The Alchemist's Tales

by DVAN56

(Tale#6)Swapped with the Sun

Swapped with the Sun
June 23, 1007 CR(Celestia's Reign)

Before I begin this tale I would first like to apologize for not putting a date or a time frame with my previous tales. So to begin, it has been roughly a year since my first tale which involved Luna breaching the parallel versions of Equestrian. From here on out I will be adding the date of when a tale happened with the title. I bring this up only because Twilight is threatening to do bad things to me if I didn't. So lets begin

I was in the capital city of Cantorlot. I don't have many stories that happen there because of how peaceful it is. Makes relaxing and getting away from the crazy that is Equestria easy, even though I was working. The fact that out of a year's worth of trips only two things worth writing about happened.

This is my second trip since Ponyta's arrival. She stays with Fluttershy while I'm here. I wish she could come but between her looking like a pony, which I found out she is not, and the potential to set Cantorlot a blaze by accident. It was best that she staid in Ponyville. However I would love to see Ponyta give a good buck to Philomena. I would so love to see hooves stronger then diamonds kick that stupid immortal bird beak in!

It was the second day of my week long trip when I awoke to Luna nudging me gently. This was not normal. Luna is always ice-cold water to the face with me because its the only thing that will wake me, plus she enjoys it. The gently nudging me and speaking softly was defiantly not her normal. I was too sleepy at the time to immediately realize that I was being woke up by something that wasn't cold water to the face. When I finally was awake enough to hear what she was saying I knew something was very wrong.

“Tia, wake up. Your going to be late raising the sun.” those where the first words I heard that day.

She just called me Tia. A nick name that only Luna is aloud to use with Celestia and only when with friends or family. How do I know that only Luna is aloud to use it. Lets just say both me and Twilight spent a few days in the dungeon when we tried to use it. Anyway that sent my mind racing, I did not want to go to the dungeon again.

I woke up scared for once. I really didn't want to go to the dungeons again. That place is creepier then Ordrak's lair, or the Black Palace as Vale called it. As I woke I noticed something very wrong, my body wasn't responding right. I tried to move my limbs one way to only have them move another.

I also saw I was not in my room, no this room was both bigger and highly decorative. Most of the decorations where paintings and small statues. I didn't get to see much more then that. From my initial waking up scared, and with my body not responding how it should, I somehow managed to roll over and fall out of the bed and hit the ground with a thumb that was loader then it should have been.

Luna walked around the bed to where I fell. She gave me a puzzled look. “Tia what is wrong with you this morning.” she asked.

Their it was again, she called me Tia. I was confused at first then I caught a glimpse of what felt like my arm. But it wasn't mine, no it was a limb covered in white fur with a hoof at the end. I stared at it for a minute or two in shock. The only why to describe my mind right then was numb. I knew now why Luna keep calling me by hers sisters name. But how or why this happened was a mystery.

“Luna, ice water, Alchemist, Now” I managed to get out, my voice the same as Celestia's. If this was a dream Luna could wake me up from this weird dream. Also should mention that no one can dream up Luna. You see the real deal in dreams and not a figment of your imagination.

She just shook her head and trying to hid a smirk on her face. “Tia, I can't be having fun all the time.”

“Luna, I'm the Alchemist.” my tone and expressions where both the same. Full of worry and fear.

“Tia...This attempt at a prank, its just sad.” Luna looked at me with disappointment.

“Luna, it true I'm not Celestia. I'm the Alche” I said as I tried to get up. “Waaaa” I yelled as I fell forward on my face, failing at my attempt to stand.

“TIA! Your taking this too far now.” Luna said, clearly angered by my actions.

Before I could respond however we heard a very loud screen echoing through the halls. It sounded a lot like me by a little higher in pitch. Luna let out a sigh.

“I'll be back, I need to disciple a certain Alchemist for helping my sister take a prank to far.” She said as she left. I tried to get a word in but the thing with teleportation is that it's instant, and in flash she was gone. I was scared what she was going to do to my body. Then it hit me.

The scream that was coming from my body. How would I be screaming if I'm in Celestia's body in less...Celestia was in mine. Now I was scared, scared of what may become of my body if Celestia starts freaking out, if she wasn't already. However I was stuck in a body that I have yet to control properly.

I first started with trying to stand again. Two failed attempts later, both of which I fell back on my butt or flank in this case, I was standing. It was shaky but I was standing on all four legs. It was truly a weird feeling. I really can't compare the feeling to anything a human body can feel. The joints on the legs really threw me off the most.

