The Cloudy Stars

by Fullmetal Pony

The Stars at Dusk

“Twilight!” Star yelled as he busted the library’s door open.

“Whoa!” Spike yelled as he fell off of a ladder. He’d been re-stacking the bookshelves when Star had burst into the library and Star’s sudden appearance had caused him to lose his balance. “Oww!” He said as he rubbed the side he’d fallen on. He then looked over at the brown pegasus. “Star? What are you doing here?”

“Twilight! Where is she?! I’ve got a massive emergency!” Star was nearly in the dragon’s face.

“She’s… um, busy… ya know looking for a cure.” Spike’s eyes darted back and forth between Star and the upper levels of the library.

“Please Spike! I know Twilight’s trying to help bu-” Star’s voice was cut off by an unfamiliar voice. It sounded rough and ragged though.

“Spike? Is that Star?” The voice emanated from the upper level of the library.

“Um, yeah.” Spike nervously looked up at where the voice was coming from. “Sh-he says it’s an emergency.”

“Tell him I’m sorry, but I’m trying to find a cure as fast as possible.”

The roughness in Twilight’s voice snapped Star partially out of his panic. Pinkie wasn’t lying about Twilight being sick. A look of concern now grew on Star’s face. Oh, this is all my fault… but I need to get this solved now! What if other stallions start acting like that? I can’t keep this up! He began to float up to where Twilight’s voice was coming from.

“Star! Wait!” Spike pleaded. “That’s really not a good idea!”

“I’m sorry Spike, but the situation has gotten too severe,” Star talked down to the dragon as he reached the second level of the library. “Twilight, I’m really sorry. I thought I could make it through this, but I just ca- Twilight?” Star looked around the second floor but didn’t see anypony. All he saw were piles of books everywhere, “magic” was in almost all the titles of the books. Star also felt something in the air like there was a fog or something on the second floor. For some reason, the feeling seemed familiar.

“Star please!” A voice rang throughout the second level, but Star couldn’t exactly pinpoint the source. “I know you have some issue with mares, but you need to go now!” Desperation filled Twilight’s ragged voice.

“No, it’s not that!” Star said as he trotted through the second floor, searching in vain for Twilight. “It’s just that your friends threw me a really great party and everything was going well, but then Big Mac showed up and he…” revulsion crawled across Star’s face. “He said I was cute!”

“What?!” There was a bright flash of light and then a purple pony was standing in front of Star. “Oh no,no, no! This is bad, this is really really bad. Oh, what am I going to do?”

Star could only confusingly stare at the figure in front of him. Whoever it was had been using an invisibility spell and that’s why Star had gotten a familiar feeling on the second floor. But now that that mystery had been resolved, a new one cropped up. “Um, who are you?” Standing in front of Star was pony with a purple coat, a short mane composed of various shades of lavender, and a square muzzle.

“I can’t believe it’s gotten this bad!” The stallion trotted back and forth worryingly, ignoring Star’s question. “Now I’ve gotten Big Mac looped in this too! What am I going to… oh no!” The stallion now noticed that he was visible. “Star!” He ran up straight to the pegasus. “You can’t tell anypony you saw me like this! Especially the Princess!”

“But…I…who…what’s going on?!” Why is there a stallion in Twilight’s house?! Sweet Celestia! Don’t tell me I interrupted something?! Oh no, no! I can’t handle any more of this! “Y-you’re right! I should just…be…going.” Star now noticed an all too familiar cutie mark adorning the stallion’s flank. Then the revelation dawned on him. “Holy Bucking Equestria! Twilight?!”

The stallion fell to his knees and cowered. “Oh, this is terrible! Now I’ve not only screwed up your life, but mine too. I should have never tried that spell!” He buried his head in his hooves.

“Twilight I-” Star tried to think of something to say.

“What if the Princess finds out?” The question wasn’t directed at Star. “It’s not like that time with the letter, I’ve seriously messed up this time! She’ll think I don’t take my studies seriously, that I’m just fooling around flipping ponies’ genders! She’ll think I’m a horrible student and then I-I’ll be a FAILURE!” She once more buried her head her hooves and sobbed. But a wing covering her back interrupted her. “S-star? What are you doing?” She tearfully looked up at him.

“Doing something a friend taught me.” He had a comforting smile on his face. “Twilight, I don’t think you’re a failure.”

“But this is all my fault!”

“Everypony makes mistakes, I know I’ve made more than a few over the past few days. But I also learned that everypony can also learn from those mistakes and become even better ponies through their trials.”

