twilight?!" Moondancer shook her head quickly. "The Princess said there were scrambled ponies to handle, but didn't mention you were... this." She waved a hoof up and down at Twilight's big red form.
Twilight blushed, which showed despite her red fur. "Well let's put that aside for the moment. We have to start putting ponies back in their natural bodies."
"Can't argue that." Moondancer's horn glowed as she drew out a book. "Celestia authorized the use of this, with some caveats and warnings. Do you know where the pony is with your body?"
Twilight pointed out of the town. "Big Mac is probably at the farm, unless he's at the market."
"Let's check the market first then, that's closer, right?"
"Right."
They got to trotting, both set to fixing the mess, mostly. Moondancer's eyes kept darting at her scrambled friend. "It must be rough."
"Hmm?"
"Not having a horn, to start, being a stallion, for another. How are you even functional?"
Twilight thrust a hoof at a passing pony. "What were you a week ago?"
The pegasus blinked in surprise. "Earth pony."
Twilight pointed at another, a filly. "And you?"
The filly replied with a mature male voice, "I helped around the post office."
Moondancer shook her head. "I suppose misery really does love company. It's impressive that you're all sticking together through all this."
"Ponyville's seen worse," assured Twilight as she gestured broadly to the town as a whole. "But we are eager to get this sorted out. If you fix me, we can then get to fixing everypony else twice as fast."
"Precisely my thinking. Oh, there you are." She could see Twilight, not the red stallion beside her, but a purple princess offering apples in the market. She wore both her tiara and an apron in an interesting mix of fashions. "Is that the original? And did you let him... her? Them. Did you let them borrow your tiara?"
Twilight's eyes rolled. "He seems to like it, and I didn't see any point worrying about it until we had our bodies back."
They came close enough for Big Mac to notice them. "Howdy, Twilight. Who's yer friend?"
Twilight was caught by surprise. That was more verbiage than normal. Moondancer didn't know better and replied, "Moondancer, nice to meet you. Let's get you two back in your proper bodies." She drew out that magic book.
Big Mac winced, but his smile returned. "Done figured it was just a little while."
Twilight became curious. "You like being a mare?"
"Nope."
Twilight tapped her red chin softly. "You like being a unicorn?"
"Nope."
Twilight pointed at Big Mac. "Well, what is it then? We're friends. I'll keep it secret if you prefer."
Big Mac glanced between the unicorn that was studying her book and Twilight in his body. "Ah..." He leaned in close to Twilight, voice dropping to a whisper. "Ah like bein' important." He was a bright red, squirming. He went silent, as was his nature.
"I'm ready," announced Moondancer with confidence. "If you two would stand side by side? Perfect, just like that." Her horn began to glow brightly. "From my eyes to yours, our perspective is changed. Through our bright open doors, let our bodies be rearranged!" Bright motes of magic swept over the two.
Then it faded away. Moondancer adjusted her glasses as she looked from one to the other slowly. "Well?"
"I... think it worked," said Twilight from within her royal form.
"Yep," agreed Big Mac. He held out a hoof. It took Twilight a moment to realize what was being asked for and she surrendered the apron that was around her.
Twilight lifted from the ground, easily taking flight on her returned wings. "It's time to gather up everypony. Moondancer, head to town hall." She pointed the way. "I'll spread the word and we'll all meet you there to get this straightened out. Be sure to bring that book, I'll need it to lend a hoof."
As Twilight soared off to spread the word, Moondancer leveled her gaze on Big Mac as he got his apron back on. "I... am not an expert on these matters, but I bet you are important."
Big Mac blinked at Moondancer.
She gave an unsure smile. "I'm serious. You have friends, don't you?"
"Ayep?"
"You have family?"
"Yup."
"Both would be sad if you weren't there, so..." She trailed a hoof through the dirt. "You're important, to them."
Big Mac was quiet before he nodded a little. "Ah... jus' wish..." He fell to quiet again.
Moondancer put a hoof to her own chest. "Look, I'm... still learning what having friends is like... Treasure that. You are important."
