The Switch

Author's Note:

Heads up, I am not used to writing for so many characters, and this will be focused on 14-16 people. It’ll be difficult, so give me pointers when able and bear with me. I’ll be doing some things with the EG side to make it fit in better with our own world, like putting Canterlot in California.

Anyways, this will be taking place after Forgotten Friendship on the EG side, and mid Season 6 for the FiM side. Comments are appreciated <3

EARTH

Seven pairs of shoes walked down the trail, five of them having a normal, steady pace, with two being much more agile and excited, one excited at seeing whatever woodland creatures might stray near the group, and the other just being excited in general.

Twilight’s eyebrow raised, just barely being noticeable behind her thickly framed glasses. She mumbled to the others in the group, saying, rather incredulously, “If you had told me a few days ago that Fluttershy would act this way, I would have laughed myself sick.”

Rainbow Dash’s response, as opposed to the previous statement, was not as quiet nor careful to not let their yellow skinned friend hear it. “Eh, this is her dream type of place. Back in elementary school she said that she wanted to live in a forest where her only roommates were the animals.” At this, Fluttershy’s head snapped around, looking at Rainbow Dash, a blush turning her face red. “H-hey! Don’t talk about that stuff! It’s embarrassing!”

Rainbow Dash replied with only a teasing stuck out tongue before putting it back into the confines of her mouth. She raised her arms, putting her palms on the back of her head as she walked as if she hadn’t a care in the world. Sunset lightly elbowed the blue skinned girl in the side before saying, “It’s fine, Fluttershy, we all understand.” With a light pause, she amended her statement. “Or, at least, we understand you like animals.”

Rarity sighed, moving out of her way to avoid some mud in the middle of the road. “Poor Spiky Wiky, getting stuck home while we’re out here, going to camp. And he was so excited, too.”

Twi gave a wry smile. “Well then he really shouldn’t have stolen that uncooked food. He doesn’t deserve to be stuck at home while we have fun, I know, but the doctor was clear that he shouldn’t do strenuous activities until at least another day has passed.”

Sunset shifted her bags on her shoulders, glancing around them. Something felt… off. She looked around the group with a frown, hiking her bag up a bit more. She wasn’t sure, but it almost felt as if her bag weighed heavier on her, or, more specifically, a book inside of the bag. She did her best to ignore it as she heard a small squelch next to her.

Rarity’s eyes widened as she looked down at the mud her right boot had become somewhat lodged into. She tugged, feeling it stuck a bit more firmly than she had hoped. She tugged harder, finally getting her boot out with a sickening POP!

“UHG!” She exclaimed, horrified. “No, Spike is lucky he got to stay home! With all the mud around, how am I going to keep my new boots clean!?” Pinky Pie seemed to appear next to her, giving a small giggle at her exclamation. “Oh that’s silly! Why wouldn’t hiking boots get dirty? Unless they’re not actually hiking boots, and they’re pretending. Maybe they’re changelings!” She looked down at the boots and yelled, “Rarities sorry for getting you dirty, Mr. and Mrs. Changeling!”

Rarity glared at Pinkie Pie. “No, it’s worse than if they were changelings! They took me over a day to make! AND NOW ALL OF THAT WORK IS RUINED!”

She seemed to be on the verge of crying before Applejack came to the rescue, saying, “Hey, don’t be sad, Rarity! Yours got to strut their stuff and stayed clean longer than any o’ ours did. And ah promise ya, that mud’ll wash right off one you get home.”

Rarity turned, seemingly about to burst into another rant about how long it would be until they got home, but she was cut off by the only person who seemed to have completely lost interest in her breakdown, Rainbow Dash. “Uh, hey guys? Where’s Fluttershy?”

Every one of them stopped in their tracks, heads slowly turning up ahead where the pink haired lady once had been.Their heads started to turn every which way, frantic, searching for their friend, before rainbow said, “She probably just ran up ahead. Maybe she noticed a new animal she wanted to meet!” This caused a few nods before the group ran forward, followed a bit behind by a bouncing Pinkie.

Rarity, Twilight, and Sunset couldn’t react quick enough as they saw the two fastest of the group, Rainbow Dash and Applejack, vanish into thin air. They did their best to stop, but only seemed to stumble and fall head first into the invisible gateway. Pinkie, right behind them, giggled and prepared herself, before diving in.

EQUESTRIA

The sound of a quill frantically scraping across paper filled the air as Twilight wrote down her list for what she planned on doing the very next day, before, after the list felt almost like a mile long, she encased the entire thing in her magic, rolling it up before putting it inside of her desk.