Twilight was now standing up again; Star was still giving her a friendly wing-hug. “You… you’re really not mad with me?”

“Heh,” Star laughed a little, “you’d be amazed how many times I’ve also said that lately. But how could I be mad? You’ve been trying this whole time to get me back to normal, you even kept trying after you wound up like this.” Star looked Twilight’s stallion form over again, still somewhat disbelieving that such a thing could happen. “Gotta admit, Big Macintosh having a crush on me seems like small apples now, given what you’ve probably been going through.”

“Oh Star…” new tears now welled up in Twilight’s eyes, “thank you!” She now gave Star a full hug as she cried on his shoulder.

“Hey-hey,” he patted her back with a hoof, “be sure to thank your friends too. They’re the ones who deserve most of the credit.”

“Yeah,” she sniffled, “they really are a crazy bunch aren’t they?”

“I’ll say. The crazy stories I could tell you would probably turn your coat white.” He laughed a little.

“We agree,” came a third voice, “thine friends truly are a fun group. Especially the pink mare, when she isn’t screaming.”

“Pinkie really is one random po-” Star stopped and turned back to Twilight. “Did you say that?”

“No,” Twilight’s confused expression matched up perfectly with Star’s.

“Then who…”

“Ahem,” Came the third voice. Twilight and Star both looked over to where the library’s largest window was. Standing in the open window, with moonlight gracing her back, was a pony. She was a bit larger than the average pony and she stood in a regal pose. Her wings were gracefully tucked in at her sides and were almost unnoticeable at night due to her coat almost perfectly blending in with the now-darkened sky. Her hooves had silver fittings attached to them and a tiara stuck out of her flowing hair right above her horn.

“P-p-princess Luna!” Both ponies said in shock. Star bowed his head while Twilight looked like she had been struck by lightning.

“Oh no!” Twilight exclaimed. “Don’t tell me Princess Celestia found out about this whole mess and now she’s sent you here to fail me?!”

“What are you talking about? My sister would never order such a thing!” Luna responded.

“T-then why are you here?” Twilight quivered.

“Did thine servant not tell you?” Luna gave Twilight a confused look. Spike was currently hiding behind one of the library’s pillars He wasn’t doing a very good job though, as he kept peeking at the events going on. “He said that you had miscalculated a magic spell and that assistance was required.”

“I’m really sorry Twilight!” Spike pleaded as he came out from behind the pillar. “But you just kept struggling with the spell and nothing seemed to be working, so I thought maybe the Princess could help. Didn’t expect this though.” He looked in amazement at the Princess of the Night.

“And we did not expect to ever see ponies with genders flipped, at least not since that detestable draconequus was sealed away.” Luna looked over at both Star and Twilight. Star still couldn’t believe that the actual Princess Luna was here, he had never expected to see her under such bizarre circumstances.

“Discord?” Twilight gave the princess a quizzical look. “What does he have to do with this?”

“Did you not realize that gender switching magic is discordian in nature? It upsets the natural balance and brings chaos to all.

“But I was only trying a variant of Starswirl’s spell. I didn’t even know unicorns could use that much power.”

“Well, Starswirl did spend his last years under Discord’s reign. But we must admit, we too only thought Discord and alicorns could use such spells. Why, we remember when he tried it on our sister, the prince wasn’t happy.

“Princess Celestia got turned into a… stallion?!” Twilight turned beat red at the thought of her mentor being the opposite gender.

“Yes, sister really did show him a thing or two after that. But your use of the spell just demonstrates that there is a reason you are our sister’s star pupil.”

“So then you came here to help us?” Twilight timidly asked.

“Yes, it is the least we can do after the joy you brought us on Nightmare Ni-”

“Twilight!” A pink mare burst through the entrance of the library. She was followed by four other ponies. “We’re looking for Cloudy and we thought she migh-” Pinkie then noticed Luna. “Nightmare Mo- I mean Luna!”

“Whoa nelly! Definitely wasn’t expecting ta see ya here tonight Princess!” Applejack took off her hat in respect. “Then again, it has been a bit of a strange day with Cloudy and all.”

“Wow! Princess, I didn’t expect to see you again in Ponyville! You here to play some pranks?” Dash smiled.

“I think the Princess would come here for more pressing issues.” Rarity trotted forward and then kneeling down to the Princess. “It is an honor to meet you Princess Luna, but, if I may ask, what exactly brings royalty to Ponyville?”

“We have come to aid thine friends, fair Rarity.” Luna gestured over towards Star and Twilight.

“Oh my.” Fluttershy nervously looked up at Twilight and Star.

