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Chapters

Strained Relations
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Differences
Heavenly Shimmer

Strained Relations

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Ch.1 - Strained Relations

“Are we there yet?” Rainbow whined as the group made their trek up the steep slope. The pegasus floated just above her friends, lying casually on her back with her wings keeping her afloat. Her hooves propped her head up, making it look more like she was relaxing rather than climbing a mountain. Twilight groaned at her friend’s lack of sympathy for her struggling comrades. The four earthbound ponies were stuck walking while Rainbow and Fluttershy could gently flap their wings, and easily keep up with the group. The two made it look effortless, and it was really drawing the envy of their friends.

“For the last time Rainbow Dash, no, we’re not there yet!” Twilight exclaimed as the carefree pegasus breezed on by her. Her friend’s nonchalant attitude was really wearing on the unicorn’s nerves. They had been tasked with an important mission by the princess, and Rainbow Dash treating it like a leisurely fly through the mountains was getting to Twilight. Aside from that, there was the mid-summer heat draining everyone‘s energy too. The sky-high temperature was utterly unforgiving with it’s intensity; nor was it helping their quest in any way. This season had been particularly sweltering, even in Ponyville, but on the mountain it was a whole other animal.

The path they were walking on sat in a dried riverbed, though it was converted into a hoofpath for climbing the mountain a long time ago. Along the sides were natural walls that trapped the warm air, making the trail a veritable oven. In the confines sat the kind of roasting, muggy heat that could sap even the most resilient pony’s energy. Twilight felt like she might just keel over from exhaustion or heat stroke, and she wasn’t the only one either. Everyone was tired, hot, and with still a long way to go, the group’s morale was sinking quickly.

“This heat is just dreadful,” Rarity said, pulling a fan from her saddlebag with her magic. “And this humidity is a disaster for my mane!”

“Rarity, a bit’a sun’ll do ya some good.” Applejack rolled her eyes at her prissy friend as she fanned herself. The designer turned her nose up at the cowpony’s remark in an offended sort of way. She trotted past her as she did so, causing Applejack to shake her head at the finicky pony.

“So what’re we doin’ out here again, Twi? If ya don’t mind me askin’ that is.” Applejack wiped the sweat from her forehead, taking her hat off to do so. She was used to working in the heat, but even this was a bit much for the farmer. Unlucky for the travelers, today was the hottest day of the season thus far. Even unluckier, they were climbing a steep mountain on such a day, getting closer to the fiery sun. Even further misfortune was their trip up the mountain was without a breeze, or even so much as a tree for shade.

Twilight had her face buried in a map, plotting their course. “We’re her looking for Heavenly Shimmer’s Magic Mirror, an artifact that was stolen while it was being transported from the Canterlot Museum to Manehattan for an exhibit.” Twilight sighed a bit, feeling like this was the hundredth time she had explained this to her friends.

“And why are we the ponies getting it back? Can’t the royal guard handle this?” Rainbow asked, still relaxing as her friends hiked.

“We’re getting it back because a...d-dragon stole it, right, Twilight?” Fluttershy answered. Twilight nodded to her friend, happy that one of them had been listening.

“Oh! And dragons are nasty critters, and we have the most experience in dealing with them!” Pinkie’s bubbly attitude didn’t seem to wither with the heat, much to her friend’s dismay. Usually Pinkie’s enthusiasm would be welcomed, but with everyone so exhausted from the heat, and mountain climbing, it was more of an annoyance. They were in no mood to laugh, or joke around. Everyone just wanted to get to the top, get the mirror back, and call it a day. Even worse for the group was that she had been talking almost nonstop since they left Ponyville, and one can only handle so much unadulterated Pinkie Pie randomness before losing their cool.

“I wonder if the dragon will be a nice dragon like Spike. Maybe he’ll want to be friends, and we can throw a party, and invite him for a sleepover, and get some cake, and introduce him to all of Ponyville, and then maybe we can all go have a picnic—”

“Pinkie...please stop talking for a few minutes,” Twilight pleaded with her friend, as sweat was pouring down her face. She had an utter look of exhaustion from dealing with the questions and her overly excited friend. After a small second, Pinkie nodded happily, obliging her request. That small gesture let the group enjoy a small bit of silence for a few moments before it was broken once again.

“Umm, Twilight?” Fluttershy’s soft voice came floating up from the rear of the group. “What exactly makes this mirror so special?” asked the timid pony.

“No pony really knows, it hasn’t been active in centuries. Though I’m sure one of the princesses know since it used to be in their care before Celestia turned it over to the museum a few hundred years ago,” Twilight answered, just happy it wasn’t Pinkie’s randomness, Rarity’s whining, or Rainbow Dash asking if they were there yet.

“Why the hay would a dragon even want some old, useless mirror anyway?” Rainbow asked, rolling over in the sky so she was back facing the ground.

“It’s not useless Rainbow Dash. Dragons have an innate sense for magic, which means the item is still very powerful or else the dragon wouldn’t have stolen it.” She rolled her eyes at her friend.

“I’m still not too sure about facing a dragon to get it back...” Fluttershy said meekly. With how terrified Fluttershy was of dragons, it was a miracle they got her this far without dragging her. Her friends were actually really proud of the shy pony for facing her fears.

“Don’t worry about it, Fluttershy!” Pinkie said with an upbeat tone. "Think of it like a surprise party, only instead of presents, the surprise is a big fire-breathing dragon!” She giggled, as she skipping along. It made everyone there wonder where she got the energy in this heat to be so giddy.

“I don’t like those kind of surprises...” she replied softly.

“Anyway the sooner we get that mirror back to the museum, the better. I can’t wait to get out of this heat, all this sweat it’s ruining my fur!” Rarity whined, still fanning herself.

“Now, ya were just tellin’ me the other day that sweat was good fer yer skin.” Applejack gave a skeptical look to her friend.

“In a sauna yes, but not in this kind of heat. This is just disgusting.”

“She has a point. Rainbow Dash, could you find us a cloud or something to help block the sun? We’re baking down here.” Twilight looked to the laid-back pegasus.

“No can do, Twi. I don’t know what the weather schedule is for this area; I’m not in charge here. If it’s scheduled to be hot, then it has to be hot,” she said dismissively.

“We’re not asking for a downpour, just a bit of shade.” A growing aggravation spilled over into the bookish unicorn’s voice.

“Look Twilight, if I give you guys some shade, then every other pony will want some shade.”

“What other ponies!” Twilight stopped, bringing the whole group to a standstill. She held out a foreleg as she questioned Rainbow Dash, showing her that they were the only ponies stupid enough to be on the mountain on such a miserably hot day. The pegasus looked around, seeing there wasn’t another soul around except her group of friends. “There are no other ponies, Rainbow Dash! So please just stop being so stubborn and fetch us some shade!” Twilight demanded.

Twilight’s bossy tone finally struck a chord with Rainbow Dash. Suddenly she dropped down to the ground, poking a hoof into her friend’s chest. “Listen here Miss Bossy, even if I could get you guys a cloud for some shade, where would I get one? In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s a clear day. Not a cloud in the sky!” Dash pressed her nose to her friend’s.

“Please stop fighting...” Fluttershy jumped in putting her hooves between the two arguing ponies. Their eyes were fuming at one another. When the two turned an angered glare at her, she jumped back. “I-If that’s okay with you...” she added in a muttered tone.

“She’s right, stop fighting you two, it’s really not helping this heat,” Rarity added.

“Yeah, well, maybe if’n ya shared some of yer fan, we might not be so hot-headed!” Applejack retorted, pointing at her friend’s fan.

“Please, surely you’re joking. I can’t fan all of us, the fan is far too small.”

“You could at least try, Rarity!”

“Why would I waste my time trying something that would clearly not work?”

“Would you all calm down!” Fluttershy exploded in a rare burst of boldness, snapping her friends away from their arguments. When they all turned their attention to the shy pegasus, she shrunk down smaller than any of them had ever seen her, quickly trying to hide behind her flowing pink mane. “If...that’s okay with you...” she added, returning to her normal quiet voice.

“Hold on!” Pinkie yelled out, pointing a hoof to her curly tail. Everyone’s attention fell to the twitching pink mess, causing a few cautious looks around the group. A sudden deep rumble caught their attention, shortly followed by the ground shaking. When the group of ponies looked up they saw a flow of rocks and dirt tumbling down the mountainside towards them. Twilight quickly looked forward, to see if they could make it before the rocks blocked the only road up the mountain. It didn’t take long for her to realize they wouldn’t, so she started pushing her friend’s back.

“Get back, everypony!” she yelled, grabbing a frozen Fluttershy by the tail with her magic as she did so. Rocks came tumbling down on them as they ran. The fleeing ponies dodged between falling boulders narrowly avoiding them. Fluttershy yelped as one was about to land on her, until Twilight swung her to safety using her magic. Rainbow Dash dove right into Rarity and Applejack pushing them out of the way of another large rock about to crush the two ponies. While Pinkie on the other hoof, hopped carelessly in between the falling chunks of rubble, dodging them effortlessly, and leaving her friends dumbfounded. With one final hop Pinkie dodged the last large boulder to fall. The group of friends managed to barely get out from under the landslide safely, save for maybe a bump or bruise from smaller rocks. After a few more rocks tumbled, they knew it was over. A massive cloud of dust and dirt was kicked up from the rockslide, coating the ponies. When everything was finally settled, Rarity let out a dramatic groan.

“Now I’m covered in sweat and dirt. Could today get any worse?” the designer asked sarcastically.

“Ya coulda lost yer head, that’a been worse,” Applejack retorted.

“Everypony alright?” Twilight looked around at her friends, checking to see if they were all okay. After seeing they were fine, her eyes fell onto the rock pile barring their path. Twilight let out a small annoyed sigh, feeling like today couldn’t get any worse. “Rainbow, could you carry Rarity and I over those rocks, and Fluttershy would you carry Applejack and Pinkie?” she asked looking at the two pegasi.

“Umm, no...I don’t think I can...I‘m...a little too scared to fly...” the shy pony said, looking back at her shivering wings. Twilight sighed again after seeing her plan hit snag.

“Rainbow Dash?” She looked to her friend, expecting her to pick up the slack.

“I can’t carry everypony!” she protested.

“Well, how are we going to get everypony over the rockslide?”

“Since you think one pony can do it, why don’t you just teleport everypony over?” she replied sarcastically, sticking out her tongue.

“Can’t you take this seriously?”

“Do you always have be so bossy? This wouldn‘t have happened if you had just dropped the whole cloud thing instead of telling me what to do!”

“Alright, y’all just cool down for a minute. I think the sun’s gettin’ ta y’all n’ yer liable ta say somethin’ ya might regret.” Applejack tried to calm her friends down, but they didn’t even acknowledge her.

“I swear, pegasi are just so stubborn!” Twilight stomped her hoof. She glared her eyes at Rainbow Dash.

“Stubborn? Well, every unicorn I ever met has been a stuck-up snob!”

“Excuse me?” Rarity gasped at the accusation.

“Oh come on now Sugarcube, y’all can be pretty stuck-up.” Applejack laughed a bit.

“Well, excuse me for not being some...earth pony...yokel!”

“Ya wanna run that one by me again?” the farmer said, glaring at Rarity. The offender simply turned her nose up at Applejack.

