I-It's not what you think!
In the middle of Ponyville, stood a tree. Not just any tree, a very, very large tree which housed the town library. Inside this library there was room enough for the amenities of a home, which easily includes a bed. A bed, as it happens, that was being fully taken advantage of by a certain lavender unicorn, who stirred gently and began to roll definitively off the edge.
With a soft thud, the purple pony landed on her feet and stretched out her whole body, eyes still completely shut just in case she could squeeze just a little more sleep out of them, and at this point she froze. Eyes still shut, she made a soft noise like she was about to speak, and before she could help herself, a small shriek echoed around the room.
Her eyes wide open, she looked around frantically, "Whoah whoah WHOAH! This ain't right!" The unicorn looked around again, confirming that yes, this was the bedroom in the library. A gleaming, smooth surface caught her attention, and only after closer inspection did she feel something was off about the mirror.
Staring back at the bewildered mare, was an equally bewildered Twilight Sparkle.
The reflected pony stared for a moment, and began to visibly sink into a near-crying state, before pulling herself back together. "No," Twilight's voice rang out, albeit not quite the same, "This can't... I'm... I'm an Egghead!"
It was at this moment a very perplexed little purple dragon burst into the room, covered in pancake batter and still wearing his little apron.
"Twilight, are you all right? Did you hurt yourself? Were you trying that spell you gave up on last week again?" He asked, oblivious to his friend's last statement.
The very upset unicorn looked down to him, holding back the tears well enough, but not so much with the sniffling. "N-No, Spike, but I need you to go get Twi- I mean... umm... Say, was, erm, I, working on anything last night? Like, just last night. Like something weird and eggh-I mean, magic-y?"
The little dragon raised a claw to his snout in thought, "Hmm, no, not that I can remember. Are you sure you're all right there, Twilight? You don't... well, sound like yourself."
Not-Twilight gave a small, very nervous giggle that just didn't sound quite right, before trying to wave the dragon out of the room. "No! I mean, yes! I mean..." Not-Twilight slowed down a second, hardly second nature for one such as herself, but then neither was waking up as somepony else. "Look, I'm fine, Spike, you just finish up breakfast and I'll be down there... err... soon. All right?"
Spike ruffled his brow for a moment, not very sure of his friend, but he did as he was told, much to the relief of the pony sitting opposite him.
As soon as he left, she let out a long sigh of relief, "Whew, that was close. Now, think, Rainbow, think! What could have happened last night to make me an egghead! And rob me of my wings!" She looked to her bare back, still a few patterns from the bedspread etched into the rough patches of her coat, as if to mock her.
Twilight, the real one that is, was just finishing up her very awkward breakfast, trying very hard not to say anything just in case she couldn't get her friend's inflection just right, and giving only short one or two word answers whenever possible.
"AppleJack, Are you sure yer feelin' all right?" a large red stallion asked Twilight. She could tell he would be trouble already, he was obviously a very keen observer. Certainly more so than Granny Smith or Apple Bloom, one of whom was asleep for the third time that meal, it seemed, the other going on about the newest plan for her cutie mark.
"O-O' course, Big Mac," the supposed earth pony lied, "I-Ah just, erm, need to, ehhh, git some fresh air!" She bolted out of her seat, leaving her barely touched breakfast behind as she galloped out of the door.
Big Macintosh watched her run, a little confused and concerned for his sister. "Eeyup, she's always been mighty bad at tellin' them lies..."
Applejack was backed up against the wall of the cottage, her wings uncontrollably pointed out. The animals knew. Of course they knew, how could they not? Fluttershy moved with a bit more grace, actually took the time to keep her forelock looking neat, and most certainly didn't talk with a drawling southern accent.
No, AppleJack was cornered, and she certainly didn't want to starting bucking left and right, else Fluttershy would certainly chew her hide right quick... Assuming her Pegasus friend was all right, that is...
Applejack sprang back up, having actually slunk to the floor for a moment, a little uneasy what with all the hostility, and raised a hoof. "Ah got it! How 'bout Ah go git Fluttershy for you little critters! An' Ah can git Twilight too! An' she can explain what in the hay is goin' on!" I hope... she thought to herself.
Her gambit worked, and after a couple seconds of all the animals looking to each other, they turned and nodded to the impostor, who took her cue immediately and bolted out the door.
"Oh, my, but isn't your coat just beautiful!" A very mismatched voice called out. It was all at once timid and assertive, gentle yet certain.
A white cat sat in front of an absolutely fabulous white unicorn mare, not entirely sure what was going on. On the one paw, this was Rarity, right? Opalescence didn't hate Rarity, for sure, but she couldn't show affection to her, it would ruin the illusion. On the other paw, she was acting like the wonderful Fluttershy.
It was actually a little disconcerting, seeing her faux paux nemesis suddenly become the best pet-sitter this side of Fillydelphia. All she could do was make a small mewing noise and do what she always did when faced with adversity: The centuries old cat tradition:
Not caring at all, and just enjoying the petting and brushing.
Fluttershy was perfectly content, but she had this nagging feeling that she probably should go to Twilight's house, surely she would have an answer to this. "I'm sorry, Opalescence, but I'm going to have to go now. Here, I'll refill your milk dish."
She gave a consoling smile to the cat, quickly becoming absorbed in the magic of it's eyes. Fluttershy's already paltry defenses were falling around her in record time, and she could not help but give in the the whims of her fluffy superior.
