A Meeting of Minds
A Human, a Pony Princess, and a Mistake
Chapter 1: A Meeting of Minds
My head hurt, my mouth felt like sandpaper, and I felt sick to my stomach. If I didn’t drink, I would’ve sworn I was hungover.
“Dammit, Flu season was 3 months ago…and that’s not my voice,” My eyes snapped open, only to close again as my headache intensified. I then opened my eyes slowly, but was only willing to reach a squint. I found myself staring at a wooden ceiling. Not remotely helpful in discerning where I was nor why my voice suddenly sounded like a girl’s. Therefore, I tried braving sitting up, only to find my appendages didn’t have much in the way of hands. Upon noticing this, my discomfort was pushed aside and looked at myself in a conveniently place mirror. A mirror sitting at one of the points of a pentagram.
“WHY AM I A PURPLE PONY!? No, better question, why am I sitting in a pentagram?”
“Owwww, that could’ve gone better,” A voice groaned…a voice that sounded exactly like the one I was currently using.
“I’m already hallucinating, what’s hearing voices to the list of my newfound mental illness?” I said.
“Um, you’re not crazy. At least, I don’t think you are,” The voice said.
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t take much comfort from a voice in my head,” I deadpanned.
“Actually, it’s my head. I was trying to perform a summoning ritual I found in the Castle of the Two Pony Sisters. Unfortunately, something went wrong and here we are; you in an unfamiliar body and I unable to do much more than communicate with you,” The voice explained
“So I’m not crazy. Because you were trying to summon God knows what, I’VE BEEN DRAGGED ACROSS TIME AND SPACE LIKE AN ELDRITCH DEMON!” I yelled.
“Well…you don’t have to yell,” The voice said meekly.
“Alright, assuming I haven’t simply gone nutty as a fruitcake, is there any way I can get home?” I asked, already fearing that I wouldn’t like what I was about to hear.
“I don’t know. I wish I could tell you otherwise, but I don’t know. I don’t know what went wrong in the first place. I don’t know how we’ve been connected. I know about as much as you do, I’m afraid,” The voice said apologetically, “My name’s Twilight Sparkle, by the way.”
To be honest, I wanted to be mad at her. I would’ve liked nothing more than to be furious with the mare named Twilight Sparkle, but I couldn’t muster up the feeling. She hadn’t meant to do this and it was dumb, bad luck that I wound up inhabiting her body. Besides, she was being inconvenienced by this whole thing too.
“Well, Twilight Sparkle, though I wish it were under better circumstances, I’m as pleased to meet you as the situation allows. My name is Tom Williams,” I told the now named voice. She giggled a bit before responding.
“Pleased to make your acquaintance Tom,” She replied
“So, how are we gonna do this? I highly doubt any of your friends, family, and so on will fail to notice that you have suddenly lost all fine motor control and have gained a new personality overnight. That’s not even going into any significant cultural differences there are between my home and here. Come to it, I’m not even that good at maintaining social norms back home,” I said.
“And I doubt you have any experience with our kind of magic. Is there any chance you know how to fly?” Twilight asked.
“I know exactly nothing about magic, as I don’t have it back home. As far as flying, I did not have wings, so I don’t know how to fly either,” I answered.
“So the idea of you passing as me until we figure this out is sunk…I am going to be in so much trouble when Princess Celestia hears about this,” Twilight groaned
“Presuming this Princess doesn’t just chuck us in the loony bin,” I remarked
“Not. Helpful.” Twilight growled
“So, how are we gonna..?” My question was interrupted by someone else calling out.
“Twilight, are you OK down there?”
“That’s Spike, it must be morning already. I guess it’s time to face the music,” Twilight sighed.
“Uh, Spike? Can you come down here?” I called up the stairs. I wasn’t quite willing to brave the stairs. I didn’t want my first act piloting Twilight’s body to be to land us in the hospital.
To my surprise, it wasn’t another pony that came down the stairs, but what seemed to me to be a reptile of some kind. He was purple and green, reminding me vaguely of Barney the Dinosaur. As Spike descended the steps, he looked down at where I was sitting and arched an eyebrow…eyeridge? Whatever it’s supposed to be called and folded his arms.