“Hey now, this isn’t how friends should act!” Pinkie interrupted, snapping her friends back to reality. Twilight, and Rainbow Dash, took a step back from one another. taking a moment to clear their heads. The two still had lingering remnants of a glare, still not quite ready to look past the mean things the other said. Rarity and Applejack did much the same with Rarity's nose still tilted up in a condescending manner. Each pony’s eyes still burned with anger, but they had stopped verbalizing it at least.

“You can take two ponies, I’ll teleport the two, okay?” Twilight offered after a few moments of tense silence. Rainbow looked at the pile of rocks again. She really didn‘t want to admit Twilight was right, but there really wasn’t any other way around this mess. And she did have to admit her studious friend’s solution wasn’t exactly unfair either. Reluctantly, she nodded, accepting the proposal. The pegasus extended a hoof as a sign of a truce, which Twilight accepted in return.

“I don’t see why anypony has ta carry Rarity, she’s a unicorn, why don’t she just teleport herself.” Applejack motioned to the unicorn beside her.

“I’ll have you know teleportation is no small feat, Applejack. While a baby unicorn might do it on accident, it takes years of practice to hone, and...umm...I...haven’t practiced...” Her cheeks flushed red for a brief moment with embarrassment.

“Sounds ta me like ya just don’t wanna tucker yerself out.”

“Tucker myself out? Well, if you’re so concerned, why don’t you just buck the rocks out of the way? You’re a big strong earth pony after all.”

“An’ whassat suppose ta mean?” Her eyes narrowed at the comment.

“It means you’re no stranger to physical labor, so just do what earth ponies do best and use your muscle.” Applejack’s jaw hit the ground. To make matters worse, a condescending smile spread across Rarity’s face, her eyes took on an aura of superiority, and her nose continued pressing upward slightly. Everything about her at that moment screamed “I’m better than you” and Applejack never took kindly to such attitudes. She narrowed her eyes harder, so much so that Rarity could actually feel Applejack's gaze burning into her skin. Yet, she didn’t seem to care much, she continued with her condescending attitude.

“Seriously girls! This heat is really putting everypony on-edge, so let’s hurry up and just get this over with.” Twilight interrupted their spat. The two simply looked away from one another, giving a loud humph in unison. In that moment, they both decided that looking at one another was just going to fuel their anger more.

“I-I think I might be able to fly...If you really need me to...” Fluttershy smiled weakly. Her soft-spoken voice barely managed to nab Twilight’s and Rainbow Dash’s attention.

“Don’t worry about it Fluttershy,” Twilight said placing a hoof on Rarity and Applejack. She closed her eyes for a second, concentrating deeply. A soft hum filled the air, and her horn began to glow. Twilight's face strained a bit as she focused harder. After a second of building her magic, there was a bright flash, and Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack were gone.

“Well, since you’re carrying ponies, can you carry me Fluttershy? I’ve always wanted to fly!” The energetic whirlwind that was Pinkie Pie was jumping circles around the shy pegasus. Her face was absolutely beaming with excitement.

“I don’t know...I suppose I could...” she muttered meekly. Before Pinkie could respond a blue streak swooped in and snatched her up.

“Come on Fluttershy, let’s get a move on!” Rainbow said before rushing off with a giddy pink pony in her hooves. The timid pegasus nodded her head slowly, before tentatively taking to the sky.

Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity appeared on the other side of the rockslide in a purple burst of light. As the light faded, and her magic died down, Twilight immediately fell back on her hind legs. She panted heavily, and sweat streamed down her forehead in a steady trickle. The bookish pony was struggling just to keep her eyes opened after exerting so much magical power. That little stunt, combined with the hike and the heat had completely exhausted her.

“Twilight, dear, are you alright?” Rarity asked.

Rainbow Dash landed next to them, dropping off Pinkie Pie just before she did. “Now she knows how I would’ve felt carrying everypony over that rockslide,” the athletic mare said spitefully. Her remark only drew the scorn of Rarity, causing her to glare at the pegasus.

“Rainbow Dash, could you drop it already?” the unicorn snapped at her friend.

Rainbow Dash only shrugged her shoulders. “She’s the one who started it.”

“Actually I think it was both of you who started it. You know what they say, it takes two to tango, right? Which I never understood what tangoing had to do with—”

“Pinkie, dear, could you stop for a moment, you’re not helping...” Rarity rummaged through her saddlebag, pulling out a water bottle. “Here Twilight, have a drink of this,” she said levitating the bottle to her panting friend. “Everypony be sure to get a drink,” she added, seeing her friends practically drooling with envy over the water. Everyone nodded happily, gathering around to take a sip. Twilight passed the bottle to Rainbow Dash who took a quick swig before tossing it to Fluttershy. The shy pony nearly dropped the container, but luckily she caught it just before it hit the ground.

“Careful Rainbow Dash, what would we do if she had spilled it?” Twilight's nagging only caused the pegasus to roll her eyes. The bottle was passed from pony to pony, giving some much needed hydration. But by the time it reached Applejack, it was bone dry. The cowpony gave a small frown when no water flowed into her mouth when she tipped the bottle back.

“Consarnit,” she cursed, giving the bottle back to Rarity.

“Hold on, I have another,” she said, pulling a second bottle from her saddlebag.

Applejack readily took the bottle, drinking in the delicious liquid eagerly. The water was warm, but it didn’t matter to her. She was so thirsty she would have drank anything Rarity passed to her, even one of those fancy teas she was always making. Finally she forced the bottle from her still wanting lips, not wanting to hog all the water. She gave it back to Rarity, who took a quick sip, after wiping off the lid. “Gotta say there Rarity, yer persnickety nature sure saved us,” Applejack said with a smile.

“Persnickety? Please, it’s called being prepared.”

“I meant it as a compliment,” she defended.

“Let’s get moving guys,” Rainbow said, reeling in another argument before it erupted into another group wide quarrel. The ponies slowly got onto their hooves, and dusted themselves off from the rockslide before resuming their hike. The water they drank was reinvigorating, but that feeling didn’t last long in this heat. Soon they were all sweating, panting, and feeling like they were being cooked alive in the mid-summer sun. Twilight was in the worst shape, she had slowed down dramatically since she expelled so much magic.

“Twilight, are you sure you’re alright?” Fluttershy asked, walking next to her friend. Twilight nodded weakly with heavy eyes.

“I’m fine, Fluttershy.” She forced a smile to reassure her friend. “Just need to rest a bit and I’ll be alright.”

“That’s not such a good idea. If ya take a seat on the ground, you’ll cook like an egg!” Pinkie said with a giggle.

“Why did the princess have to send us out on today of all days?” Rarity said in a high-pitched, grating voice that sounded like hooves on a chalkboard. The designer’s whining was wearing on everyone’s nerves. Sure, what she was asking was a valid question, but they didn’t need it vocalized every few seconds, especially in such an obnoxious voice.

“Because, that mirror is a powerful magical artifact, and we need to get it back from the dragon before he decides to move.” Twilight sounded very unenthused. They never asked the same question, but her friends were always asked the same thing. Honestly, she had lost track of how many times now she told her friends the reason for their journey.

“I meant why today of all days. It’s too hot to be outside...” The group groaned in unison.

“Yes, Rarity, it’s hot. We get it...” Rainbow Dash muttered in growing aggravation.

“Also, why do weather ponies even make it this hot? This kind of heat just shouldn’t be allowed.”

“Weather is complicated Rarity. That’s why there’s classes about it in Cloudsdale. There’s a reason we have droughts and high heat. Cloudsdale gets water once a year, and we have to make that water last. Sometimes we don’t get too much so we have to ration it, and that can lead to droughts.”

“Maybe they should manage it better. Pegasi aren’t that great at planning ahead...” the fashionista said with a condescending tone.

“What’s with you two unicorns bein’ down on pegasi all of a sudden?” Applejack shook her head at Rarity‘s attitude.

“I didn’t say anything...” Twilight muttered sluggishly.

“Ya did earlier...” the cowpony pointed out, causing Twilight to hang her head a bit. Nothing more was said, leaving an uncomfortable silence hanging in the air with the heat. Everyone was too hot, and too tired to argue anymore. Everything said since they got on that mountain seemed to be getting misconstrued, or annoyed someone, or was just a bad attempt at humor. Realizing that, they thought it best to just be quiet, and give everyone a chance to calm down.

Further up the mountain, after the riverbed had ended, they found themselves on a narrow ledge. It was a dangerous, winding path that one could easily slip from if not too careful. The group of friends stayed close to the mountain beside them, keeping as far from the ledge as possible. This was the only way up to the dragon’s lair that lie at the summit. As they crawled along the hazardous trail, they came to a dead end. A long dried stream had carved a sizable split through the cliff side, preventing them from moving forward.

“How are we going to get past this one.” Twilight sighed. She really didn’t want to ask Rainbow and Fluttershy to carry the group across, not after her last spat she had with the stubborn pegasus. However, she was still too worn out from her last stunt to try teleporting everyone across, which didn’t leave them with a whole lot of options. She had to reconsider asking Rainbow Dash, and she would also have to be mindful of how she posed the request. She froze for a moment running how the conversation would go, that was until she felt a hoof on her shoulder.

It was plain as day that Twilight was in no shape to use magic. Rarity could see the exhaustion in bookish unicorn’s eyes. Moving three ponies wasn‘t easy, even if it was only a few hundred hooves. Her eyes fell upon Rainbow Dash next, seeing she was already getting an attitude. If Twilight were to ask her to help out, Rainbow would probably just start another argument. She continued to glance around her for a solution that kept everyone happy. Finally she saw it, a simple, practical solution right in front of her nose. “There’s a dead tree over there.” Rarity pointed at a dried husk of a log sticking out of the ground. Her friends looked at the ancient tree, not quite sure where Rarty was going with this.

Applejack on the other hoof caught on pretty quickly. She approached the old tree, poking it to see if it was solid. After a few test pokes, she slammed her hoof into it hard, finding that it didn’t even buckle. As luck would have it, the tree looked just long enough for the travelers to turn into a makeshift bridge. “I think this ought to do nicely.” Applejack rubbed her hoof along the dried bark.

“Good, now just buck it out of the ground for us, Applejack,” Rarity ordered.

“Beg yer pardon?”

“Just buck it out, and move it into place for a bridge.”

“I ain’t yer workhorse! I’ll buck it, but you can move it yerself.” She narrowed her eyes at the bossy unicorn. With Applejack being difficult, she wasn’t left with many options. Rarity reluctantly agreed to the cowpony’s terms with a nod. Applejack reared her back legs up, holding them in close to her body. In an instant she released all the power she was storing, kicking back as hard as she could. The tree tilted back slightly, but still remained firmly planted in the ground.

“Come on now, show us some of that earth pony strength, Applejack.” She rolled her eyes at the cheering from Rainbow Dash. Her being an earth pony had nothing to do with her strength, that all came from years of working on her family’s farm. Furthermore she wanted to know why Rainbow Dash was bring that up at all.

“Why don’t ya give’er a kick RD, yer a mighty strong pegasus, it shouldn’t break yer bones’er nothin’,” she called back returning a cocky attitude back to the pegasus.

“Oh! I can help!” Pinkie yelled excitedly, jumping next to Applejack. Both ponies reared their hind legs up, storing the energy as they did so. With a good hard kick, both ponies released, giving the dead tree a strong shove. With the two earth ponies’ buck, the tree toppled over. Rarity caught the old stump in her magic. Carefully, she levitated the ancient log over the gap blocking their way. As she released her magic, she let out a long drawn out sigh.