Big Mac could see the courage and pain that came with Moondancer's admission. He reached out a hoof, and they hugged quietly a moment, sharing in their related but different aches. "Yep." His own feelings were not soothed by the platitude, but the effort meant something between the two awkward souls.
"We're getting fixed!" came the excited cry of a colt. The classroom became madness with chatting and rushing to grab one's things.
Cheerilly slapped the board with her pointer. "Class! Calm yourselves. We'll proceed in an orderly fashion." Her eyes settled on the colt that had come with the news. "Where do we need to be?"
"Twilight said to come to the square." He pointed off in the right direction, bouncing with eagerness.
"Then we'll do that, and I'm afraid I do need to report to your mother that you weren't in class."
The foal blinked. "I'm not in your class, Cheerilee."
Cheerliee clopped a hoof to her small face. "I am looking forward to this being fixed."
The class poured free of the schoolhouse and began marching towards salvation.
Silver Spoon in the body of her best friend came up alongside the larger form of Prickle. "Are you looking forward to being yourself again?"
"I... am," agreed Prickle with a little hesitation. "I'm surprised that I am, but I really am."
Diamond's voice joined, "tired of being a freak?"
Silver frowned a little. "She just said she wants to go back to her normal self."
"Oh." Diamond reached up to rub at one of her aged ears. "These don't work as well as they should. I hope you've been taking care of my body, Silver Spoon."
Silver cracked a smile. "I made sure to enjoy extra sweets."
Diamond jumped at her friend, and they went to the ground, wrestling, but Silver was laughing. Prickle smiled a little. It was kind of nice to see them being such good friends.
Rainbow Dash, er, Scootaloo landed beside Prickle. "Hey, so, going back huh?"
Prickle perked an ear at Scootaloo. "Nervous?"
"Yeah... but not that, not exactly."
Prickle bumped against her friend. "You're afraid this will be the last time."
Scootaloo winced. "Am I that obvious?"
"It's alright... I would be too. You're a good friend for giving her her body back."
"Yeah..." Scootaloo kicked a rock away as they walked. "The Rainbow I know would never do that... I couldn't just... be her, if I'd do that. Rainbow isn't like that..."
"You're not Rainbow," Prickle said with a smile. "You're even better. You're Scootaloo, who is my friend, and has helped me so much since I met her." She put a hoof at her own chest. "In fact, if I had to pick my favorite hero, I'd say it was definitely Scootaloo, who helped teach me that... I..."
Scootaloo suddenly grabbed Prickle, hugging her tightly. It became quiet, but volumes were said between them. Eventually they parted. Scootaloo pointed ahead. "We should get going."
"That was mighty sweet ah ya," complimented a coltish Apple Bloom, walking along Prickle. "Let's get this over wit'."
The crowd was growing at the square. Just about everypony that lived in Ponyville was there, which made it quite the gathering indeed.
Sweetie, with the few others who were in the body they started with, were off to one side, watching but not getting mixed up with the ponies that needed help. She glanced to the left and saw DJ-Pon3 beside her, watching everything with a slow bobbing of her head.
"She didn't get you?" asked Sweetie.
Vinyl gave a slow shake somehow in perfect time with her bobbing.
"What about... Octavia? That's her name right?"
Vinyl pointed out into the crowd.
"Oh, she'll be fixed soon, I hope."
In the crowd, Prickle sat and waited for things to get underway. She heard some ponies talking. Well, she heard a lot of ponies talking, but one conversation caught her attention. "I'm done trying to bake."
"I told you it was harder than it looked," came one of Bon Bon's many voices.
"Oh, I'm not worried about that. I just want to play my lyre and doing that with just hooves is extra hard. Not impossible, just... it's more fun with my horn!"
"About that..."
"You're good at it!" came Lyra's excited cry.
"I broke it."
"Well, yeah, but I'll get it fixed. I've broken the strings before, it happens."
"If I can have your attention," came Twilight's call from the stand. "As you can see, I am back in my usual self."
The crowd erupted into cheers and stomps.
