Chapter 1: The Spell

Twilight was ecstatic! She was rummaging through some of Starswirl’s spells and she found a tattered parchment with a spell that required three Alicorns to cast. She did not know what it would do, all the effects could list before the rip on the page cut them off was “Creates a helpful…”

Of course, Starlight Glimmer was the one who translated it for her, Twilight could never read anything Starswirl wrote in a million years! The old wizard’s horn writing was absolutely terrible on an absurd level! Almost as bad as Starlight’s. Twilight ran from the library straight to the castle and into the throne room of the two royal sisters.

She now was standing before the two rulers of Equestria inside the throne room at Canterlot, pleading her case. Celestia smiles but looked mostly bored. Luna leaned against her sister's throne looking exhausted, but then again it was 4:39 pm. “You see," Twilight began. "I found the spell among Starswirl’s spell book. I had to have Starlight help me read the handwriting, and most of the page is gone.”

“If most of the page is gone,” Luna began, “Then how would you cast the spell?” her voice clearly unamused.

“Easy! The entire spell is intact, only the exact effects are torn!” Twilight beamed.

“If the effects are missing… how do we know the spell is not dangerous?” Celestia cautioned, her voice sounding just as sleepy as her sisters.

Twilight smiled wickedly, “Part of them is still listed, it says the spell with create something helpful. What it is exactly or how it helps are still to be seen.”

Celestia thought for a moment, musing over the possibilities. “Ok Twilight, if Luna agrees we will cast the spell with you.” She then chuckled, “Maybe it will help me take that vacation I have been planning for the last thousand years!

“That’s the spirit!” Twilight exclaimed, she then turned to the Princess of the Night. “What do you think Luna?”

Luna smiled, “Indeed! It could be a fun thing to do, I don’t see why we can’t give it a try! Only one problem… you as well as each of us princesses know that now is a bad time.”

The Princess of the Day frowned, Luna was right, it had been a stressful last few weeks for the princesses. No wonder twilight wanted to try out a new spell for fun, anything to distract the three from the thousands of pages of paperwork they had to go through would be wonderful.

Luna spoke up again, "I have not even had time to finish reading my comic book." The night princess had quite the pouty face on as she stated that fact.

Twilight sighed. “I know things have been busy, we have treaties to sign, laws to pass, meetings to attend… but I thought this would be a fun thing for us to do together as a small break.”

Celestia shook her head. “Unfortunately, Luna is right, we are far too busy right…”

Twilight cut her off, “Please Celestia! It has been driving me crazy! All the work is making me feel like my head might fall right off. The spell will take less than five minutes to pass, I promise!”

Celestia smiled and nodded, then glanced at her sister. Luna nodded as well.

Twilight and the two Royal Sisters pranced out into the open courtyard of the castle in Canterlot. It was time to see what “helpful” thing it would create. They stood in a circle and the energy of their horns flared to life. For a moment both the sun and the moon hung in the sky, energy flowed between the three Alicorns, then the celestial bodies returned to their original positions and the energy shot off in a random direction.

The three princesses were dumbfounded. Staring blankly at each other with a "What in Tartarus just happened" face. They heard a crash, and a pony scream "MY LEG!" and all three Royal ponies blushed in embarrassment and resounded a simultaneous “oops."

The princesses soon found were the crash and the scream had come from, they found themselves in an alley between a bakery and a bookstore near the castle. The three Alicorns were staring in shock, A red Alicorn with blue wings was backed into the corner of an alley breathing heavily. Her hooves were covering her eyes and her wings were held tight to her side.

“Excuse me,” Celestia said awkwardly. “Are you alright Princess… eh… what is your name? I have never seen you before in my life.”

The mare removed a hoof and one of her deep brown eyes opened. She then gasped, stood, and bowed. “Princess Celestia, Luna, and Twilight! I don't know what happened, something hit me with great force... my leg feels fine now though.”

Twilight looked a little annoyed at the other pony bowing to her, “You can stand, given your appearance you are a fellow princess as well… but where did you come from…” Twilight’s eyes suddenly sparkled when the realization hit her. But before she could ask a million questions the other pony cut her off.