“That should do,” she said whipping her forehead of sweat.

“A bit a hard work’ll do that to ya, Sugarcube,” Applejack muttered in passing. Rarity chose to try and ignore the comment, by grinding her teeth together rather than respond.

“The dragon’s lair should be just up ahead now. Let’s get that mirror and get home...” Twilight said, cautiously climbing onto the makeshift bridge. After she felt it was safe, she finally crept across. The rest of the earthbound ponies followed after her, with the two pegasi staying back; just in case they needed to catch any of their friends if they slipped.

True to Twilight’s word, the dragon’s lair was only a relatively short walk from their minor impasse. The moment they saw that cave a sense of relief filled the group because their exhausting trial was nearly over. However, the fact that inside that cave was a giant flying fire-breathing dragon sitting on a pile of treasure and magical artifacts quickly brought them back from their short-lived respite.

“We just need to get in there and get the artifact.” Twilight sighed when she turned to see a shivering Fluttershy behind her. The rest of her friends didn’t look too confident either, mostly because they were too tired from the hike and heat to be in a fighting mood. Rainbow looked irritable to say the least, Rarity and Applejack still weren’t talking to one another, and Pinkie, though smiling, was far from the usual bubbly pony they had come to know and love. Twilight herself wasn’t in the greatest shape either, though she felt worlds better than she did after that rockslide.

Her eyes turned to the dark cavern ahead. One thing stood out and that was a distinct lack of black smoke wafting from the entrance. That meant one of two things, the dragon was away terrorizing more ponies, or he was awake in there. The latter made Twilight shiver just thinking about it.

“There is a very good possibility that there is a dragon inside that cave, who probably won’t hoof over that mirror willingly. So does anypony have any ideas?” Twilight asked her friends.

“Charge in!” Rainbow Dash said, puffing her chest out a bit.

“Sweet talk him,” Rarity offered.

“Make him laugh!” Pinkie yelled with a hop.

“Rope ‘em an’ drag ‘em on out here!” Applejack said pulling a rope out of her saddlebag.

“Pass,” Fluttershy muttered hiding behind her mane.

“Good ideas everypony, but I just want to let you girls know, we’ve tried all of those before on a dragon and they didn’t work.”

“Well, how about we have RD zip on in there ‘n snatch that mirror up before that dragon even knows what happened to ‘em.” The cowpony put her rope away. Giving the pegasus a sly smile.

“That’s not really fair to Rainbow Dash,” Rarity replied.

“Oh! We could all go in there dressed as ninjas!” Pinkie hugged Fluttershy’s head close to her chest, waving her hoof across the sky like she was revealing a hidden truth to the confused pegasus. “Think about it Fluttershy, we could all be ninjas!”

“W-Why are you telling me...” she asked her pink assailant that was squeezing her head.

“Or we could just go in, the caves empty!” A scratchy voice rang out from the direction of the cave. Floating just in front of the cavern was Rainbow Dash, who took it upon herself to scout the dragon’s lair. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off everyone’s shoulder when the heard her say the dragon was gone. Quickly the group of friends darted into the cave to grab snatch their objective before the monster came back from wherever he was.

“Rainbow that was incredibly reckless, what if the dragon was in there and he saw you! We wouldn’t have been ready to fight him!” Twilight scolded her friend as they approached the dark cave. She only rolled her eyes at the nagging unicorn.

“My word, look at all this gold, and all these gems!” Rarity gasped as her eyes mirrored the gold from the almost glowing treasure that laid before them. In the center of the dank, poorly lit cave was a huge mound of gold, gems, and a few other items that seemed out of place. Twilight inspected a certain quill that caught her attention. As her hoof brushed against the feather it sprang to life. It stood up on its own, waiting for an Twilight to issue an order. She chuckled to herself, tapping the quill again. At her touch it fell dead onto the ground.

“It seems this guy will take anything with magic in it. You can buy these self writing quills in Canterlot,” she mused, looking around in awe at the glimmering metals and stones around her.

“Enough fooling around, lets just get the mirror and go!” Rainbow Dash called out, causing Twilight to groan a bit. After that long trek up the mountain, she deserved to at least look at some of the items the dragon had acquired. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized she was right. They didn’t know when the dragon would come back, and they wanted to be long gone before that happened.

“So what’s this mirror look like?” Fluttershy’s quiet voice barely caught anyone’s attention.

“Umm, a mirror, duh!” Rainbow rolled her eyes again.

“If I recall, Celestia’s letter told me it was silver, a little bigger than hoof sized-”

“And...umm...has a very mean looking unicorn on it?” Fluttershy finished Twilight’s sentence.

“Yes, how did you know?”

“I think I found it...” she said meekly, staring into the polished surface. It was almost eerie how realistic the reflection looked, almost like she could reach out and touch the pony on the other side. Fluttershy couldn’t help but feel scared of this small mirror. Something wasn’t right about it. The more she looked into the smooth surface the more she noticed how strange it was. It was like the mirror itself was giving off an aura that warded ponies away from it.

“That’s it! good job, Fluttershy!” Twilight patted the pegasus on the back. She reached for the artifact, but right as she was about to touch it, she heard a sudden clang behind her. Her heart almost stopped as she snapped around. She had her horn ready to unleash a spell, but instead of a towering dragon like she expected, there stood Rarity covered from head to hoof in jewels, gold, and clothes fit for royalty. Seeing the fashionista dressed so ridiculously caused Twilight to sigh. She took the mirror, passing it off to her hoof with her magic, before rolling her eyes at how silly the designer looked.

“Rarity, what the hay do ya think yer doin‘?”

“Just helping myself to some wrongfully taken treasure, that’s all,” she said with a snooty inflection that drove Applejack insane every time she heard it.

“Ya can’t just take that stuff, it don’t belong ta ya!” the cowpony grabbed at the gaudy accessories, pulling them off Rarity.

“Hey now!” she protested, but Applejack didn’t stop.

“Rarity, Applejack stop fighting,” Twilight pleaded, but it only fell on deaf ears.

“Who cares, take as much as you want, Rarity. Not like this dragon’ll even notice with all this stuff here.” Rainbow Dash egged the unicorn on.

“Rainbow Dash! You’re not helping!” Twilight yelled.

“Why are you so up tight?” Rainbow Dash questioned.

“Why are you so stubborn? You could‘ve gotten us killed when you came at this cave earlier!”

“Yeah! Let me go for a ride Fluttershy!” Everyone’s attention turned to Pinkie who was yelling at Fluttershy. The shy pegasus looked at her friend completely confused, and in utter shock.

“W-What?” She was so unprepared for the demand, she almost shut down entirely.

“Rarity, why ya gotta be so dang difficult? Jus' leave that stuff here!” Applejack resumed her berating of her unicorn friend.

“Why are you so unsophisticated?” she retorted.

Suddenly a bright flash erupted from the mirror in Twilight’s hoof. The light filled the room, blinding everyone in it. In that instant everything came to a stop, and only silence remained.

Author's Note

I'm sure this idea has been done before, but I still wanted to tell the story. Hopefully you all will enjoy it as much as I have writing it.

Changes

Swapped
Ch.2 - Changes

The warm light enveloped her, wrapping around her body entirely. It felt almost like she was nestled in a cocoon. This light that frightened her when she first saw it, now calmed her; it was almost relaxing in a way. Her heart felt a peace as she basked in the warmth and security. All the anger, and discomfort she felt just moments ago melted away into a beautiful sense of serenity. The bickering with her companions no longer bothered the pony, she felt so at one with everything. The heat from the burning summer day was gone, leaving only a comfortableness in its wake. She was no longer hot, or cold, just perfect, nothing bothered her anymore. All there was now, was her floating in the endless light.

It started with a feeling, or maybe more accurately, a sense of awareness that she was about feel something; she knew it was coming even before it happened. Her body began to tingle. This light that had enveloped her and her friends was massaging her, loosening her, making her malleable like clay. Slowly the tingle intensified into a tickle, and then a grinding. Pain flooded her as she struggled to understand why the light was turning on her. The pain focused itself into her body, becoming internal. Slowly it snaked through her, until it reached her head. A burning sensation flared at her forehead, her back felt like it was on fire, her hooves felt like they were melting. She could feel part of her old self burn away with the heat, and something new rise from the ashes. Whatever this light was, it was changing her. In an instant everything was dark. The light had faded, the burning stopped, and her body no longer ached. She was alone in the darkness.

Twilight opened her eyes, but everything was a blurry mess. All she could see was a glinting yellow blob in front of her—which she assumed was the treasure. Her eyes drifted back closed, as she let out a groan. Her head was pounding with a massive ache right under her horn. She shook her head, letting the wave move down her neck, and through her back. As her body twisted back and forth, shaking out the stiffness, she felt something brush against her sides. Her eyes shot open with confusion filling her aching head. She looked back to investigate whatever had just brushed against her, expecting her saddlebag, or something, but it wasn’t. Sitting on Twilight’s back was a fluffy purple mass that she couldn‘t quite make out from her blurred vision.

Whatever this fluffy thing sticking to her was, she could feel it; when she tried to move it, it responded. Twilight blinked a few times, forcing her eyes to focus her vision. Finally she rubbed her eyes with her hoof, clearing the fuzzy veil. She couldn’t have prepared herself for what was resting at her side when her vision cleared. Twilight saw a lavender wing staring back at her, twitching slightly as she tried moving it.

“W-What? I-I have wings?” she asked herself, darting over to her other side. Sure enough, she found a mirror match sitting on there as well.

“What’s going on? What was that light?” The familiar voice of Pinkie asked. Twilight saw her bubbly earth pony friend was a little different as well. In fact, looking at her, she wasn’t an earth pony anymore. She too had a pair of wings attached to her back too.

“P-Pinkie!” Twilight pointed a hoof at the cheerful mare in shock. She looked up at Twilight, confused for a moment by the shocked librarian. Then a certain feathery appendage on Twilight caught the party pony’s attention. Her eyes popped wide open when she realized Twilight had a pair of pegasus wings.

“Twilight! You got wings! Oh, take me for a ride, please!” She asked bouncing over to her purple friend. Her new wings fluttered sporadically as she jumped for joy. Halfway to Twilight she stopped dead in her tracks. “Wait, where did your horn go?” she asked.

Twilight froze when Pinkie asked that. Pieces of the puzzle started to form in her buzzing brain that were almost too much for Twilight to handle. Seeing the wings on her back, and a throbbing headache where her horn is did leave her with a terrifying theory. Cautiously, she raised a shaky hoof to her forehead to hopefully disprove her hypothesis. She touched to where the tip of her horn should be, only to feel air. Her eyes widened, as she lowered her hoof all the way down to her mane. When she felt her hoof touch her skin, her heart stopped for a moment. Twilight Sparkle, student to the princess, Element of Magic, and a gifted unicorn no longer had a horn.

“I-I’m a pegasus?” Twilight asked too shocked to say anything else.

“Oh my head.” Applejack’s southern drawl suddenly drew Twilight and Pinkie’s attention. Slowly, Applejack pulled her hat back, rubbing her sore temples. The slight reveal allowed Twilight and Pinkie a get a glimpse of a orange spiky structure poking up from the cowpony’s mane. She shook her head, trying to get her vision back in focus much like Twilight had done.