As she did so, she pulled out the list for the day, marking ‘Make a checklist for tomorrow’ off of the list before looking down at the next line of text. ‘Check on the preparations for the summer sun festival.’

The drawer closed with a clack as she turned to head out of her room, leaving the list behind. As she mulled over the preparations, she started to head towards the door, mind on going to her friends to see how the set up for the festival was going on their end.

As her hoof sounded out its first step out of her home, she heard more of the sound rushing behind her. She turned her head in time to see her student, Starlight, sprinting towards her, a very familiar book surrounded by her magic. “Twilight, I think the people from the portal are in trouble!”

Twilight took the book from her, flipping through the pages to the final one with text in it. “Twilight, we need your help. Please get over here with your friends. It’s urgent.” She reread the message a few times, to make sure she had read it correctly. Sunset didn’t just want her help, but her friends? That was odd. But she couldn’t question it too much. If it was urgent, she needed to help, and fast. “Starlight? Put the book back in the machine, then go get Pinkie from Sugarcube Corner and Rarity from her Boutique. I’ll go get Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash. Tell them to meet me back here as quickly as possible.”

Starlight looked nervous. “What’s wrong? Is there really a problem in that other world?” Twilight pondered that, before letting out a small sigh. “I truly don’t know. But it sounds like it. And if there is, we need to get over there to help as soon as we can.” Glimmer gave her a nod, before the two of them turned and ran their separate ways.

The mane six, Glimmer, and Spike entered the mirror room to the sound of writing coming from above. Glancing up, they found a certain draconequus writing in some form of journal, whose cover seemed to move and change with each passing second.

“What do you want, Discord?” Rainbow Dash glared up at him, her wings flapping to bring her up, face to face with the monstrosity. “If you’re here to mess with us, it isn’t welcome. We got important business to deal with!”

He laughed, reaching out and patting her on the head. “Oh, Rainbow Dash, how silly of you to think I would do anything of the sort! Here I was, just minding my own business, writing in my journal about how excited I am for my weekly tea party with fluttershy tomorrow, and then you come and accuse me of something?” He put a hand up to his head, swooning slightly at even the thought that she would think ill of him. “And I thought we were friends.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes, but retreated back to the floor as Fluttershy responded to his statement. “Oh, I’m sure she didn’t mean anything by it, Discord. And I’ll try to be back by that time, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make it. But I’ll be back by next week, promise!”

He smiled, a genuine, warm smile at her. “Alright Fluttershy. I’ll prepare for next week, then!” The page he had previously been writing on grew arms and legs, tearing itself out of the book and with a small “Hmph!” walked through the air and out the window, as if feeling offended by the thought it had been wasted.

Twilight watched it go before turning her gaze back upon Discord. “Don’t cause too many problems while we’re gone, alright?” His response was a simple “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Spike started up the machine, with discord hopping down next to him to watch what happened. As the portal started to open, Twilight turned to them and said, “Heads up, I know I’ve told you about it before, but things are weird over there compared to here. Don’t freak out too much, alright? And… try not to be seen with your version from the other side too much. It’ll be weird for everypony involved.” They all nodded in agreement, with Rainbow maybe looking a bit disappointed.

“I still wish I could go with you.” Spike gave out a small sigh. “I know, Spike, but we need you to keep the portal working. We’ll write to you using Sunset’s journal when we need you to open it up again.” He nodded sadly, before telling the alicorn, “Be careful, alright?”

After the portal was fully powered up, each of them went through one at a time. Once Pinkie had exited, Spike heard the god of chaos next to him say “Oh, I hope they have fun!” He turned to respond, but as he did so, he noticed what the previous page, the one before the torn out one, had said.

“Twilight, we need your help. Please get over here with your friends. It’s urgent.”

He gasped before saying, “Discord, what did you do!” The draconequus chuckled. “They’ve been needing a vacation! I was just helping to give it to them!” The dragon growled, opening his mouth to respond, right as the portal went haywire. It started putting out sparks, the control panel blinking and shuddering. With a loud boom, the panel exploded, causing the portal to flash brightly then go out, leaving them with just a simple mirror.

Spike stared at it, shock plastered on his face, before he grit his teeth, glaring up at his companion. “Discord…” The draconequus lifted up his hands, confusion on his own. “That wasn’t me! I have no idea what happened, but all I know is that it isn’t my fault.”

The dragon sighed, his eyes glancing down at the panel once more before back up at his friend. “Well, if it wasn’t you that caused this, then what did?”

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