The Switchy-Witchy Stone

by PurpleWonderPower

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Something very strange is happening, Luna," said Princess Celestia, urgently, watching the sun drop like a stone and be replaced with the moon, "I can't get control of the sun. It's like there is something else moving it!"

"Let me help," urged Princess Luna, trotting over.

She lit up her horn with her night magic, as Celestia did so with her day magic. She tried desperately to lower the moon, and Celestia cringed in pain as she tried to raise the sun, but it was no use. There seemed to be some kind of other magic that was too powerful for even the two princesses to break through. Sweat ran down Luna's brow, and then her legs gave way and she crumpled to the floor before Celestia caught her.

"I am sorry, my dear sister," moaned Luna, wiping the sweat from her brow, "I cannot seem to gain control. This magic is too strong, even for us."

"I sense that trouble is coming," said Celestia, as she and Luna headed away from the window, and over to their thrones, where Princess Cadance was sitting.

"What should we do?" asked Cadance.

There was suddenly a flash of light from outside the throne room, and the doors opened. Princess Twilight Sparkle strode into the room with her eyes closed and a very relaxed expression on her face.

"Hello there, princesses," said Twilight, striding along the red carpet towards the throne.

"Twilight!" said Cadance, in delight, "It's wonderful to see you!"

"I'm so glad you're here," said Celestia, stepping up from her throne and up to Twilight, "I do not know yet what it is, but we have sensed a threat to Equestria, and I fear that we are going to need all the help we can get."

"Help?" said Twilight, softly, "Oh, yes. You'll be needing PLENTY of that!"

Her eyes snapped open, revealing lurid yellow sclera with blood-red pupils!

The three princesses gasped and automatically stepped back!

Twilight's face twisted into a malevolent grin! She unfolded her wings and rose up into the air, then jammed her hoof at the princesses and yanked it back, yanking the princesses through the air towards her!

"Twilight, what are you—"

"Did you really think I would just let you three keep Equestria as the peaceful and harmonious place it is today?" purred Twilight, her face practically touching Celestia's.

"What?" exclaimed Celestia!

"I am going to take what is rightfully mine!" Twilight declared, "And there is nothing you can do about it!"

She hurled the princesses against the back of their thrones, and channelled her magic! There was a loud, booming sound of stone breaking, and the room around them began to shake, as the Canterlot castle began to tear out of the ground!

"Twilight, what are you doing!?" exclaimed Cadance, "What's wrong with your eyes!?"

Twilight's only reply was a devilish cackle! Magic glowed around her hooves, and the castle ripped from the ground and started to rotate in mid air!

"Bwahahahahahah!" laughed Twilight, as the castle continued to rotate, the stained glass windows smashing up, "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The princesses' eyes widened in horror!

...

Discord's eyelids moved, and his eyes slowly opened. The land around looked even more chaotic than it had before. In fact, it was even more chaotic than the original Chaos Capital of the World. He found that rather insulting, actually.

Discord tried to sit up, but a searing pain rocketed through his body, and he gave a wince!

Then he noticed Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Spike and Fluttershy lying on the ground, looking considerably burnt. The ponies' manes were sticking up in tufts, and Pinkie Pie's tail looked like a bolt of lightning.

Discord gasped and ran over to Fluttershy.

"Fluttershy?" he said, placing his paw to Fluttershy's cheek, raising it up to his face.

Fluttershy's eyelashes fluttered, and her eyes slowly opened. She shakily sat up and coughed out a lot of dust.

"Oh, thank goodness," exclaimed Discord, scooping Fluttershy up in his arms and pulling her into a tight embrace.

Pinkie Pie gave a small cough, and her eyes opened slightly. She sat up and gave a great heave, coughing up the dust and stones from her lungs. "Wow!" she exclaimed, jumping up, "What happened here!"

"I don't know," said Fluttershy, walking over, "Are you OK, Pinkie Pie?"

"Absotutely!" declared Pinkie Pie, shaking out her tattered mane, which bounced back into its usual shape.

"Are the others OK?" said Fluttershy, peering anxiously down at their unconscious friends.

"HEY, RAINBOW DASH!" yelled Pinkie Pie, shaking her best friend like a rag doll, "YOU GOTTA WAKE UP NOW!"

Rainbow Dash gave a moan, and her eyes opened. "Pinkie," she moaned, "Stop shaking me!"