"All right, I'll give you some fish in your food bowl too, I do hope Rarity is okay with this..." She snuck over to the fridge and pulled out a small tin of fish, almost afraid that she would be caught red hoofed by the rightful owner of the body she now possessed.
With a small effort, she opened the metal can and slid the contents into a beautifully wrought silver dish before filling the accompanying one with milk as she had promised. With that, the former pegasus resolved to not look back into the cat's soul crushing eyes, lest she be given entirely no choice but to solely pamper the cat until the end of forever.
In a small pantry in a well known shop in Ponyville lie a pink pony with even pink-er, poofy hair, and she was completely terrified.
For inside that pony brain, resided the thoughts and memories of a white unicorn who should have been working her latest order.
Also inside that brain, was all the horror and precognative efforts of a whole line of Pies.
Every minute seemed an eternity, an ear twitch here with a hoof shake, her snout shriveling briefly while her tail and mane seemed to fizzle, and worst of all, she didn't know what any of it meant.
Or really, for that matter, why it was that Rarity, premier dressmaker in Ponyville, was having any of this to begin with. How did she, who lived an elegant life designing and making dresses for her friends and customers, wind up waking up one fine morning with one of the most important orders she's ever had, only to find that now she was in the body of one of her best friends body.
The once proud mare shuddered at the thoughts mixing inside her head, obviously Pinkie had some spare furniture in her mind, and all of it nailed firmly to the ground. As she shuddered, she couldn't help but almost yelp as her left hind flank twinged briefly, before realizing that might have had a reason.
She had been huddled here for over an hour and a half, near sobbing for much of the first thirty minutes in terror, and she was tensed up in the fetal position the whole time, barely moving except when these otherworldly impulses forced her hoof.
The Cakes must have been worried, but as their adopted daughter/tenant walked out of the small, dark enclosed space, they tried to hide it.
They had been used to her doing strange things, hay, once they caught her having some strange tea party effigy with a sack of flour, a pile of rocks, a bucket of radishes, and some sort of dust bunny. They had kind of just let that one be.
Rarity gave a big smile to Mr. and Mrs. Cake, hoping it helped her look like her bubbly friend, and tried to keep the cosmic horror from her eyes as she gave them a brief explanation to why she had to run to her bestest friend Twilight's house.
Wisely, she neglected to tell them that she had really been mindnapped and was a prisoner inside her own not-hers head. Or that heading to Twilight's house was definitely first on the disaster checklist, issued to herself and each of the other five Elements. She could never figure out why Twilight insisted on giving herself a note, since she's the one who wrote it, but she could only trust in her friend's judgement.
Pinkie Pie whooped and hollered as she plummeted down from Rainbow Dash's house in the clouds, and began to wonder if she should have stayed on firm cloud to see if she actually knew how to use her newfound wings. Well, too late for that, and where'd be the fun anyway?
The recent addition to the pegasus race gave a final shout and held her breath, straining to use muscles she'd never had before. She was only about a hundred and fifty feet up, and the ground was just begging to meet her acquaintance.
Finally, Pinkie opened her wings and swooped eccentrically to the ground. "I'll have to get lessons from Rainbow Dash next time I see her, that was absolutely positutely AWESOME!" she proclaimed, prancing about in the middle of town to the befuddled stares of everypony around.
After a moment, she realized she was the center of attention... and she struck a pose like a hero. "Yup! I'm the greatest, you don't have to hide your feelings from me!" She giggled loudly, and pranced off in the direction of the library where her friends were no doubt headed right now.
Pinkie Pie sighed a little, kind of worried. She felt truly alone, even with that first-time-flyer's high she was on. Her Pinkie sense was gone, and her head almost felt empty because of it. She brightened up again though, quicker than should have been possible, and possibly came back to smiling so fast that there was nearly a sonic boom localized in her mouth.
After taking a few steps towards the ginormous, unmissible tree in the middle of Ponyville, Pinkie decided to try her hoof at flying again. She searched for that pattern of new muscles to use to extend her wings, and started doing what she could to flap them.
After a few minutes, and more than a few stares, she achieved liftoff.
Pinkemina Diane Pie, born a sad earth pony on a rock farm, was now flying. On her own. So she did what any sensible pony would do in this situation:
She vanished.
Not literally, not this time, anyway, with Pinkie you never know. But she did fly very quickly, not nearly so fast as the actual Rainbow Dash, but still pretty fast for a first time flyer. Surely, a few more minutes... or an hour... wouldn't hurt, right?
Pinkie continued to fly, and thankfully for Dash's reputation, she first flew to a secluded area to practice, so that not many ponies could see her bumble around like a super excited filly high on her first cake that was made of all the sugar in the world with the bestest frosting and was secretly also filled with littler candies.
Boy, she'd really have to let Twilight handle...
That's what she was forgetting! If anything goes wrong, meet at the library, because Twilight'll talk to the Princess, and the Princess will give them their super cool amulets and Twilight gets her cool crown thingy, and they'll just rainbow blast the bad away!
She started flying towards the tree, eventually landing and giving her tired wings a rest. "Wow, even in super-awesome shape, flying is hard!" Pinkie remarked with a smile as she folded her new wings to her side, not as perfectly as a pegasus with her whole life spent practicing such a simple task, and as such she suffered having one of her wings not fully folded, and the other one a little to low on her body.
Pinkie didn't notice, and just kept skipping on, whistling a merry tune as she entered the town, and many ponies gave strange stares as she passed.
End of Chapter One (maybe)