“Again Twilight?” He asked in a very put upon voice.
“Again? What do you mean ‘again’?” I demanded. Although my initial impressions of Twilight were favorable, if she got her jollies off from interdimensional kidnappings, I was going to be very upset.
“I may neglect certain, silly little things,” Twilight demurred.
“Twilight, this is the third time this month you’ve gone experimenting on new spells without any supervision…” Spike groaned. From the sound of it, this was a common argument.
“I can’t help it if I get an idea in the middle of the night. I don’t want to wake anypony,” Twilight grumbled, but it sounded an awful lot like an excuse to me.
“Before this continues any further, I would like to make something perfectly clear,” I said.
“And what would that be?” Spike wondered.
“I am not, in fact, Twilight Sparkle. Twilight’s little satanic ritual summoned me and now I coinhabit her body.” Unsurprisingly, Spike bolted back up the stairs screaming about demons.
“Should I try and go upstairs and explain better?” I wondered.
“You’re going to have to get used to moving my body eventually,” Twilight said by way of answering. “And besides, Spike’s probably already hit the panic button, so I imagine all my friends and maybe the princesses are going to be showing up momentarily.”
What I really wanted at that moment was hands so I could rub the bridge of my nose to stave off the oncoming headache. Instead I just sighed and began toddling my way up the stairs, all the while being intimately aware there were no guardrails to prevent an untimely death by falling. So it was that I was on my/Twilight’s belly when I finally escaped the laboratory/basement/lair of arcane evil and found myself face to hoof with a pair of golden horseshoes. I looked upwards and saw a surprisingly intimidating white pony princess. It didn’t help that Twilight was blubbering about how she was going to be banished and then imprisoned in the place she was banished to and other such doomsday predictions.
“Hi?” I said meekly, putting on my most winning smile.
“Where is my student?” From a less dignified being, I would have called it a snarl. From Celestia, it was merely a promise of much pain and suffering if the question was not answering in a satisfactory manner. I gulped and we both tried to think up a way to explain what was going on without winding up a smear on the floor. Unfortunately neither of us seemed to be coping well with the pressure. Fortunately we didn’t have to as suddenly we were pinned to the wall on the far side of the room.
“WHERE’S TWILIGHT, YOU FILTHY TARTARUS SPAWN?!” A blue Pegasus, Rainbow Dash according to Twilight, screamed at me.
“FIRST, MY EARS! SECOND, I’M NOT A DEMON! THIRD, WHY ARE WE YELLING?!” I shouted back.
“If you’re not a demon, then why are you possessing or replacing Twilight?!” It was a good question and fortunately Rainbow had turned down the volume a bit.
“If you let me down, I can try to explain. Mind you, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me yet. I just know the bare bones basics. I just hope one of you knows the local technobabble,” Rainbow, still staring deep into my eyes as if to detect deception, let me down a moment later. I landed hard and fell flat on my stomach when I didn’t trust my new legs to catch me.
“This is becoming a depressingly familiar position…” I sighed as I looked up again and saw I had an audience. Fortunately I had Twilight to give me a running commentary on who’s who.
I shakily stood up, bracing myself against the wall Rainbow had pinned me to.
“Tis like watching a newborn foal,” Princess Luna, who according to Twilight had some minor issues with volume control, muttered loud enough for everyone to hear. I felt myself blush in embarrassment. Rainbow’s snickering didn’t help matters either.
“If you’re done poking fun at me, I believe I have something important to say,” I harrumphed.
“We apologize,” Luna said. I accepted the apology and pointed in the direction of the basement/laboratory/lair of arcane evil.
“I’m Tom Williams, and I woke up a little while ago in Twilight’s body. She’s still here with me and we can communicate, but we can’t figure out how to switch control, or even if we can. The stuff Twilight used is still down there in the position it was. You’ll probably get more out of it than I could explain verbally,” I did my best to figure out what Twilight was technobabbling about, but she was talking too fast for me to even begin to try and repeat what she was saying.
Celestia decided to go first, in case of a trap I presume, but soon called for the rest of us. I managed to get to the door after tripping over those hooves only four times. I considered it progress, despite Twilight’s cringing being an almost physical force. Rainbow looked like she wanted to say something, but had the common decency to keep her yap shut.