"Sorry!" chirped Pinkie Pie, bouncing off.

"Applejack? Rarity? Spike?" queried Fluttershy, shaking each of them in turn.

Applejack gave a great moan and sat up, rubbing her head, gingerly. "What in tarnation is goin' on here?" she exclaimed, rubbing her head, "How'd this place get so darn chaotic!?"

"The last thing I remember is Twilight shooting off a load of fireworks from her horn and turning everything crazy," said Pinkie Pie.

"I'm pretty sure she said she was Discord," added Fluttershy, confusedly.

"And her eyes were the most sickly shade of yellow," added Rarity, "They looked like...Discord's eyes."

"What in tarnation has happened to our friend!?" exclaimed Applejack, jumping up, "This is makin' less sense than slingin' a hammock between two corn stalks!"

"Why would Twilight think she was Discord!?" exclaimed Rainbow Dash, "This has to have something to do with you two switching powers!"

"But the stone only switched their powers," said Rarity, confusedly, "It didn't switch their heads."

Suddenly, Fluttershy gasped! "Of course!" she exclaimed, "Girls, I know what's happening to Twilight!"

Six heads looked round. "You do?"

"Do you remember from a long time ago, when Trixie returned to Ponyville wearing that Alicorn Amulet?" Fluttershy asked the ponies.

"Trixie?" repeated Discord, "Oh, you mean that extremely obnoxious blue unicorn who does stage magic?" He made a face.

"Indeed, we all remember that terrifying experience," said Rarity to Fluttershy, "But what does that have to do with any of this?"

"Trixie's Alicorn Amulet gave her a huge amount of power," said Fluttershy, "So much power that it started to possess her."

The other ponies nodded.

"And Spike," said Fluttershy, turning to the baby dragon, "Remember when you gave Rarity that Inspiration Manifestation spell to help her with her outfits, but she used its power so much that she got corrupted by it?"

"Yeah," said Spike, shivering, "It was one of the creepiest things I'd ever seen."

"Having too much power can corrupt a pony," said Fluttershy, "And we all know that Discord's magic is a thousand times more powerful than an amulet or a spellbook. That's far too much power for Twilight to even try to handle. That chaos magic has corrupted her, and now there's no telling what she might do with it."

"Well, duh!" said Pinkie Pie, rolling her eyes, "She'll cause chaos, and go after the princesses in Canterlot. She said so, after all."

"Then we must stop her!" exclaimed Rarity.

"And how do you propose we do that?" asked Discord, flatly, "Nopony has ever been a match for my magic. Look how she practically destroyed us." He indicated to the bruised and battered ponies around him.

"Come on, you guys!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash, looking at the other ponies, "What about when Discord first broke out and turned Ponyville into the Chaos Capital of the World!? We beat him! We've beaten Discord's magic before, surely we can do it again!"

"But you stopped me by turning me to stone with the Elements of Harmony," pointed out Discord, "And unless I'm very much mistaken, you ponies won't be wanting to turn your best princess pal to stone for the rest of eternity."

There was a moment of silence, then Rainbow Dash groaned! "Man, I hate it when you're right," she complained.

"Anypony got any other ideas?" asked Applejack.

"What about the Rainbow Light?" suggested Pinkie Pie, "You know, the one we used to beat Tirek that gave us those fun designs and made my hair all big and poofy!"

"Oh, the style of my mane was simply divine!" sighed Rarity, dreamily, "I'm all for it!"

"But the Rainbow Light doesn't switch the magical abilities of two ponies," pointed out Fluttershy.

"Couldn't we just use it anyway?" begged Rarity, "I would so love to have that mane again!"

"No. I think our only hope is to use that stone to switch their powers back," said Fluttershy, "Rainbow Dash, you were right. We were looking in the wrong place. If anypony would have a book about ancient artefacts, it would be in the Castle of the Two Sisters. Our best bet is to get the library and find our answers."

"But that could take five-ever!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, "And that's even longer than four-ever!"

"Then we'd better not waste our time talking!" said Fluttershy, "Come on, everypony! We have to get to the Castle of the Two Sisters and find some way out of this before Twilight turns Equestria upside down!"

She dashed off down the checked roads, and Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Spike hurried after her.

Discord's face fell. "Oh," he sighed, "So this means more walking?"

"Yes!" shouted the others!

Discord gave a sigh and sprinted flat-footedly after them with his walking frame.