It took me two hour before I could finally walk without falling, I think that I was actually good time considering my predicament. Though my walking was very shaky, I could move around and that is what is important. I also felt confidant enough to finally check on my body. See if Celestia is really in it. Also got to find Luna, she never came back yet and that had me a little worried. That and it was still dark outside, the sun was suppose to be up an hour ago.

I get to the door of Celestia's room. My human mind immediately goes “reach hand out, grab knob, twist”. My hoof hits the door nob with an audible clang from Celestia's metal slipper hitting the knob. The realization of not having fingers or a thumb hits me. I hate to admit it but I cried a little right there and then.

So now I am trapped in Celestia's room with no way out. With nothing better to do, I continue to practice walking and familiarizing myself with Celestia's body while I'm stuck in it.

I eventually got around to moving the wings. That took effort, moving limbs that move differently then ones native limbs is hard enough. Moving an extra set of limbs that humans don't have made trying to stand and walk look easy. In the end the most I got the wings to extend out and flutter a little. My biggest problem was trying to close them up and tuck them close to my body again. That took a good hour of struggling to do. After I did get them tuck back in I decided that the wings are not worth messing around with.

I was starting to get worried now. The sun had in fact come up, just three hours late. Luna still hasn't returned, and I'm still trapped in Celestia's body, and bedroom. I had enough waiting around, I needed to find my body. I was getting out.

I approached the door, turned around and bucked it with my rear leg. “YEHAAAA” I yelled doing my best Applejack impersonation, which sounded really cool with Celestia's voice. I'll be honest, bucking is the weirder feeling that I felt while an alicorn, yet it was oddly satisfying. The door broke open, the door stayed on its hinges but the knob was thrown down the hallway.

The two guards that stood outside the door just stared at me. Fear filled their faces. I can only guess that they assumed Celestia was having a realy bad day. It was also at this point that I realized that I could have just asked them to open the door for me.

I walked as fast as I could to my room. I still wasn't going to chance running yet but I rushed to my room. A few of the castle servants tried to stop me, needing something from Celestia or trying to figure out why the sun was late to rise. I just ignored them as I made my way through the castle. Celestia can deal with them once I'm out of her body.

I get to my room. Again I instinctively reach out to the door knob, and again an audible clank. I wanted to face palm so bad there, but not having a hand so I did the next best thing of pounding my head on the door. This was not a smart idea, because my head would not come away from the door. It took me a moment to figure out why I couldn't move my head, then I remembered alicorns also have a horn.

So here I am, in Celestia's body in front of my room. My head stuck to the door because I impaled it with Celestia's horn. I notice a guard and a servant staring at me, confusion dawning there faces. I decided to ignore them for now.

After some struggling I got the horn out of the door and entered my room. What I saw was different but not surprising. My body was in the fetal position, crying. It was soft, so I guessed who ever was in my body was still in shock over the switch. I strongly suspected it to be Celestia being that I’m in her body, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure at the time.

I go up to my body and give it a nudge. My body's head turns to look up at my. Even with the goggles on hiding the eyes, yes I were my goggles while sleeping, I could tell they were wide with suprise.

“No, no, who is in my...my body.” my body said. It also confirmed that it was just Celestia and I that had switched bodies. This was a little relieving and I visibly showed it.

“Alchemist?” Celestia asked after seeing my reaction.

“Yeap”

“What, what happened to us.”

“Well it looks like you two have had your minds switched” said a new voice from behind me.

I turned my head to see a man in a simple suit with a tie and a brown duster. His hair was brown and short and he wore rectangular frame glasses. Who this man was, I didn't know. It's Celestia's and Luna's jobs to keep track of other-worlders, which humans make up most of. It was a little shocking to see another human face, as most leave to griffon territory.

He came up to me and pointed a strange device at me. It was like an over sized pen but the tip was a blue gem. Then the gem light up and a strange buzzing sound came from the device. It was then that I noticed the energy coming from the device. That wasn't a gem in there but a piece of Ember.

He didn't point the device at me for long before stopping. He then went over to my bed and did the same thing to Celestia. Celestia was oddly calm around him, the two must of known each other. After he was done doing what ever he was doing he lifted the device up to his face and looked at the side of it.

“That can't be right.” he said then went back to scanning Celestia again. After he was done he just looked at me.

“Three fingers?”