“My, this spellform looks rather familiar, wouldn’t you say, Luna?” Celestia remarked, gesturing to the array with a wing from the bottom of the stairs. Her face was a mask of careful neutrality.
“We hast no idea what thou art speaking of,” Luna summarily denied, but her poker face could use a little work. Anyone with eyes could see she was sweating bullets.
“But I found the book with that spell in Luna’s old chambers,” Twilight told me and I relayed the information. Luna’s face scrunched up as though she had tasted something very sour.
“This is the spell array I designed when summoning the Nightmare,” Luna admitted, “Although, it would seem a critical piece is missing.”
“Luna designed it? I thought it was one of Starswirl’s works!” I dutifully echoed Twilight’s thoughts, even if I had no idea who this Starswirl was. Luna looked a little miffed.
“I was the Element of Magic before you,” Luna pouted.
“Really?” Multiple voices chorused in surprise.
“Of course, when my Sister and I wielded the Elements, it was I who held Magic, Loyalty, and Honesty. Celestia, of course, bore Generosity, Kindness, and Laughter,” Luna explained.
“Wait, you said something was missing?” I prompted.
“Ah, yes, there is supposed to be a final outer ring, which would have served to mark a target of the spell. The results without it are before us,” Luna answered.
“Ah’m guessin’ the original target was the Nightmare?” Applejack asked. Luna flinched, but confirmed it.
“As troublesome as this situation is, at least Twilight didn’t summon another Nightmare. I dare say we had quite enough of that a few weeks ago,” Rarity remarked.
“I don’t know exactly what you’re talking about, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you can’t just reverse the polarity and send me home?” I was afraid to ask, but Twilight and I needed an answer.
“I didn’t foresee a need to banish the Nightmare, who I believed to be a friend at the time, so there was no such element incorporated into the spell. Even if there was, with no idea from whence you came, sending you back to the correct place, time, and even body are so astronomical as to not even bear thinking about,” Luna explained.
My already unsteady legs failed and I fell to the floor. The reality of my situation sinking in and despair threatened to engulf me. I was stuck. I was stuck in a strange place, in a strange female body, and strange ponies. The world went blurry and my breaths grew short. Twilight was whispering words of comfort, but that was all she could do. Just as a full panic attack was about to engulf me, I felt a pair of wings attached to a sky blue blur wrap around me. The other ponies in the room quickly followed and I found myself in a group hug.
“Why..? You don’t even know me…” I gasped between sobs.
“Oh, um, well, we’d like to,” Fluttershy said.
“You and Twi are probably gonna be stuck like this for a while. No way would I leave either of you hanging!” Rainbow exclaimed.
“I’m sure we’ll be super duper bestest friends in no time!” Pinkie chirped. Surrounded by so many ponies who I didn’t even know offering me support unconditionally, I was humbled.
“You can try to find better friends, but I doubt you’d find them,” Twilight’s voice contained a warm pride. I was soon able to pull myself together.
“Thanks,” I said softly, as much as I wanted the hug to continue, there were things that needed to get done. “Now it’s time for a stiff upper lip.”
“Twilight’s recent ascension to Princesshood also complicates matters,” Celestia remarked.
“Wait, what? Princess?” I was taken by surprise.
“Uh, did I forget to mention that? Whoops…” Twilight giggled awkwardly.
“I’m sure the populace will be thrilled to hear their newest princess has been body snatched,” I wasn’t looking forward to any angry mobs.
“Perhaps it would be prudent if we kept that bit of information to ourselves,” Celestia suggested.
“How? I can’t even walk without tripping over myself,” I protested.
“We could sign you up for physical therapy, it would-”
“I’ll do it!” Rainbow suddenly interrupted Celestia, “I was already teaching Twi how to fly, so no pony will think it’s weird if she’s spending time with me and I already know what’s going on. Everypony wins!”
“I don’t see why not, unless you have any objection?” Celestia asked me.
“She’s already seen me make a fool of myself, so what’s a little more embarrassment?” I replied, “Also, while I’m thinking about it, are Twilight and I going to have any issues from sharing the same body?”