“Princess? I am not a princess, I am an…” her eyes went wide, and she ran to a conveniently placed puddle in the alley. H… HORN… W… WINGS! P... PONY...” The poor red pony reared up on her hind hooves... then fainted.

When she woke up all three princesses were standing around her. It took her a moment to realize she was indoors and on a soft bed. Purple silk curtains covered a window, faint light filtering through. The sheets were white and most of the walls and floor held a purple-ish tint. So far it was more comfortable then the cardboard box she was living in the past few years.

“Are you ok?” Celestia asked. Legitimate worry on her face.

She looked to her sides and saw she still had wings. Her face twisted in horror and they looked themselves over a little more. Blushing suddenly in embarrassment, before her face turned to horror again. “NO… I AM NOT OK! I suddenly grew wings and a HORN a HORN! And WORSTE of all... PEOPLE ARE CALLING ME PRINCESS! And I am a PONY mare now! And I have no clue WHERE I am or HOW I GOT HERE!”

Twilight blushed sheepishly, “S… sorry, that is out fault. We were experimenting with new magic… and now you are here. I guess... I should have been a teeny, tiny, itsy-bitsy more careful with making sure the spell was cast in a safe location.” A confused expression spread across her face, "What do you mean you are a Pony now? What were you before?" She never got and probably will never get the answer to her question.

Celestia spoke up again, “It seems fate picked you as a princess, normally one has to earn the right to become an Alicorn, but…” her eyes went wide with an idea and she gestured for the other princesses to leave the room with her. The red mare watched as they pranced out and shut the door behind them, excited whispering could be heard on the other side of the door.

"This is what we have been waiting for!" Celestia whispered to the others. "A new princess can certainly help take some of our royal work load." She seemed way to happy about the thought of being able to potentially do less for herself.

Luna nodded, "Yes! And she can do some of our chores while she is at it!" A wide smile spread across her face, "Then I can finally finish reading my COMIC! Maybe even play some Ogres and Oubliettes with Spike, Big Mac, and Discord... I know it is their 'guys night' but I am sure they will let me in as the only girl... that and no one else stays up all night to play games so I usually don't get to hang out with any pony."

Twilight giggled, "And she can give me more time to practice more magic! I still have to master the spell that turns ponies into mice!"

The other two looked at her with their jaws dropped. "Wh... why would you want to master that?" Celestia asked.

Twilight shrugged, a very evil grin on her face. "No reason... totally not plotting anything..."

The three then re-entered, and Luna stepped forward. “We decided we will test you to see if you are worthy of your new role!”

Celestia beamed, “You will perform one royal task each day.”

Twilight smiled, her eyes far brighter than they have been in weeks. “Perform well after a month, and you will become an official Princess!”

The red mare's eyes went wide with sheer terror. “P… princess! N... no! I never wanted that. It is way too much responsibility, I would rather just lazy around and do nothing at all except read comic books and eat chips!"

Luna put a wing on one of her shoulders, and twilight put a wing on the other. “Come on!” Celestia said playfully, “Destiny chose you? Will you really deny it? You might like being a princess. You can afford lots of chips and comic books!”

The mare shrugged, saying a weak, “I guess…”

“Good! Now what is your name?” Celestia asked.

“My… name… is..." she paused as if she was thinking of what she would be called, as if her current name was not pony enough, "Stardust…” the red Alicorn said weakly. A slight look of relief taking to her face as the other three smiled.

“See! That's not so hard now is it. We should write a letter to Cadence. I am sure she would love to hear about this… and get in one it.” Luna said winking at Celestia, who in turn winked back.

Celestia smiled, thinking that if all went well maybe she would finally be able to take that vacation after all. A new princess would certainly lessen their workload a bit. "Helpful something" indeed! And of course, she knew Cadence could use a day off as well, and this new Alicorn might just end up doing some of the pink princesses' jobs for a day as one of her... "Princess Tests." The four princesses were for sure going to take full advantage of this situation.

Author's Note:

The first chapter of my first ever fanfiction. Hope you enjoy it. I am planning on some very random situations to pop up as time goes on.

The romance that the tag is for will appear in later chapters.

Since this is my first, feel free to offer me advice!

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