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Out of all the things about Equestria this was the worst. Every other-worlder and pony would always bring up my apparently lack of a finger on each hands. My world was must off been the oddball with hands. Where I come from humans only have three fingers, every where else humans, and humanoids, had four fingers. Its so freaking frustrating when I meet someone new and they always notice my lack of fingers first.

“WHO ARE YOU!” I shouted, steamed at the finger remark.

“O sorry about that, I'm the Doctor” the man said.

“Doctor who.”

The man just gave a grin. “Just the Doctor.”

“Alright Doctor, do you know how this happened and how to fix it?”

“Well see Celestia, for lack of a better description, tangled her magic. The tangle let out an uncontrolled spark of magic. That spark switched the mind of the first bloke it came in contact with, you. Now the fun part, we got to untangle her magic, however only the minds were swapped and nothing else, meaning you have all of Celestia's power along with her body.”

It was about that time that Luna came in. she was panting as if she was running. She looked at me, then the Doctor, then Celestia. Her horn started glowing with magic. Then ice-cold water washed over my head.

“That is for busting my sisters door down.” she said.

“Glad you finally believe me.” I said.

“Anyway back to what is important” the Doctor said grabbing mine and Luna's attention. “To fix this you” he pointed to me “are going to need to learn how to use Celestia's magic to do that your going to need a teacher. Luna I'm sure you can do that.”

“It will take some time.”

“Just the basics. From my understanding that's all he will need to fix this. While your doing that I'm going to be teaching Celestia here how to be human. Even if the body is missing a couple of fingers.”

“Doctor!”

<--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->

I ended up staying in Cantorlot for two weeks learning how to use alicorn magic. Twilight came up later once she learned what had happened. She wanted to help me but Luna told her she couldn't. Alicorn magic and unicorn magic are apparently completely different. Twilight wasn't convinced till Celestia intervened by telling us a story about a unicorn named Mi Amore Cadenza. The unicorn tried to use alicorn magic by mimic Celestia's. I'll spare you the details but I will say that Mi Amore did transformed into an alicorn from trying to use alicorn magic, then two minutes later exploded leaving only a crystal heart behind. I was surprised that Twilight didn't know this story till now. Celestia even said that the heart is on display in Mi Amore home city as both a reminder and a warning for unicorns.

My studies went smoothly for the most part. The flow of magic if very similar to the flow of energy of Ember. It is the delivery is where the two differ. Where Ember requires a constructed device, magic only requires both mental concentration and the entire skeleton. Apparently the entire skeleton of a pony glows when they use their magic. The horn being the only bone outside the body is the only one seen glowing when magic is performed. Also earth ponies and pegasi skeletons are apparently always glowing do to their magic being passive.

Luna had canceled day court and took charge of both the sun along with the moon till this problem was fixed. I have to give Luna credit, she is a powerhouse when it counts. How she didn't run her self ragged during those two weeks I don't know. Trying to teach me magic and tending to both her own and Celestia's royal duties must have been hard on her.

Celestia was taught by the Doctor on how to use my body. I want to know what the heck he did. That first day he carried Celestia, in my body, to some secluded part of the castle. An hour later she shows back up saying the Doctor was done and had left. Not only that but she is moving around like she had been in a human body for years. It took me six days before I got fully use to walking on all fours, and I still didn't even mess with the wings. I was also a little pissed that I didn't get to ask the Doctor about his device and the Ember in it.

Celestia helped teaching when she could, but since I was already familiar with how magic flowed, and the actual application of the flow is best learned from example not explanation, she didn't help much.

The last day of me being in Celestia's body came. Celestia, Luna, and myself made for the science wing, Luna leading the way. Once we got in front of the room we would be using I gasped, Room 12B. Memories of a year ago flooded my mind, and I shuddered remembering what happened to a few of the guards. They still haven't fully recovered from that.

As we entered the room I noticed that it has not been touched since that event a year ago. It hasn't even been dusted.

“Luna, what is it with this lab room exactly? It's like it hasn't been touched since last we where in it.”

“That is because it hasn't. My sister and I had it marked off for our use only. It has a...history that I do not wish to retell right now. Lets get on to what is important right now. Celestia stand over there.”

Celestia moved to a window on the opposite wall of the door. I moved to the middle of the room and faced her. I closed my eyes and focused on the magic. This is where things get hard to explain, the Doctor was right about the best way to describe the magic in Celestia's body as being “tangled”. However unlike tangled string you can not bend the flow to “untangle” it. The only thing that can be done with magic is to cut out the “tangle” then fix the flow.