“Applejack! You have a horn!” Pinkie bounced over to the farmer, wrapping her in a big hug.

“What in the hay’re you talkin’ about, Pinkie?” Applejack went to rub her forehead, but her hoof bumped into something hard along the way, causing her to wince in pain. Her eyes grew wide for a second. “What’s that?” she asked with a bit of fear in her voice.

“You’re a unicorn, Applejack! Is that what you’ve been hiding under your hat this whole time?” Pinkie gave her earth-pony-turned-unicorn friend a very suspicious eye. Applejack pushed Pinkie back, giving herself a bit of space. After she was sure her eager friend would stay put, she brushed her mane out of the way. When she looked up, she could see the very tip sticking out, just barely in her field of view. The cowpony gave her horn a cautious poke, checking to see if it was the real thing.

Her eyes grew wide again when she felt it was attached. “Y-Ya gotta be kiddin’ me...” she muttered in disbelief.

“Where is my horn!” Rarity yelled, grabbing everyone’s attention next. Her eyes were wider than any of her friends had ever seen. The dress maker frantically felt around her head, trying to locate her missing magic-enabling appendage.

“I think Applejack has it!” Pinkie said with a giggle, poking Applejack’s horn. The slight teasing caused Applejack to glare at the new pegasus.

“Back off, Pinkie, I ain’t in the mood!” Her horn lit up with a pale orange glow, much to her own surprise. “What the?” her eyes looked up at the glowing appendage on her forehead. Her eyes strained a bit from the feeling of magic flowing for the first time through her horn. The same orange aura appeared around Pinkie’s hooves, glowing ominously for a moment. Suddenly the Pinkie was sent toppling over backwards. “What the hay? Did I do that?”

“Why does Applejack have a horn? And why don’t I have my horn?” Rarity whined covering the spot where her horn used to be, almost like she was covering her shame.

“Umm...I don’t mean to be a bother but...I seem to be missing my wings...” Fluttershy muttered walking next to Twilight. The shy pony examined Twilight’s pair, checking for similarities to her own.

Suddenly the librarian gasped. “They’re not missing, you two are earth ponies!” She tucked the mirror away in her saddlebag before grabbing Fluttershy’s hoof. She examined it thoroughly, seeing if there were differences from when she was a pegasus. The shy pony blushed a bit as Twilight fondled her hoof.

“Umm, please don’t...grab my hoof...” she mumbled, timidly taking back her foreleg. Twilight’s face flashed red once she realized what she had done. She felt a little embarrassed about her inquisitive side getting the best of her for a moment.

“What happened?” Rainbow asked shaking her head. Twilight looked over at the pega—she froze again when she saw the fastest flier in Equestra standing before her without wings. Instead she had a cyan unicorn horn poking out from her rainbow mane.

“R-Rainbow?” Twilight asked tentatively, making sure she had the right rainbow-maned pony.

“What now, Twi?” she asked in an irritated tone. She was busy rubbing her hoof against the side of her head, trying to relax away a throbbing headache. The unsuspecting pony still hadn’t noticed she was wingless, nor her new horn sticking out from her forehead. Everyone watched her with a careful eye as she blinked to get her vision back, much like they all had done. Finally, she stretched her body out, trying to remedy the stiffness that came from whatever that light was.

Once she was all stretched out she jumped up a bit, expecting her wings to kick in, much like she had always done. Instead of the brisk embrace of the sky, she fell flat on her face. A confused look spread across the former pegasus’s face as she climbed back up onto her hooves. Rainbow Dash looked so utterly confused and shocked that she wasn’t flying, falling had been the last thing she had expected. When she turned her head to where her wings should be, her eyes almost popped out of her skull in disbelief. Where her once proud wings should have sat, she only saw a blank side. Slowly her head turned back to face her friends.

“W-W-What?” she muttered weakly. Twilight and Rarity looked at one another with troubled eyes.

“Rainbow Dash, we need you to calm down,” Twilight said carefully, taking a step towards her friend. Fluttershy saw the building fear in Rainbow’s eyes, and followed Twilight’s lead.

“What!?” She yelled. As her emotions surged her horn lit with a pale magenta glow, causing her to almost fall back from the surging power..

“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity yelled, taking a step towards the scared unicorn. Applejack yelped in pain suddenly, grabbing Rarity’s attention. The cowpony’s horn was glowing a pale orange in unison with Rainbow Dash’s. In a brief moment, she too was sent tumbling over from the raw power surging through her horn. “Twilight!” Rarity yelled while looking at Applejack.

“We have to calm them down!” she called back to Rarity.

“No! This isn’t happening!” Rainbow screamed as her new horn burned with a new sensation. She had never felt anything like this before, it was so hot, so bright, and so powerful. This was unicorn magic. Why was she doing unicorn magic? As her horn crackled with power, she felt completely terrified. Her body was trembling from this new sensation; in that instant she knew she couldn’t control this kind of power. She was a pegasus, she didn’t know the first thing about unicorns or their magic. All she wanted was to go home. This had to be a dream.

“I just want to go home!” Rainbow yelled, grabbing a hold of her head. In that instant an immense amount of magic poured into her horn, intensifying the power, making it glow brighter. The magic shifted from magenta to a pale pink. Across the room Applejack’s horn surged with magic too. Her orange glow, turned almost yellow from the intensity of the power flowing through her. Her eyes strained from the raw magic energy surging in her new horn. Seeing their friends’ struggle dredged memories in Rarity and Twilight from when they were younger. They knew they had to help their friends, or this would end badly.

The air felt almost electrified from the magic coursing through it. Twilight knew this sensation well, the spell the two inexperienced unicorns were forming was about to release. She looked at Fluttershy, giving the yellow mare a reaffirming nod. The two jumped at Rainbow Dash, grabbing onto her right as her spell cast in an explosive, bright flash. In that instant Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Fluttershy vanished.

“P-Pinkie, grab onto Applejack...Now!” Rarity ordered, placing a hoof on newly-horned friend.

“Okie Dokie Lokie!” The bubbly mare replied, as she squeezed Applejack tightly in a hug. In another bright flash the remaining ponies vanished.

When Rarity opened their eyes, she quickly realized they had teleported farther away than she anticipated. They were out of the dark cave, they were actually off of the mountain they were on. Trees surrounded the ponies, which didn‘t see any of those on the way to the mountain, especially in these numbers. Further inspection told her they were apple trees, a familiar sight around Ponyville. Each tree was aligned in a row, far too perfect for nature to do. Ponies had planted these trees. The ashen tone of the sun-beaten mountain rocks were replaced by grass and soft brown dirt. As a small breeze blew, the familiar smells of a farm drew her attention behind her. When she turned around, she saw a tall red barn standing behind them, and the familiar sign that read “Sweet Apple Acres”. They were back in Ponyville.

“I don’ feel so good...” the cowpony muttered as she wobbled in place. After a few unsteady sways she finally lost her balance, falling flat onto the ground. Rarity rushed over to her, checking to see if she was okay.

“What happened?” Pinkie asked.

“She just used too much magic, She’ll be fine.” Rarity let out a deep sigh, trying to wrap her head around what happened.

“Where are we?” Applejack asked weakly.

“Ponyville...you and Rainbow Dash teleported us here,” she said regaining some of the high-classed air about her. “What you did was reckless, and down right foalish, Applejack!” she scolded the dazed unicorn.

“I don’t even know how I did it...”

“You and Rainbow Dash did a spell resonance, something foals usually do by accident, or very talented unicorns do purposefully. I told you even a foal can teleport, but it takes years of practice to perfect it.” She helped her fallen friend get back on her feet. The orange unicorn’s eyes weighed heavy with fatigue. “Rainbow Dash’s emotions got the best of her, causing her magic to activate. That in turn activated your magic because you two happened to be thinking the same thought.” She glanced around for a moment. “I’m guessing that was “I want to go home” because that’s where we are.” Once she got Applejack onto her feet, she realized she didn’t have a plan for what to do with her.

“Well, that’s no good for Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Fluttershy.” Pinkie snorted a bit. Rarity only returned a puzzled look to the bubbly mare. “Rainbow Dash’s house is in the clouds, and Fluttershy and Dashie can’t fly!”

“...That’s not good...” Rarity muttered.

With a bright flash, the three ponies tumbled out from the tear in space Rainbow Dash opened. For a brief second they floated in the sky with a sense of weightlessness. Twilight shook her head, finally looking down. Her eyes almost popped out of her head when she saw the ground below them. The road looked like a piece of straw they were so high up. Trees seemed like dots, on the featureless blanket that was the grass below. Before any of them could even speak, gravity gently took its rightful hold, pulling them to the ground.

Twilight looked over at the pony who got them in this mess. The new unicorn’s eyes slowly drifted closed as she tumbled backwards, limp, too exhausted from the spell she cast to even stay awake. Fluttershy, still using the momentum from her dive in the cave, grabbed onto Dash squeezing her tightly in her forelegs. Just as the ponies fell, Fluttershy’s eyes shot opened when she realized she couldn’t fly.

Immediately she and Twilight began to scream as they plummeted. “Fluttershy!” Twilight yelled trying to get the shy pony’s attention. She was far too terrified to hear Twilight calling her name. “Fluttershy!” Twilight called again, but the speeding torrent of air around them drowned out her voice with ease. “Fluttershy!” Twilight yelled one more time, finally snapping her from her frozen state.

“I need you to walk me through flying or we’re going to die!” Twilight’s eyes stung from the winds blowing past her, forcing her to squeeze her eyes closed.

“W-What?” Fluttershy questioned. Twilight barely heard the terrified pony speak.

“I need you to walk me through flying or we’re going to die!” she repeated, feeling her voice crack from the yelling.

“I can’t! I-I don’t know how!” She averted her gaze from her struggling friend.

“You have to try!” Twilight screamed. Fluttershy looked down at the passed out unicorn in her arms, feeling tears well-up in her eyes. The three of them were going to die like this. Dash, Twilight and her were going to plummet to their deaths and there was nothing she could do about it. She squeezed Rainbow Dash as tight as she could, not willing to let that happen. Suddenly her eyes narrowed. She was wrong, there was something she could do. She just had to tell Twilight how to fly, and she could save them.

“J-Just flap your wings!” she cried out. Her eye’s were squeezed closed as tight as she could. Even a baby pegasus could flap their wings, surely Twilight knew how to do that she thought. She pressed her face into Dash’s chest too scared to watch.

“It’s not working!” Twilight’s voice was so full of panic. Cautiously, Fluttershy opened her eyes. Flying was so simple to her, to every pegasus; why didn’t Twilight understand it, she was smart. When she looked over at the struggling pegasus desperately flapping her wings, she easily saw what Twilight was doing wrong. She had no rhythm, no purpose in her strokes. Her wings didn’t bend on her up-swing meaning she was exerting as much force up as down. Her form was horrible, even Fluttershy knew that.