“Before Twilight’s ascension I would have been concerned for a number of reasons, but as she is now an Alicorn, I can confidently say, with my own experience with the Nightmare, that no such issues should arise,” Luna replied
“We’ll also need to inform Twilight’s family. Then, in two week’s time, there’s the royal summit in the Crystal Empire,” Celestia informed me.
“I’ll try not to sign us all into servitude,” I deadpanned. And so, that was how the story of my stay in Equestria began.
The rest of the story will be in Third person, but I couldn't write this opening in anything other than first person, please forgive me. 
Stats
Page generated in 0.038 seconds
Total duration
740 users online
1,150,392 hits today, 2,591,549 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
10285135
Been done seventy times, a little overused but the get go "everyone knows" is a decent deviance from the formula
10296776
I have only seen something like this a few times, nothing close to seventy. Is there a group for it or something?
How does he know it's called Equestria?
10306656
How have I never realized this before? I looked at this same joke for years now and I NEVER NOTICED?! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
I understand the need for shifts in perspective sometimes, but I do recommend against it whenever possible.
Since this first person perspective is at the beginning and you don't intend to use it later, it could be considered a framing device. You could even switch back over to it in the last chapter and it would feel pretty appropriate for a summary, to show how the characters grew from the events of the story.
Oh, pish posh, there's nothing wrong with first person. The second one, though... that's an abomination to behold most of the time. So... thanks for not dragging me in there? For that to work is a
...even though in this case that could work.
10307714
I do not believe myself talented enough to use the second person properly and I fear even if I had felt adventurous enough to use it in this chapter, it would have cause undue confusion. For the story I have planned to work from start to finish Tom needs his own individual identity.
Well, this is a problem. I just started reading and I've already found a continuity error, one that hurts the premise of the story.
This is incorrect. In the Season 4 premiere, we see the princesses using the Elements. You got most of them right, but Luna got Laughter and Celestia got Magic. You can tell by the colors.
10331365
I changed this on purpose. I don't know why, but Luna has always struck me more as a Magic than Celestia. Also, who had what Element ultimately doesn't matter, as will be reveled in a latter chapter.
Time to start reading
10332780
That’s the Saddle Arapian dignitaries isn’t it? So we have two weeks to move all the books into the basement and for Twilight to get her body back. NO PRESSURE!!!
derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/5/20/1441216.gif
10345826
I MISSED A D?! I MISSED MY FAVORITE LETTER OF THE ALPHABET?! AHHHHHHHH
"Come to it" is a grammatically accurate phrase. It's like someone took "Push comes to shove" or "If it comes down to it" and butchered them behind the barn.
Celestia getting Laughter is two parts joke one part intentional lore for much later on.
I hate to break it to you, but Twi isn't getting her body back in 2 weeks.
10345989
It just means you need more D in your stories.
'tis an essential vitamin, you know!
I was going to comment on the switcheroo giving Magic and Laughter to different princesses than canon, too, but it's been done.
Refreshing to see a "Protagonist in X's body" story that just throws any thought of pretending to be the person they're replacing out the window in the opening chapter.
10404325
I do try and have a spark of creativity every now and again. It helps start the fire in this cave in this rock I live under.
"I gotta go potty!"
10406037
I really hate bear vs. bare. It's one of the few English quirks that I just can't seem to wrap my head around at all.
I think he's going to get along just fine with the Princess of Neuroses.
I admit, I find the concept interesting.
Chapter 1
Upon rereading this, Tom first appeared in a pentagram. He should have been unable to get out. That's what pentagrams are FOR.
Quibbling, I know, but this kind of detail bugs me.
10527925
Says who? It's a religious symbol for many different religions which and had nothing to do with demons or summoning until Christians started literally demonising anything to do with other religions with lies and propaganda and it was only relatively recent that works of fiction started using it for summoning circles and even then it was usually a circle of some kind that kept the subject trapped.
10527925
My interpretation is the pentagram held him in place during the process that bound him to her, but now he is her, so it no longer counts the same.
... I also know next to nothing about these kinds of things though so that might make no sense
Wow... That... That was... incredibly fast...
10445700
I'm sorry! But that's the Princess of Books! XD