"And now, with the assistance of Moondancer, we're going to fix the rest of the town. To make this process easier, find your original body and stay with them. To speed things along, we'll start with ponies who can be matched directly. Ponies who have been swapped more than once will be handled only after that."
"Darn it," came Rainbow's bitter reply, knowing that put her far from the front of the line.
She wasn't the only one. Prickle and some others grumbled a little, but there wasn't much to be done about it.
Ponies broke up into pairs wherever they could find their doppelganger, and those who only had to be in a group of two advanced to the front of the crowd.
"Pardon, but you appear to have been given a Great and Powerful body."
Prickle perked an ear at the new female voice and looked around before it fell down to a small unicorn. They were the size of a foal, but appeared to be an adult mare. "Hello?"
"Yes, hello," agreed the small adult. "You have Trixie's body in a terrible outfit. She would like it back kindly."
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Poor Trixie. She is going to be waiting a bit becuase Prickle's body is being used by Rainbow Dash. So they need Scootaloo and do a four way swap. Now I wonder who this mysterious pony is, and if Trixie was the first victim.
So trixie WAS a victim!
Oof, my feels. Twice even. Kinda wish the show had more time to explore the characters and their interactions like a story can.
I'm rather curious that even if everyone is swapped back to the way they were, Trixie should still be displaced if I remember correctly. This means there's an extra pony somewhere that, when swapped out of Trixie's body, will finally give the true identity of the Body Swapper.
8109251 If I could walk a mile in your hooves...
Things look like they could be sorted out so quickly.
How many will be left because of the extra assailant? and where have they gone that they are not mixing things up even further, unless they got over enthusiastic and did themselves as well?
8109661 Did you forget? They have the original in Scootaloo's body.
That was good, but damn I can't wait for everyone to get their bodies back. That was confusing as heck!
You put Azure Blue Waifu The Great and Powerful in at last! MY prayers are answered! Thanks D. Silver!
So she was a dwarf unicorn? Huh.
Mac is given a bit to chew on, but it's still nice to dream.
Keep going! ;)
omg, it didn't even cross my mind that Trixie could've been the first victim of the Body Swapper.
The real question is WHY anypony want Trixie's body to begin with?
were off to side - were off to one side
In that crowd, Prickle - In the crowd, Prickle
This arc seems to be drawing to a close, and it would seem that the culprit began as a short legs? What will become of her I wonder. They can't very well let her go or hold her imprisoned with an innate talent like that.
Loved all the character moments sprinkled in throughout the chapter:
Big Macintosh and Moon Dancer
Prickle Berry and Scootaloo
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon
Sweetie Drops and Lyra
So many character interactions in a single chapter!
8109251
Isn't it likely that the true identity of the body swapper is the body that Trixie currently inhabits?
8110643 Typos fixed, so that the body fixing can proceed. Silly thing, but how was the little rhyme that swapped ponies?
8110698
Bearing foremost in mind that I am a typo and sometimes format oriented person, and NOT a poet. I thought it was OK, but not perfect. The meaning is clearly delivered and I do know that writing rhyming verse is not easy.
I drummed out the cadence several times and could not make the last line quite match with the rest of the verses.
Dashes are stresesd beats and the forward slash is the break between verses.
- - - . - / . . - . . -
. . - . . - / . . - . . . . -
A comment!
I appreciate the handling of Macintosh this chapter.
Too bad body swapping with a princess doesn't actually make him important.
Interesting that, even though for the most part these swaps don't mean anything but a brief inconvenience to the swapped... there were a few 'hits' like Scootaloo and Macintosh, where the swap is probably going to be something they remember for quite a while and probably make them think a lot.
Although it still didn't do the "your perspective is now fixed!" thing, but impacted them in a different way...
The Brilliant Bodyswapper still didn't accomplish their goal. Oops.
YES shipping moondancer x big mac
I liked the introduction of Moondancer and it turns out that Sweetie Belle's comment last chapter about the culprit having switched with others was true.
Oh, for the love of shit! I freaking HATE Trixie anyway.