“This is hopeless,” she thought to herself. Her eyes fell down to her friend in her forelegs again. She couldn’t let Dash down, or Twilight, she had to try. Giving up wasn’t an option for her, not here. She had to explain it in a way Twilight would understand. Not just for her sake, but for Twilight’s and Dash’s as well. She wouldn’t let her friends die here, she had to think even more basic than basic. She had to tell Twilight things pegasi didn’t even register they were so simple. She closed her eyes, as a mental picture appeared in her head on how wings worked. She thought about how it felt to fly. What did she do exactly to fly? The image came into focus, and her eyes shot back to her struggling friend. Twilight had her eyes closed as she flapped with all her might, trying to do something other than flail uselessly.

“At the same time, Twilight! And bring your wings in close as you lift them up!” she coached to the best of her ability under the conditions. Twilight looked confused, but tried as best she could. She extended her wings into the raging torrent of wind, leaving her feeling like it was going to rip off every feather she had. She thrust her virgin wings down, and then back up, trying to match the rhythm. They moved roughly at the same time, which pushed Twilight a bit. She opened her eyes seeing the ground growing fast in front of her.

Without a moment’s hesitation, she grabbed Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy. The shy earth pony held onto Twilight as tight as her hoof would let her, which was a little too strong to Twilight. She winced in pain trying to push it from her mind; she had to concentrate on slowing them down enough to not die. With a few messy flaps, she tried to follow Fluttershy’s vague advice the best she could. Twilight pushed hard, letting her gain slight control of their fall.

She and her passengers wobbled as the sped towards the ground. Twilight turned up, trying to slow down but it wasn’t working. She had just barely managed to pull out of their death-plunge, she didn’t know how to land. Frantically she flapped her wings at the ground, chanting a mantra of “Stop-stop-stop!” to herself. Right before they hit, she knew she wouldn’t make it. At the last second, she rolled on her back, pulling her wings in tightly. They crashed to the ground, leaving a huge streak of upturned dirt.

Twilight groaned as she let go of the two ponies that landed on top of her, wishing they had been lighter. Fluttershy still clung to Twilight, squeezing the pegasus’s bruised leg as tightly as she could.

“Fluttershy...please let go...” Twilight squeezed out a pained whimper. Suddenly the blood rushed back into her numb hoof, sending a pulsing ache up her leg.

“S-Sorry, I was...just a little scared...” she replied weakly.

“So was I...” Twilight laughed a bit, feeling a rippling soreness roll through her body as she chuckled. She just let herself breathe for a moment as Fluttershy crawled off of her, still too in shock to try getting up. “How are you doing, Fluttershy?” she asked, her voice still straining a bit.

“I’m fine actually...” she muttered as she climbed to her hooves.

Twilight flexed her new wings a bit, feeling they were sore, but not broken. Her legs all worked without too much trouble, and her ribs, spine, skull, all made it through the crash. Miraculously, she wasn’t too much worse for wear save for a few bruises and sore spots. “Thank Celestia I was turned into a pegasus, or else we would’ve been pancakes.”

Fluttershy nodded weakly. “What happened?”

“Rainbow Dash lost control of her magic...She...teleported when she got worked up...” Slowly, she pulled herself out of the crater she made. Her body was still intact, but that didn’t mean she was in the best shape. Every inch of her back ached, and her wings were sore. Sore wings—she dwelled on that for a moment realizing how strange it felt for her. Once she climbed out of her hole, her eyes glanced over the still unconscious Rainbow Dash, checking her for injuries. Twilight, and Fluttershy only survived because pegasi and earth ponies are more durable than unicorns. If Twilight didn’t roll at the last second, Rainbow might’ve been seriously hurt.

“Fluttershy, can you get Rainbow Dash? We need to get to the library and find out what happened to us,” Twilight said shaking the dirt off her coat. The tickle of her feathers caused her to giggle slightly as they brushed across her sides. As she giggled her muscles screamed at her, quickly making her realize that wasn’t a good idea.

“I don’t know if I can carry her alone...”

“Trust me, you can. You almost squeezed my hoof off when we were crashing. Don’t underestimate an earth pony’s strength.” Twilight gave her a smile, trying to cheer the former pegasus up. Fluttershy gave a small nod, before pulling her unicorn friend to her hooves.

“I hope the others are okay...”

“I am most certainly not okay, Pinkie!” Rarity’s scream echoed through the orchard. “Our friends could be hurt, or worse!”

“Calm down, Rarity, I’m sure they’re fine! They have Twilight with them!” Pinkie’s lax attitude was driving the designer up a wall.

“Yes, Twilight, a pony who has never flown a day before in her life!” Rarity fell back on her hind legs, taking a seat in the dirt. Usually she wouldn’t have even dreamed of sitting somewhere so filthy, but her mind was elsewhere.

“Trust me, Rarity, they’re fine! My legs aren’t a shakin’, and my nose ain’t a twitchin’, and my hooves aren’t a itchin’ so they’re fine!” Pinkie’s eyes shone with a hundred percent certainty; there truly were no doubts in the mare‘s mind that her friends were okay. Rarity relented to her friend’s freakish sixth sense when it came to these sort of things. If Pinkie believed they were alright, then they had to be.

“Well, if they’re fine, then we should go to the library. That will be the first place Twilight goes,” she concluded.

“Yup!” Pinkie bounced slightly. Her wings fluttered with excitement as she did so, causing her to hover for a brief moment before dropping to the ground. The extra air-time she got from her fluttering wings didn’t escape her notice. Her face furled as she pondered a reason why for a moment, before she snapped her head back to her sides. A pair of pink feathery wings stared back at her, shaking in excitement. “Oh my GOSH! I HAVE WINGS!” The mare leapt into the air, and danced around in a circle.

“You just now noticed this?” Rarity gave her spastic friend a worried look.

“H-Hey y’all, I’m feelin’ a might bit sleepy...” Applejack murmured, barely able to support herself against a tree.

“Well, perhaps that will teach you not to go teleporting ponies on a whim,” Rarity said coldly.

“I bet I can fly if I try hard enough!” Pinkie giggled, still absorbed in her new wings.

“Pinkie, concentrate, we need to get to the library.” Rarity rubbed her hoof on her forehead, trying to relax away a building headache.

“So let’s go then!” she said, landing in front of Rarity.

“Like this? Are you kidding me? I would be a laughing stock if anypony saw me without my horn!” she gasped covering her blank forehead.

“I’m not laughing about it,” Pinkie giggled. “Sorry, I’m laughing because these feathers really tickle!”

“Well, if’n yer lookin fer a hat’re somethin’...I think there might be one in the barn ya can borrow...” Applejack looked over towards the house with heavy eyes. After a small pause she tried to push herself off the tree to stand up, but her legs quickly gave out.

“That would be wonderful Applejack, I thank you. But I do believe that you shan’t be joining us at the library, you’re in need of rest.” She looked down at the exhausted cowpony. After getting a nod from Applejack, Rarity lifted her onto her back, and carried her into the house.

Twilight tried to open the door to the library as she always had, with magic. A wave of irritation came over her when she realized she couldn’t use magic, since she wasn’t a unicorn anymore. She instead had to turn the handle with her hoof, something she hadn’t had to do since she was a filly. Once she heard the lock click, she swung the door open with all her might. A loud crash spooked a certain purple dragon carrying a stack of books.

“You‘re back pretty quickly? Hot enough for you guys out...there...?” Spike asked, trailing off as he stared at Twilight. “T-Twilight, what happened? You’re covered in scratches and bruises!” He rushed over to her, squeezing her foreleg in a hug. Twilight winced as he squeezed right where Fluttershy had held her death grip only a bit ago.

“I’m fine, Spike.” She forced a smile down to her little assistant, as she pulled her battered foreleg away from him.

When he looked up onto Twilight’s eyes, he realized something was off. There was something Twilight should have that she didn’t; something was clearly different about her, but he couldn’t quite put his claw on it. “Did you get a haircut, Twilight?” he asked after a momentary pause.

“No,” she muttered angrily.

“Hello, Spike.” Fluttershy came in next, with Rainbow Dash draped over her back.

“Hey Fluttershy, how’s it going.” He gave her a small wave as he went back to inspecting Twilight. “There’s something different about you, Twi...” he mused as he glanced to her side. When he saw that she had a pair of wings, he fell on his backside in shock. His eyes quickly shot up to her head, realizing her horn was gone. “W-What? Why do you have wings? A-And your horn’s gone!”

Twilight awkwardly heft her saddlebag from her back, dropping it on the floor. “Whatever that mirror was that Princess Celestia had us get, did this to us.” She sounded very unamused.

“T-Twilight what are you going to do without magic?” his eyes were wide as he waited for a response.

“I don’t know, Spike. We need to fix this.”

“So...you probably want books...don’t you?” he asked cautiously, climbing to his feet as he did so.

Twilight gave him a stern nod. “Please, if you would, Spike. I need anything referencing magical artifacts, or enchanted items, specifically mirrors.” With a nod, he scampered off to find any book Twilight could use. Within an instant her was up the ladder scouring the upper shelves. As Twilight watched him work, Fluttershy had snuck past her, looking for a place to drop the unconscious pony off.

When she caught Twilight‘s attention, she pointed a hoof to the couch. “Set her on over there. I would offer my bed, but I need to be around for when she wakes up. We can’t have her freaking out again...” Twilight fished around in her saddlebag, pulling the mirror from its confines.

Spike slid down the ladder as fast as he could. When he turned around, he finally saw Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash clearly, and the sight made his jaw drop. “F-Fluttershy, what happened to your wings? D-Did Twilight take them or something? A-And Rainbow Dash has Twilight’s horn?”

“We don’t know that yet, Spike,” Twilight said, examining the polished surface of the mirror. As far as she could tell, it was mostly normal. The back was an engraved silver, with a depiction of a unicorn on it. The horn of the engraving was utterly gigantic, and twisted looking. The image seemed reminiscent of some unicorn she had seen before, but she couldn’t quite recall.

“What is this mirror?” she asked herself in a low tone. There were no words engraved, just the ominous unicorn on the back. She flipped it over looking into the polished surface, trying to see if the reflected image was any different from reality. When Twilight looked all she saw staring back at her was herself, no horn, and a pair pegasus wings, her new reality. She let out a groan, setting the mirror on the ground in frustration.

“I take it...you didn’t find anything...did you, Twilight?” a soft-spoken voice asked. Twilight nodded to Fluttershy.

“There’s no words, or incantations, or anything on this mirror. Just this depiction of a unicorn.” Twilight sat down on the ground, just staring at the mirror. She closed her eyes, mulling through her vast, almost encyclopedic knowledge for anything about this artifact, but nothing came to mind.

“Spike, do we have any books on Heavenly Shimmer?” she asked the small dragon, still darting around the library. Her question caused him to come to a stop brief moment as he thought. He scooped up a few books from a pile he had been gathering, passing them off to Twilight.

“I don’t think we do. I‘ve never even heard of him.”

“That makes two of us...” Twilight’s annoyance grew. She didn’t like that they were under this artifact’s spell. And it only made her more frustrated that she didn’t know anything about its origin or the pony it belonged to. Surely a pony who could make such a powerful spell would leave their mark on history. The more she stared the more she wondered why the princess would send them after such a dangerous item. The whole thing was driving her crazy the more she thought about it.

Twilight looked over at one of the books Spike brought, expectantly. When the object didn’t move she let out a sigh. “I keep forgetting I can’t use magic...” she muttered, taking the book with her hoof.

“T-Twilight? How long till Rainbow wakes up?” Fluttershy asked, fearful of disturbing the librarian’s train of thought.