...

"Alright, y'all!" exclaimed Applejack, as everypony staggered into the library of the Castle of the Two Sisters, their hooves aching from running, "Grab anythin' you think might be useful and READ, DARN Y'ALL, READ!"

"Yeah!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Spike, dashing over to the bookcases!

"Okie-dokie-lokie!" declared Pinkie Pie, bouncing after them!

Discord, who was absolutely exhausted from running that far, instantly collapsed on the library floor. He gingerly got up and summoned an entire bookshelf of books with Twilight's magic, and started speed-reading them as fast as lightning.

"Anypony found anything!?" yelled Rainbow Dash, grabbing the ancient books off the shelves and tossing them to Rarity, who flipped through them in the blink of an eye.

"Nothing yet!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, who was bouncing along the bookshelves, using her Pinkie Sense to tell her which books might be useful.

"Oh, we simply must find something," said Rarity, in a distressed voice, as she whisked through a dozen of the ancient books Rainbow Dash had thrown her, "I can't possibly imagine what Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Princess Cadance are going through right now!"

"Actually," said Fluttershy, flipping through a book, "I'm pretty sure the princesses are perfectly safe."

Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Spike stared at her.

"Beg your pardon, Fluttershy," said Applejack, in disbelief, "But did you just say perfectly safe!? Are you out of your mind!?"

"Think about it," said Fluttershy, "Remember from a long time ago when Discord first got free. What kind of things did he do?"

"Stole the Elements of Harmony," answered Rarity.

"Turned Ponyville into the Chaos Capital of the World," added Rainbow Dash.

"Used that labyrinth to separate us and turn us all into the opposite of our Elements," added Applejack.

"And made it rain chocolate!" declared Pinkie Pie.

"Exactly," said Fluttershy, "But he didn't try to instantly kill everypony off. He played tricks on us, and turned Ponyville into a disaster, but you'll notice he didn't try to destroy us immediately like Nightmare Moon or Tirek or Sombra did."

"I wasn't that kind of supervillain," said Discord, idly, levitating and speed-reading through another twenty-five books, "I never really saw the point of instantly destroying my enemies. It would only take the fun out of everything."

"You did like to have a good brag," said Rainbow Dash, flatly.

"Yes, and that's coming from the Wonderbolt who can't keep her mouth shut about how awesome she is," replied Discord, pinching Rainbow Dash's cheek between his finger and thumb.

Rainbow Dash laughed, nervously. "Noted."

"I'm pretty sure Twilight will only be causing chaos and teasing the princesses with her magic for the moment," said Fluttershy, flipping through the pages of the book in her hooves, "She'd have to get super, superbored with it before she destroyed them."

"She's right," exclaimed Pinkie Pie, excitedly, "I mean, they're princesses! Since when would Discord miss the chance to show off in front of princesses? And even if Canterlot miiiiiiiight be having a little trouble with chocolate floods and major popcorn catastrophes, Twilight-slash-Discord won't have destroyed them. Yet."

"But," said Rarity, scanning through the pages of yet another book, "We still have an entire library to search for answers! By then it might be too late."

"The answer is in here somewhere," insisted Fluttershy, "I just know it."

She reached for another book, but as she pulled it out, it suddenly it jerked to a stop, revealing it to be attached to some kind of mechanism. There was a large cranking sound, and one of the nearby bookcases ascended up into the ceiling, revealing a dark room hidden behind it.

"Oooh!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie.

"I'll never get used to that," said Rainbow Dash, as they all headed towards the gap that had opened up.

The room was pitch-black, and there didn't seem to be any floor. But hovering by the wall opposite them, suspended in the air by a column of purple light, was a book.

"Y'think that might be the one we need?" queried Applejack.

"Welllllll, usually when creepy secret passages open up, showing mysterious things hidden in dark spooky rooms," said Pinkie Pie, "It's been important."

"Can't argue with that," said Applejack.

"I'll get it," said Fluttershy, fluttering into the dark room, her eyes fixed on the column of purple light.

"Be careful, Fluttershy!" called Rarity, "You never know what kind of traps could be in there!"

Fluttershy shivered. She remembered the time only too well when she, Rarity and Angel had entered the Castle of the Two Sisters to find tapestries to repair, and they had spent the whole night falling into all sorts of traps, and then screaming and running for their lives. And she certainly wasn't anxious to see a repeat of that.