“Oh wow! Twilight, you look funny as a stallion!” Pinkie beamed. “Now I definitely believe what Rarity said about Cloudy and the whole ‘oh no! I’m a mare!’ thing!”

“Shucks, now Ah see it and Ah still don’t believe it.” Applejack rubbed her eyes as she looked at the stalionized Twilight.

“Heh, um, hi girls.” Twilight blushed a little out of embarrassment as she and Star walked down the stairs to the first floor of the library.

“Oh my…” Rarity stood dazzled at Twilight’s appearance. “I didn’t think you’d make such a fine stallion Twilight. Your mane looks a bit messy though.”

Twilight quickly turned deeper shade of red at the comment. Luckily, Star interjected before Rarity could say anything else. “Easy with the complements Rarity. I’d have thought after my little stunt at the boutique you’d have learned those sorts of questions can be a little… awkward in our situations.” Star then turned to the other ponies. “I’m really sorry I haven’t been truthful with you all. I was just so worried that you’d laugh and think I was a freak.”

“Why would we do that?” Dash replied.

“Yeah sugarcube… hmm, guess that’s not the best term to use for a stallion… but still, we’re friends, we’d never laugh at ya.” Applejack said as she trotted over and put a hoof on Star’s shoulder.

“Heh.” he smiled. “I know. But up until now, I’ve just been so scared of mares and that I’d do something stupid and they’d all hate me for it. But you’ve all been great friends and you’ve been so accepting of the mistakes I’ve made.”

“Thanks Star, that’s really nice of you,” Fluttershy timidly replied.

“It seems you have all learned something through this ordeal,” Luna said as she floated down to join the group. “We are certain our sister would enjoy reading a letter on what you’ve learned.”

“A-a-a letter?!” Star looked at Luna in shock. “I-I don’t think I ever could do that.”

“She’s got a point Star,” Twilight chimed in. “You’ve definitely learned a lot over the past days and you even helped me out of a tough spot.”

“Speaking of which…” A blue glow began to cover Luna’s horn. “We suppose it’s time we got you both back to normal.”

“Thank you Princess,” Twilight replied.

“Yes, thank you. Let me just say one last thing though.” Star turned away from the Princess and toward the other ponies. “Dash, I’m really sorry, I don’t think I’ll be able to keep up with you when I’m normal again.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it, I’ll just have to train you a little harder, you might have to compete with Scootaloo now though.”

“Heh, still sounds fun.” Star then turned to Rarity. “Sorry about the coat.”

“Oh darling, it’s quite fine. It just means I get to make you a new one. Remember, you’d have needed it re-tailored anyway.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Star then turned back to the Princess. “Okay your highness… I’m ready.”