“I don’t know, Fluttershy. Maybe a few hours, maybe a few days.” She was buried in the pages, flipping through with reckless abandon. After a few moments she picked up the book and tossed it behind her in frustration. “Is this how everypony has to read books? No wonder no pony else likes to read as much as I do! Flipping pages by hoof takes so much time!”

“Well, you could always let one of the unicorns do it?” A sudden cheery voice from behind startled her, causing her to jump into the air a bit.

“Pinkie! That was rather rude of you.” Twilight turned around to see Rarity and Pinkie standing behind her. The perky pegasus’s wings flapped spastically as she swayed back and forth on her hooves. She wore a silly grin that her friends had come to realize was Pinkie’s default expression. Rarity on the other hoof, looked completely frustrated, while trying to keep her lady-like demeanor. What caught Twilight’s eye the most though was she was wearing a familiar stetson hat.

“W-What’re you wearing?” Twilight chuckled at Rarity’s hat.

“I had to borrow Applejack’s hat. I wasn’t going to be seen without my horn, that would be just too embarrassing. And sadly this was the most stylish hat she had available.” She tried to hide herself under the hat as best as possible, her cheeks flaring red as she did so. As the hat tipped, Twilight noticed a small attempt as spicing up the plain covering with a pink feather, which she assumed came from Pinkie. After a second, she cleared her throat. “Besides, I think it makes me look a little...robust,” she said cracking a small smile.

"Twilight, I couldn't find any..." Spike wandered back into the room. His eyes locked onto Rarity wearing Applejack's hat. "Rarity, what's with the hat?" He asked.

"O-Oh nothing, I'm just borrowing this from Applejack for a bit," she said forcing a smile.

“Wait, speaking of Applejack...” Twilight looked around the library, finding a distinct lack of the farmer.

Rarity motioned over to Rainbow Dash, still passed out on the couch. “Much like her, completely exhausted after that little stunt they pulled.” Twilight nodded in agreement.

"Wait, Applejack's a unicorn now?" Spike asked scratching his head. Suddenly his eyes shot open wide. "R-Rarity are you an earth pony now?" The designer only slid her hat down over her face, her cheeks turning a visible red.

“You three didn’t end up about a few thousand hooves in the air too, did you?”

Rarity shook her head. “No, we landed in Sweet Apple Acres.”

“Lucky you. We ended up above Rainbow’s house. And to top it all off, she passed out as soon as she teleported.”

"W-Wait so that's what happened to you guys?" Spike asked Twilight with worry.

Twilight smiled only weakly. "Yeah, but we're fine, Spike."

"Still! Why didn't you tell me! I could've gotten some bandages or something for you!"

“Twilight! Can you believe it, I have wings!” Pinkie jumped in front of the purple pegasus, fluttering her wings. Twilight nodded to her, having noticed back at the cave.

“I saw, Pinkie,” she said laughing slightly at her friend‘s whimsical nature.

“Fluttershy, dear, I’m glad to see you’re alright,” Rarity said, giving the shy pony a hug.

“Thanks to Twilight...” she said softly.

“I couldn’t have done it without you there,” Twilight replied.

“I take it you haven’t found anything about fixing this mess yet, have you, Twilight?” Twilight shook her head to her friend’s question. Her eyes weighed heavy with worry as she shirked her friend’s gaze.

“That was the first book I opened.” Her eyes fell to the ground from her feeling too ashamed that she let this happen. Her friends counted on her, and now they weren’t themselves anymore—well, in a sense they weren’t. “The problem is I’ve never even heard of Heavenly Shimmer, so I don’t know where to begin.”

“Well, you said Princess Celestia owned the mirror a while back, why don’t you just ask her?” Pinkie offered while she jumped into the air. Her wings flapped rapidly as she tried to nail down flying.

“She’s busy Pinkie, and besides...I...kind of feel like I failed her...”

“Why would you feel like that, you got the mirror back!” She gave her friend her trademark Pinkie smile; a grin that would brighten any pony’s day. Pinkie wrapped a leg around Twilight, hoping to cheer her up a bit.

“Yeah, and now we’re all stuck as different kinds of ponies, sounds like a real victory to me...” she muttered angrily as she slid out from Pinkie’s embrace. Before Pinkie could grab Twilight again, she snatched up another book, and plopped down on the ground. Without another word, she started flipping through the pages.

“Don’t take it so personally, dear. I’m sure it’s not your fault.” Rarity tried her hoof at brightening the librarian’s mood, but she was only met with a cold shoulder. Twilight didn’t want anything to do with it. There was a long awkward silence that fell over the room, only disrupted by Twilight flipping through the pages of her book.

“I have some research to do, why don’t you girls go home and get some sleep. I should have some answers by morning.” Twilight added coldly, finally breaking the silence in the room. The other three looked at one another, realizing Twilight was in no mood to be comforted. As they stared at her, Rarity realized she was taking on all the blame for their predicament, even though her friends weren‘t blaming her.

Pinkie approached the studying pony, but Rarity stopped her, simply shaking her head. Essentially she was telling Pinkie to drop this one, and let Twilight work. Pinkie was never the type of pony to let another sit there and lament, but this is the kind of mood Twilight wanted right now. Reluctantly, the Pinkie nodded her head, conceding to Rarity.

“I’ll take Rainbow home with me...” Fluttershy said, approaching the unconscious unicorn.

“No, leave her here. If she freaks out again, I’ll have to talk her down or try and save her. We can‘t have her teleporting up to her house again without somepony there to save her.”

“I...guess that makes sense...” Fluttershy muttered, holding her head low. Suddenly she was feeling rather useless. Rarity gave Fluttershy a warm smile, and a comforting hoof over her shoulder. The shy pony smiled slightly, though her eyes betrayed that she was still worried about Rainbow Dash.

“Let’s go, dear. I’m sure Twilight can take care of things here.” Rarity pulled Fluttershy towards the door, forcing her to leave Twilight in peace to study, and Rainbow in peace to rest.

“Ohh...my head...” A groggy voice muttered just before the three visitors were about to leave. All attention turned to the couch, where a waking Rainbow Dash was trying to sit up. She rubbed the side of her head, still holding her eyes firmly shut. After a bit of a struggle, she managed to flip over, so her legs were under her.

“Dashie, you’re awake!” Pinkie jumped over her friends, landing right in front of Rainbow Dash.

When she finally opened her eyes, she was greeted with the sight of a curly mess of a pink mane, and a giant smile in her face. The sight caused her to jump back from her overly excited friend. “Why’re you guys here? Wait, where am I?” she asked, seeing she was at the library.

“H-How are you feeling, Rainbow?” Fluttershy rushed to Rainbow Dash’s side.

“Fine, I guess. Oh man, I had the weirdest dream!” She chuckled. “I dreamt I was a unicorn and Twilight was...a...pega...” She trailed off when she noticed what was attached to the purple pony’s back. She looked over at her other friends finding Pinkie with wings, Fluttershy without wings, and Rarity without her horn. Slowly, the unicorn turned her gaze to her own back, finding it empty. Her mouth hung agape, too in shock to even realize it was open. Cautiously she reached for her forehead, finding a horn at the tip. “I-I-It...” she muttered.

“Rainbow, it wasn’t a dream.” Twilight climbed up to the couch, and sat down next to her friend.

“B-B-But...I’m a...”

“We’re going to fix this, darling, so just stay calm.” Rarity’s voice carried a gentle tone. Fluttershy and Pinkie both nodded in agreement to their stunned friend.

“We’ll have your wings back in no time, okay?” Twilight smiled weakly, only to see Rainbow Dash wasn’t responding; her eyes, her mouth, her face, all frozen.

“I-I’m...a...” she muttered again. Her horn started to glow a soft magenta color. Twilight put her hoof on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder, causing her to look at Twilight.

“Rainbow Dash, unicorn magic is very responsive to emotion. You need to calm down.”

“C-Calm down? Calm down!?” She jumped off the couch. “I can’t fly Twilight! I’m a unicorn! How the hay am I going to work, or go home, or...or...or anything!” She fell back on her hind legs, holding her hooves to her head in disbelief.

“And so is Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity are earth ponies, Pinkie and I are pegasi! We’re not happy with it either, Rainbow, but we’re going to fix it!” Twilight stomped her hoof on the ground after she climbed off the couch. Her voice was shaking with anger. Rainbow Dash wasn’t the only one who lost something when that mirror activated, her friends all had to deal with their changes too.

"It'll work out Rainbow Dash," Spike said trying to cheer her up.

She stared down at the little dragon for a minute. “Where am I going to sleep?” Rainbow asked weakly.

Twilight took a deep breath to calm herself. The sight of Rainbow Dash looking so vulnerable calmed her anger. “You can stay here at the library.” Twilight sat down, placing a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. The anger in her voice from earlier had been replaced with a comforting tone once more. Her hoof gently stroked her friend’s back, causing Rainbow to relax a bit at her touch.

Finally, the unicorn gave a small sigh, expelling the last of her shock, and leaving only a sadness in her eyes. The realization she was a unicorn now was settling in, whether she liked it or not. She pushed her mane out of the way so she could look up. At the edge of her line of sight was the small cyan tip of her horn. She felt so unsure when she looked at it, like she simply didn’t know what to do with it. The pointed tip confused her so much, she didn‘t even want to look at it.

Her eyes drifted down to her friends. The look in their faces surprised her, she didn’t see the same sadness she felt, instead she saw optimism. They had hope that they would find a way to fix their predicament.

“I guess I’ll have to just not fly for a day or so...” she muttered. “It’ll be like that time I was at the hospital, right?” she added with a small laugh.

“Well, you did almost go crazy in the hospital, and also you’re going to have to learn how to control your magic, Rainbow Dash.” Rarity gave her an almost cocky smirk. “I’m curious if you’ll be pony enough for it.”

“Please! I’m the coolest pony ever, I can handle anything!” In an instant, that turmoil she was feeling was forgotten, replaced with her usual confident attitude. She placed a proud hoof to her chest, boasting her awesomeness.

“Are you sure?” Fluttershy asked with a warm smile slowly growing on her face.

“Of course, I’m the fastest flier in Equestria! I can handle a little magic. No problem!”

“Oh! And I bet Twilight is an amazing magic teacher!” Pinkie wrapped a foreleg around Twilight. Her friend’s praise made her smile a bit.

“Besides I have to prove I’m better at this than Applejack!” Rainbow smiled, looking around the library for the farmer. “Speaking of which, where’s she at?”

“Asleep, like you were.” Rarity laughed a bit. “But she didn’t pass out right away, and she’s not the one who lost control, and started charging up magic recklessly like a foal.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rainbow said taking a bit of offense.

“Well, you and Applejack did a magic resonance. It’s when two unicorns, usually foals, bounce magic off each other amplifying their power. It‘s really hard to do consciously because the two unicorns have to be thinking the exact same thing, and their magic wavelengths must match up. Even among foals it‘s a rare occurrence, but they just happen to do it on accident every so often. Apparently unicorns of old used to—” Rainbow Dash let out a long drawn out groan as Twilight explained.

“Enough with the egghead stuff! I get it, I’ll just keep cool, alright?” Rainbow rolled her eyes at Twilight.

“Alright,” Twilight said with a small giggle.

“Well, then I suppose we should get going. I could use a nice long shower after the day I’ve had,” Rarity said, brushing her hoof through her mane.