The process of cutting the flow of magic wasn't just painful, it was excruciatingly painful. The worst part is Luna couldn't use any of her magic to ease the pain while this was happening. I had to grit my teeth and finish the process. As soon as the tangle was cut out and gone I quickly grabbed the flow and mended it.

As soon as the flow was fixed the pain was gone. It was like it was never there to begin with. But I was still in Celestia's body. The look of shock on both Celestia's and Luna's face was clear. It didn't fix the problem but it should have. The switch was suppose to be instantaneous after the “tangle” was fixed so why was I still in Celestia's body. The moment of shock lasted for a minute then Luna began to speak.

“Maybe you did-” that's all Luna got about before she was stopped by the sound of my body hitting the floor. I stared at it from a minute then I started feeling the sensation of falling before I black out.

I awoke with Celestia staring at me, she was in her own body. I moved my hands in front of my face, happy to see that they where in fact my hands. Even wiggled my fingers around a little for the heck of it. That is when I noticed Celestia expression. She was still worried and I soon found out why.

I got up and looked around. Nothing, I mean nothing as far as I could see. We where in a void of some sort from my guess as blackness stretched in every direction. Something however was illuminating both Celestia and myself.

The two of of just stood their for a little bit just staring into the vast empty space. Where we were and why we were there was a mystery in our minds.

Screech.

The sound of a door who's hinges needed oiled came from behind us. We turned to face the noise and was greeted with the sight of a creature. I don't know what was going through Celestia's mind but mine was surprise that a creature such as this existent. The creature was a mix of different creatures. Its body was long, slender, and round like a snake. One arm was that of a lion while the other was that of an eagle's talons. One leg was that of a dragons while the other was that of a goat or a cow. Its head resembled that of a horse from my world. On top its head where two horns, one long single point, the other gagged with a multitude points. The last noticeable feature was its wings, one was a feathery wing and the other was a leathery one like that of a bat.

The Creature was carrying boxes, it didn't notice us at first. It set the boxes down and turned to walk back the way it came. It looked as if he opened a door that wasn't there.

“Hay!” I yelled out trying to get its attention before it disappeared.

It noticed and turned around and looked at me with an emotionless look. Then it saw Celestia but his expression remained unchanged. He then brought is taloned hand up and snapped his fingers. He disappeared in a flash and then reappeared inches away from us.

“Why Celly this is quite a surprise to see you in my mind, even if it is just my storage space.”

“How do you know me creature?” Celestia asked.

“I'm wounded Celestia, how could you forget me.” the creature said.

“I have never seen a creature like you before. So I ask again, How do you know me?”

The creature bent down to be at eye level with Celestia. He just stared at her for a minute. There was silence but I could feel something building up. I didn't know if it was tension or magic though. Then the creature jerked back.

“I see. Your Equestria is one of the few I’ve never been too. Odd I was sure I visited them all at lest once. O well. I guess introduction are in order. I am Discord, Spirit of Chaos and former Spirit of Disharmony. Now who are you.” Discord said pointing a finger at me.

“Um, I'm known as Alchemist.” I said.

“Nice to meet you. Now how did you two get into my mind? Its not an easy thing to do since you had to break through the parallel boundary to do it.” Discord asked.

We told him our story of how are minds were swapped. He was a little sad that he couldn't witness the events himself. Once I got to the end he just nodded.

“This Doctor was only half right on what has happened to you. The magic being tangles and the treatment was right. However he forgot that you Celly are an alicorn not a unicorn. Much more power in you and cutting that flow does weird things to reality. I should know. that and Tangles don't just happen for no reason.”

“Half right, so you know what happened to us.” I asked.

“Of course, but I'm not going to tell you. Won't learn anything that way. I am however sending you two home. Can't have you in my mind, and when I'm trying to clean the place up. Now off with you. Oh and I'm going to come by for a visit in the future. I can't leave a version of Equestria untouched now. Farewell.” he said, then snap of his finger and I blacked out.

I awoke in a hospital bed in Cantorlot, In my body, and with Celestia's bloody bird pecking at my forehead.

Author's Note:

My proof-reading is being lazy. edited version will be uploaded later.

Comments

[Omega_code]

A great chapter, love of how you're building your version of Equestria.

[Mr101]

This chapter made me snicker a fair few times, great update.