“It has been a couple millennia since we’ve had to do this, so it might be a little unpleasant. You should probably close your eyes.” As the princess spoke, the aura around her horn grew brighter as it began to envelope Star and Twilight. Once they were fully covered in the aura it turned blazing white and for a second everypony except for the Princess was blinded. The spell’s potency also stirred up a heavy dust cloud.

~~~

Star was still coughing when he began to regain his sight. “Magic, geez, I’m glad I wasn’t born with a- my voice! It’s mine again!” Star ecstatically ran a hoof through his mane and over his face. His mane was short again and his muzzle was square once more as well. “Oh thank Equestria, I’m me again!” Star stopped his celebration to blow back some of the dust with his wings. He wanted to make sure Twilight was ok as well. “Twilight? You ok?” A silhouette first appeared in the fog and then a full pony.

“Yes Star,” Twilight replied as she ran a hoof down her mane, thankful that it and everything else seemed back to normal. She then turned to where Luna’s shadow was. “Thank you so much Princess.”

With a flap of her powerful wings, Luna dispelled the rest of the dust in the library. “It is nothing for friends. We were only doing what was right.”

“I agree with Twilight though,” Star bowed once more to the Princess. “We have you to thank for helping us out of this situation.”

“Aw, come on! Enough with all the thanks.” Dash said in a mock-exasperated voice. She then looked over Star’s normal form. “So you’re really back to normal now?”

“Yeah, not exactly the best fit for aerodynamics.” Star looked up at the flying pegasus.

“Eh, we’ll work on it.”

“Heh, after what happened last time, I’m kinda scared how much work that’ll be,” Star playfully teased. “Actually, I’ll probably get pretty tired trying to keep up with you. I might need some good food to keep my energy up.” Star had now turned his head toward Applejack.

“Ah hear ya. Ma offer still stands about the apples, just don’t go too overboard with it, ok?

“I wouldn’t dream of-” Star paused for a second, some dust was tickling his nose. “Achoo!” He sneezed. “Sorry, as I was saying, I’d never abuse such a pri- why are you all looking at me like that?” All seven ponies now had shocked looks on their faces as they stared at Star.

“Hmm, it appears we were a bit more rusty than we thought.” Luna had a concerned look on her face.

“Princess what are yo-” Star noticed his voice was feminine again. “But how?”

“Oh no!” Twilight’s nose had also been tickled by the dust. “Achoo!” However, after her sneeze, Twilight still appeared perfectly normal.

“Hmm, that is most strange.” Luna seemed as bemused as the other ponies. “Twilight Sparkle, was there anything different when you cast the spell on yourself?”

“Well, I had a little better control of the spell when it backfired on me.” Twilight looked nervously between Star and Luna.

“Ah, that must be the reason why our spell did not fully work on thine friend.” Luna then turned over to Star. “Fair Star, we are most sorry, we are not sure if we can fully reverse the spell.”

Star looked up and the Princess and then down and the floor and thought for a second. “Well… I think I could get by like this. I’ll just have to be a little more careful around pepper.” He smiled at his own joke.

“Star,” Fluttershy meekly looked over at her friend, “are you sure about that?”

“Yeah,” Star gave Fluttershy a comforting smile, “after all mares are just like other ponies, right?”

“I know!” Pinkie bounced up, excited that Star was still happy, despite what could have been a major setback. “It’s like what I said, only you said it this time and that makes it more exciting!”

“Heh, I guess it does.” Star now looked up at Dash. “Guess I won’t be a too great a disadvantage now?”

“Aw yeah!” Dash flew down and gave Star a high-five. “That’s the spirit!”

“Thanks Dash.” Star now turned to Rarity. “You know, seeing as I’m like this now, do you think I could just get a loose-fit co- Achoo!” Star was now back to his stallion form. “-coat, I’d hate to sneeze and ruin another coat.”

“Oh, certainly. I must admit, this will definitely be the most unique custom order I’ve made.”

“I’m sure you can do it.” Star laughed. “Although I guess I’ll have to be a little careful when I’m at the market and I’m buying apples. I think I may have made things a little awkward with Big Mac.”

“A’m sure ma brother with understand.” Applejack thought about the situation a little more. “Ya know Ah think you’re the first mare he ever said that to.”

“I…” Star’s face contorted as he tried to hold back a laugh, but he failed. “Oh wow! I guess that probably wasn’t the best starting point.” He fell on his side laughing. Dash started snickering at the concept also. “I wonder which one of you had worse luck with mares?” It seemed that Star’s laughter was contagious, as all the other ponies started laughing too. Luna and Twilight still stood on the sidelines, bemused by the situation.

“Twilight Sparkle, your friends truly are a curious bunch. But who is this ‘Big Mac’ they keep referring to?”

“He’s Applejack’s older brother… he apparently thought Star was… cute.” Twilight blushed as the thought of romance, it’d been one realm she her studies had very little use in.

“But was Star not originally a stallion? I do not understand what is so fun- oh… oh my.” Much to Twilight’s shock, the Princess’s face grew red as well. “We are not very experienced in such matters, but…”a smile began to appear on Luna’s face, “we must admit that we can now see how it is ‘funny.’” She snickered a little.

“Well…” Twilight looked over at her friends. A smile grew on her face as she saw them all having fun, “you know, since you’re here Princess, we might as well-”

“Have a party!” Pinkie suddenly popped up between the two ponies. “We didn’t even get to finish the last one, so we’ll have to make this one extra fun!”

“We agree!” Luna nodded. “You won’t scream this time, right?”

“Nah, that’s only really fun to do on Nightmare Night, unless you’re making it Nightmare Night Two, then I’ll definitely scream and wear a costume and eat lots of candy!” Pinkie was nearly touching Luna’s face at this point.

“We think we would just enjoy a regular party.”

“Oki-dokie-loki!” Pinkie then spontaneously produced her signature party canon and blasted it. It was the start of a very long and fun party that lasted until the early hours in the morning. Even Luna passed out from exhaustion. But, as all the ponies were sleeping on the library’s floor they all had big smiles on their faces.

Comments

[aganon6]

So every time he sneezes he goes form a stallion to a mare and vise-versa.
That is exactly like a manga I read a while back.

[Fresnor]

Dang, and I was almost betting that Celestia WAS Starswirl. It would be a good reason then for the curse 'By Celestia's Beard.'