“Oh, be sure to meet back here tomorrow morning. I should have something for you girls by then, alright?” The three nodded to Twilight in their own way. Pinkie with a bright smile. Rarity a little reluctant, and Fluttershy barely at all.

As their smiles died down from the small distraction with Rainbow Dash, Twilight saw her friends were still shaken up over the whole ordeal. It wasn’t that unexpected, coping with a complete change in lifestyle doesn’t happen in a few hours. Fluttershy was just starting to grasp what it meant to not have wings. Twilight could see that in her eyes as soon as they crash landed earlier. She looked like she had lost a sense of purpose in her life. Rarity’s high-class attitude couldn’t hide the ache she felt. Deep in her eyes, Twilight could see that the designer felt like she was missing a piece of her soul. Twilight knew this well, because she felt the same way.

“What am I without magic?” That question burned at Twilight after she first realized she became a pegasus. Rainbow Dash was putting on a tough show, but it was easy to see she was still shaken up by the whole mess. Flying was as important to Rainbow Dash as breathing, or eating. Pinkie on the other hand seemed to be the exception. She was so full of energy and excitement, but Twilight wondered just how long that would last. Certainly Pinkie would find something about being an earth pony that she would miss.

One thing was for certain, tomorrow would be the biggest challenge for them. They would have to face themselves, their loved ones, their own lifestyles. Everything would feel so different, yet so similar. That familiarity would only make things sting as they realize they can’t do their jobs, chores, or anything the same again. Optimism was good to have, but saying nothing would change was down right foolish, and Twilight knew that. Things were different, and things would change.

Differences

Swapped
Ch. 3 - Differences

Twilight stared down at the text filled pages of the book she was reading. She had been awake so long her eyes felt like they had been bathing in lemon juice every time she blinked. As she tried to focus her attention to read, the words started dancing on the page. Slowly they broke apart, until the letters, and then the lines themselves danced. Unconsciously, she followed the dancing lines until her eyes spun. Spinning lines led to a spinning page, which led to a spinning book on the floor, until she finally got dizzy from all the spinning.

She rolled over onto her side to calm down before she made herself sick. All the spinning started giving her a headache, so she let her eyelids drift closed. As they slipped closed, that sting from her long night reignited in them. She squeezed tightly, getting some much needed hydration to her bloodshot eyes. As the pain receded, her whole body relaxed. Every inch was sore from her long hike up a mountain, and subsequent fall after a teleportation mishap. She was so sore, so tired, all she wanted to do was let her weary mind and body drift off into sleep’s sweet embrace. However, the sudden tickle of feathers pressing into her side gave her a silent reminder of why she was digging through this pile of books.

Lazily she lifted her head up, and fought desperately to open her heavy eyes. The clock across the room from her was too blurry to read, and to top it off, it was also dancing like the letters in the book had been. She came up with the conclusion that the current time was officially “too late” and she needed to get some sleep. Her head dropped lifelessly onto the floor, eyes falling closed immediately. She weakly tried to move her legs, but they felt completely numb. She let out a small laugh as she resigned to sleeping there for the night.

The birds chirped outside the quaint wood-frame window. A mess of a blonde mane gently roused at the symphony of cheeps and chirps with a small groggy groan. Applejack wasn’t a stranger to waking up early, but today was different; her body was stiff, and felt weak. When she looked towards her window, a bright beam of sunshine shone through the glass. It took her a moment to figure out what was so peculiar about the sun shinning into her bedroom window. Suddenly, it hit her like a bale of hay. She realized it wasn’t early at all, usually she would have been up before the sun.

She silently cursed her brother and sister for not getting her up as she jumped out of bed. As soon as her legs felt weight on them, they almost buckled under her. Unsteady would have been an understatement when she saw how bad her legs were wobbling under her. Applejack looked down at her hooves, questioningly, confused as to why her body felt so weak. She shook her head, putting it out of her mind, as she carefully hobbled over to her bureau.

Upon placing her hooves on the dresser, and looking into the mirror, she noticed a long orange protrusion sticking from her forehead. Her eyes widened, as she gave it a tentative poke. Sure enough it was real, and that meant her dream last night was no dream. She let out a sigh, putting the whole mess yesterday out of her head. She had too much work to do around the farm to dwell on it, chickens to feed, hay to bale, apples to buck, the list went on. She grabbed her hair brush, and ran it through her mane, straitening the mess. There was a mild sigh of frustration when her new horn was in the way of her usual method of brushing, but she didn’t let it bother her too much.

After her hair was brushed, and tied in its usual way, she reached for her trademark stetson hat only to find it wasn’t in its usual resting place. Another vague memory came drifting to her from yesterday’s fatigued haze. She remembered lending her hat to Rarity, since that finicky pony found something wrong with every other hat Applejack owned. After a small annoyed groan she left her room to go tell her brother and sister off for not waking her up.

“Big Mac? Applebloom?” she called out into the empty house. “Granny?“ she added after there was no reply from her siblings. Her echoing voice was her only response, reminding her yet again of a minor detail she had forgotten. Her family was away visiting Braeburn and his family in Appaloosa, and they wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. Applejack was supposed to go with them—that was until Twilight needed her help getting back that mirror. She sighed, figuring she might as well get some work done while everyone else was gone. She couldn’t very well slack for two days in a row, that would just make her already tremendous list of chores longer.

She hadn’t even taken her first step out of the house when she saw two ponies strolling up to her farm. The familiar outline of Fluttershy and Rarity appeared at her front gate, the two looking a little different considering yesterday’s events, but they were still recognizable. Applejack grumbled a bit when she noticed Rarity still wearing her hat.

“Good morning,” Fluttershy said with a small smile.

“Good morning, Applejack,” Rarity tipped the hat slightly flashing a small smile.

Applejack nodded to her shy friend. “Mornin’, glad to see yer okay, Fluttershy, considerin’ yesterday, ” Applejack said with a big smile. Her timid only friend tried to hide her face behind her mane.

“So umm, Applejack...how are you feeling?” Fluttershy asked.

“Not so bad I suppose. I forgot about this here thing on my head. Gave me a bit of a start when I looked in the mirror this morning‘, but all things considered, I ain‘t too bad.” she chuckled as she pointed at her horn.

“Well, at least you’re feeling better.” Rarity said shifting her hat again, seemingly to draw Applejack’s attention to the fact she still had it.

“So what brings y’all here?” she asked her two friends.

“Oh yes, Twilight asked us to come by the library this morning. She said she should have some news for us.” Rarity brushed her mane off to the side, turning her head as she did so. A bright pink feather caught Applejack’s attention on the side of her hat. The farmer glared at Rarity, or more accurately the hat sitting on her friend’s head.

“What the hay did ya do to my hat!” she yelled as she reached for her stetson. Rarity quickly dodged her hoof, pushing Applejack back with ease as she did.

“I’ve just added a bit of color to this drab old thing. Though I think one of Twilight‘s feathers would match my mane better. The pink doesn‘t quite suit me.” Her hoof found its way on top of the hat, holding it down in case Applejack started grabbing at it again like she did yesterday with the treasure.

“That hat belonged ta my Pa!” The cowpony grit her teeth.

“Oh, my apologies, I didn’t know it meant so much to you, with the way you treat it.” Rarity returned Applejack’s attitude back to her. Applejack glared at Rarity for a moment, a burning anger filling her eyes.

“Ya mind givin’ it back?” she snipped at the designer.

“I do mind, I will need to borrow it until I can make a proper hat for myself.”

“Now I know ya got plenty a hats at yer house.” She raised an eyebrow to the designer knowing full-well she had an arsenal of hats for just about any occasion one could imagine.

“That’s true, but my hats are all fitted for a unicorn, not an earth pony.” Rarity looked down at the dirt, a touch of disappointment in her eyes.

“Unicorns don’t need different hats than earth ponies, now give it back,” Applejack protested.

“Oh please, Applejack. Unicorns do wear different hats from earth ponies. My hats all sit much farther back on my head, accentuating my horn. Your hat on the other hand, can sit anywhere on my head and look...passable—in a fashion sense of course.” Rarity tried to stifle a small chuckle.

“I’m bein’ serious now, Rarity. Give me back my hat!” Applejack stomped her hoof on the ground as her horn sparked. The sudden glow caused a small bit of worry to spring up in Rarity’s eyes.

“I will give it back. Just let me borrow it for today, alright? I’ll even fix the hole I made for the feather.” She raised a hoof, swearing on her honor. Her face went from arrogant to sincere in the matter of a second.

Applejack’s magic died down once she saw Rarity was being earnest for a change. A sudden throbbing burning sensation at the base of her horn nabbed her attention. Her hoof quickly found its way to her head, rubbing away the pain. “For cryin’ out loud, does this thing always hurt for no reason?”

“It wasn’t for no reason. You were starting to use magic just now.” Rarity pointed out.

“Well, why the hay does it hurt so much?”

“Umm, I’m not sure. It doesn’t hurt when I use—used magic...” The added past tense stung a bit for Rarity.

“We could ask Twilight...I’m sure she probably knows.” Fluttershy finally spoke up after her friend’s bickering had ceased.

“Right, we should be off, lest we keep her waiting.” Rarity started walking towards town. A small tug on Rarity’s tail caused her to turn around about halfway to the gate. She turned to see Fluttershy pointing nervously back towards the orchard. Her eyes followed the shy pony’s hoof, noticing Applejack wasn’t following them. Instead she saw the farmer heading deeper into the bowels of the orchard.

“Applejack, where are you going? We need to get to the library!” she called after the cowpony.

“I can’t, I got work at do,” she yelled back. Rarity rolled her eyes. She looked to Fluttershy, who didn’t seem too sure of how to handle the situation. After a small internal debate, she finally lowered her head a bit, giving up. Fluttershy would have just left, not wanting to impose if Rarity hadn’t been there with her. Rarity shook her head at Fluttershy’s indecisiveness, before motioning for her to follow. Begrudgingly, they chased after the cowpony into the depths of the orchard.

“So she ended up falling asleep after all, huh?” Spike muttered to himself as he gathered the mess of books. Twilight had books scattered everywhere in her fevered search for information on the mirror, and the pony it belonged to. Luckily for Spike, there was a sort of method to her madness. Books behind her, and off to the side were ones she had read, while the ones in front of her were untouched. He paused in gathering the discarded books to straighten the ones in front of her into a nice neat pile. Spike stopped himself when he reached for one open book in particular. The book he was about to grab for was a makeshift pillow for the sleeping librarian. He sighed slightly with a small smile on his face.

“Still the same old Twilight,” he chuckled a bit as he straightened the books in his hand. He set the stack down next to a shelf before heading to the kitchen. Right as he disappeared behind the doorway, he heard a small yawn from the couch.

“Mornin’, Spike,” Rainbow Dash said. He poked his head back out of the kitchen, and gave her a small wave before ducking back in.

“You guys got any coffee?” she said groggily, following the small dragon.

“Yeah, give me a sec and I’ll make some.” Spike grabbed a stool and fetched her a mug. He set it down on the counter, and started the morning brew. “So what time did Twilight pass out at?” he asked Rainbow as he tossed some grounds into a filter.

“I think around three or four. That’s about when I noticed she stopped groaning ever few minutes and she stopped tossing books.” she said, lazily resting her head on her hoof. She was sitting at the kitchen table, waiting patiently for the dragon to finish brewing a cup of coffee for her.