She reached the column of purple light, and stared at the book hovering in the middle of it. Gulping once or twice, she slowly reached her hoof out and swiped it through the purple column.

The other six gasped!

Fluttershy shuddered in terror with her eyes screwed shut, expecting something terribly scary to happen. But nothing did. She opened her left eye. The book was still hovering there, and no traps had sprung. Slowly, Fluttershy reached into the column of purple magic, and closed her hooves on the book's smooth leather cover. Then, taking a deep, deep, deep breath, she yanked the book out of the column, and braced herself for anything.

But nothing happened.

Her eyes darted around, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Then she took a look at the book in her hooves. She wiped the dust off the title. Strange spirally silver writing wrote the words: The Switchy-Witchy Stone.

Fluttershy's eyes widened. The cover of the old book showed a picture of the creamy silver gem shaped like the Chest of Harmony.

"This is it!" exclaimed Fluttershy, fluttering back over to the others and showing them the cover, "I've found it!"

They all gathered round her as she opened the book to the front page.

"'The Switchy-Witchy Stone,'" she read from it, "'An ancient gem with the power to switch the magical abilities of any two ponies it comes into contact with.' Or any draconequui."

"Yeah, yeah, we already know it switches powers!" said Rainbow Dash, impatiently, "You can skip that bit! How do we switch 'em back!? If we can't find a way to get Twilight back to normal, then Equestria is in BIG, BIG trouble!"

"Let me see that," Discord said, taking the book from Fluttershy, "Nothing...nothing...nothing," he muttered, speed-reading through the pages with Twilight's magic, "Aha! Got it!"

"What!?" exclaimed Pinkie Pie.

"It says we can use the stone to switch our powers back. For that, we need a spell," said Discord, pointing to a spell written on the page he was looking at, "And for that we need..."

"The Elements of Harmony," said Fluttershy, when the seven of them were standing back in front of the Tree of Harmony wearing their empty necklaces.

"Is this really, truly a good idea?" asked Rarity, anxiously, "You do remember what happened the last time the Tree wasn't able to survive without the Elements?"

"That was only 'cause Discord had planted a batch of plunderseeds to rob the Tree's magic and ponynap the princesses," said Applejack, "Besides, we're only borrowin' them for a little bit. We'll bring them straight back once we're done with them."

"Well, Discord, you'd better work your magic," said Fluttershy, "I mean, Twilight's magic. She's the only one who can take out the Elements."

Discord raised his eagle claw and channelled Twilight's magic. His claw glowed with pink light and sparkles, and a pink aura lit up around the Tree. The inside space in the middle opened up, and Twilight's star-shaped Element of Magic rose out. The other five spaces on the Tree's branches opened up, and the other Elements: the orange apple of Honesty, the pink butterfly of Kindness, the blue balloon of Laughter, the purple diamond of Generosity and the red lightning bolt of Loyalty rose out to join the sixth.

"I did say I wished we'd someday be usin' these again," said Applejack, as her apple-shaped Element fitted into her necklace, "Now I know why they say careful what you wish for."

"There's no time to lose!" exclaimed Rarity, "We must get to Canterlot at once and rescue Twilight!"

"But what about the sixth one?" asked Discord, holding up Twilight's crown, "We don't have Twilight to use her Element of Magic. And the Elements only work if there are all six of you, correct?"

The ponies faces fell. He was right.

"How do we use the Elements without Twilight?" exclaimed Rarity, "Equestria is doomed! DOO—HOO—HOOMED!"

Fluttershy's face contorted. Then her eyes snapped open! "I know how!" she exclaimed!

She flew over to Discord, grabbed Twilight's crown from his hands and plonked it onto his head.

"Congratulations, Discord, you're the new Twilight Sparkle!" declared Fluttershy.

"What!?" exclaimed Discord, "Me!? But I thought you six were the only ones who could use the Elements."

"You and Twilight have switched powers," explained Fluttershy, "Which means you now have her connection to the Element of Magic."

"I do?" repeated Discord. His expression suddenly turned flat. "Oh, goody," he said, dully, "I'm so honoured."

"We still need that stone," said Applejack, heading towards the passageway they had accidentally opened two days ago, "Come on, y'all, there ain't no time to lose. We've gotta find that stone and get to Canterlot before Twilight turns everythin' into a downright disaster!"