Spike set the filter over the coffee pot before dashing off to grab a kettle. Rainbow watched in a mild amusement as the little dragon dashed around the kitchen. After he filled the kettle, he lifted it just above his head. Without much warning, he blew a steady stream of fire at the bottom. It didn’t take long before a strange crackling sound could be heard from within the kettle. Just as the pot was about to start whistling, he cut off his flame

Much to Rainbow’s surprise, Spike was rather practiced at this. While it may look like he was in a rush, it was all very purposeful. The dragon let out a small, content sigh as he slowly poured the hot water over the dark ground powder.

“Seems like she had a long night,” he commented. Rainbow nodded weakly, though Spike couldn’t see since his back was turned to her.

“Yeah, though I hope she found something before passing out like that.” She started occupying her time while waiting for the brew by circling her hoof around the edge of the coffee mug.

“Cut her some slack, she was up for most of the night.” Spike gave her a stern look.

She shrugged her shoulders, still feeling her point was valid. “I just want to be back to my old self, this whole not being able to fly thing really sucks...”

“Come on Rainbow Dash, I’m sure being a unicorn isn’t all that bad.” Spike flashed her a sly smile.

She only rolled her eyes at the dragon. “Yeah right. If I get a little worked up my magic starts going haywire, sounds like a blast. I’d rather be able to fly than have magic any day...”

“Twilight’s used to lose control like that too when she was younger. With a bit of practice, you can get over it too.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. I’ve got no intention of getting used to using magic.” Rainbow Dash sighed, staring at her empty mug. Her concentration was broken by a sudden black stream falling into its confines. Her eyes looked up to see Spike giving her a reassuring smile as he poured her a cup.

“Thanks,” She smiled up at him with still groggy eyes. She stared at the steaming black liquid for a moment, entranced by the dancing vapor rising from the surface. A sudden slurp snapped her attention back to reality, when she saw Spike drinking a cup. “You guys got any sugar?” she asked finally.

“Applejack, we need to go to see Twilight!” Rarity called out the farmer as they caught sight of her again. By the time they caught up to her, they found her placing buckets at the base of a tree. Rarity immediately jumped in front of Applejack, stopping her in her tracks. “May I ask what it is you think you’re doing?”

“I’m about to get some work done, and yer standin’ in my way. So ya wanna move?” she asked plainly.

“You must be joking. Twilight asked us to the library so she could fix this! You can’t just go back to work!” Rarity protested, but Applejack ignored her by simply walking around the designer.

“Rarity, when ya work on a farm, a day off can mean the difference between eatin’ and goin’ hungry. If I don’t do this work, then that’ll be two days off. I can’t have that!” she explained as she backed up to the tree.

“Applejack, I wouldn’t...do that if I were you...” Fluttershy muttered.

“What? Just because I’m a unicorn now don’t mean I can’t do my job! Ain‘t a dang thing changed!” Applejack lowered her front, and lifted her back legs into the air. The whole process of bucking was mechanical to her at this point, she had been doing it her whole life. A simple magical mishap wasn’t going to change her daily routine, at least that’s what she thought.

She pulled her hind in close and stored the energy like she had always done in the past. The power in her legs built, and built, but something didn’t seem quite right to her. There was a nagging feeling in the back of her head—one that was distinctly different from her friends—telling her that this wouldn’t work. But by the time she could even pay that nagging voice any mind, she was already kicking her legs back at the tree. The last thing she heard from that voice was “Don’t say I didn’t warn you”. Once her hooves made contact, Applejack realized just how big of a mistake she made. A sudden shockwave of pain shot up from her hooves, up her legs, into her hips, and then rocketed through the rest of her body; it felt like a bolt of lightning ripping through her. Her eyes shot open in shock, and she fell over forward. She immediately grabbed a hold of her legs, yelping in pain. “What the—”

Rarity covered Fluttershy’s ears to block out the on-coming stream of cursing from Applejack. Every time the cowpony went to open her mouth, Rarity winced slightly. Her jaw fell in complete shock of the words spewing from her injured friend. Fluttershy watched, almost too scared to even imagine the foul obscenities pouring from the farmer’s mouth. She sat there helpless, and sheltered, only looking on as Applejack curled on the ground. In her hooves, she had a firm grip on her hind legs, squeezing them as close as possible to her body. The only thing that crossed the shy pony’s mind was that Applejack might have broken something.

After the cursing finally died down, Rarity removed her hooves from the sensitive pony’s ears, letting her hear again. In an instant, Fluttershy’s motherly instincts kicked in, and she rushed over to Applejack‘s side. Immediately, she was trying to get her to calm down. The farmer was still holding her legs tightly, and wasn’t too keen on the idea of letting go.

Rarity followed after Fluttershy, feeling much of the same worry for her fallen friend. “Let me see what’s wrong.” She put her hoof on Applejack’s foreleg, but the cowpony hissed.

“Le’go-le’go-le‘go!” she screamed almost too fast for Rarity to understand, but seeing her friend in pain, caused the designer’s grip to loosen. Applejack panted a bit, trying to breathe the pain out. Her face relaxed considerably once Rarity’s unwitting iron grip was released. Carefully, she let go her hind legs after some gentle coaxing from Fluttershy, finally let her friends help.

“Just relax, and breathe,” Fluttershy coached as she felt Applejack’s legs. Her eyes darted from where her hooves were to Applejack’s face, seeing if she was causing any discomfort to her patient. As she worked her way up Applejack’s leg, it became apparent that nothing was broken. “Does this hurt?” Fluttershy asked, poking Applejack’s leg one final time. The injured pony shook her head, putting her two friends at ease.

“I told you, you shouldn’t have done that,” Fluttershy scolded in a motherly tone.

The two looked over at the buckets below the tree, seeing only a few apples that fell. The tree had barely shaken at all from Applejack’s kick. The few apples that dropped from the branches felt like pity from the tree. Applejack sighed at the sight, too embarrassed that was all she could muster from the old tree.

“You should be fine if you don’t try that again any time soon.” Fluttershy said giving her fallen friend a small, warm smile.

Applejack reluctantly agreed to Dr. Fluttershy’s prescription. “So...why the hay did my buck not work?” Applejack asked.

“Unicorns aren’t as strong as earth ponies, Applejack. In fact they’re considerably weaker physically. You won’t be able to buck apple trees as a unicorn unless you want to put yourself in the hospital.” Rarity said, pulling her friend up onto her hooves. She held Applejack for a moment, seeing if she could support her own weight on her legs.

She took a hesitant step to see for herself. It wasn’t easy for her, but she could walk. “Wait, so I can’t work?” she asked, just now registering what her friend said.

“In a manner of speaking, yes.” Rarity gave her a nervous smile.

Applejack stood silent for a while, just staring down at the ground. “Well, that’s just great...” she muttered. “Now, y’all’re sayin’ Twilight should have a fix fer this mess?” she asked, limping back towards the house. Rarity gave her a small nod, following after Applejack.

“Well, we’re hoping at least.” Rarity kept pace with her friend, making sure she didn’t over do it.

“Let’s git goin’ then.”

“So besides the whole not being able to fly, and how much that sucks, how are you feeling about this change thing, Rainbow Dash?” Spike probed the new unicorn.

“I don’t know. Something just feels...off,” she said, as she stirred a diabetes-inducing amount of sugar into her morning brew. “It’s kind of like when you sleep in a bed that’s not yours...that’s how I feel...” She was returned a blank stare from the small dragon.

“Uh-huh...Yeah I don’t get it. I‘m fine sleeping anywhere,” he said with a small chuckle.

“It’s weird...Ya’know, it’s hard to explain exactly.” She took a sip of the piping hot, black coffee. As soon as the sweet with a touch of bitter liquid hit her tongue her eyes shot open. The flavor was unlike anything she had tasted before. She let the dark roasted beverage sit on her tongue for a moment, savoring the complexity in its flavor. “Where do you guys get your coffee?” she finally asked after forcing herself to swallow the intoxicating liquid.

“We just pick up some beans, and I roast them myself.” Spike had a prideful smile on his face, and rightfully so. Rainbow Dash had been interested in the coffee since she first got a whiff of the enticing roasted aroma.

“I gotta say, this is really good. You’re on to something here.” She smiled at the dragon before taking another sip. “So you make the coffee, breakfast, and do just about all the house work, huh?”

“Yeah, Twilight’s a pretty organized pony, but once she’s got her head into something, everything else falls by the wayside. Plus, I kind of had to pick up the slack in the housekeeping department since she doesn’t know how to cook or anything like that.” He looked mildly irritated.

“Sounds like her,” Rainbow muttered with a small chuckle. Spike laughed a bit as well.

As the two sat there chatting over their morning cup of joe, the door to the library swung open with a crash, sending a shockwave through the tree. The loud crack from the door smashing into the wall caused Twilight to jump up, her legs barely able to support her. Her eyes lazily darted around, still half closed, and still very dazed from her abrupt, and shocking alarm.

“W-What’s going on?” she mumbled, trying to find the cause of the intrusion.

“Twilight!” A high pitched wail came from the door. A barrage of clops quickly charged towards her, only startling the still half-asleep pony some more. Before Twilight could respond, she was being squeezed in a death-hug by a pink blur, being rocked back and forth in its iron grip.

“This is terrible!” Pinkie’s yell echoed through the previously quiet library, alerting Spike and Rainbow Dash to the source of the mysterious crash they heard.

“I tried to bake this morning, and my wings just wouldn’t stop flapping! They just kept knocking everything over when I turned around, and they blew flour all over the place, I couldn’t make cupcakes, or pies or anything!” she exclaimed, desperately holding onto to Twilight like she was about to disappear into thin air.

“P-Pinkie, let go...I-I can’t breathe...” Twilight gasped, trying to escape her friend’s unwitting chokehold.

“Oh, sorry.” she said, dropping her friend into her pile of books, scattering them everywhere.

“I just picked up those books...” Spike sighed as he walked over to tidy up the new mess. By this point he and Rainbow Dash had already left the kitchen to see what the interruption was on their peaceful morning.

The unicorn strolled up to her two pegasus friends. “What‘s going on now?” Rainbow Dash asked, taking a sip of her coffee.

“My new wings won’t stop moving!”

“If they don’t stop moving how did you sleep last night?” Twilight asked.

“Sleep? What’s sleep?” she asked with a concerning serious tone. Twilight and Rainbow both looked at each other. They knew it had to be a joke, but it was still a very believable coming from their hyperactive, party-obsessed friend.

“Did you try just not flapping them?” Spike asked in a sarcastic tone. Pinkie froze for a moment, wings and all as she pondered the concept.

“I tried, but every time I get excited they just start going! See like right now! I‘m excited because I came over to Twilight’s!” She point a hoof at her spastically flapping wings. Twilight, Spike, and Rainbow Dash did a collective sigh.

“I need some coffee...” Twilight finally muttered.

“Got it all ready for you.” Spike whispered to her just loud enough for Twilight to hear.

She flashed him a weary smile as thanks before heading to the kitchen. “Thanks, Spike.”

“Pinkie, I don’t get the problem here. Just stop flapping your wings; it’s not hard.” Rainbow Dash looked at her friend with a nonchalant look.

“You don’t understand—”

“I do understand. I’ve been a pegasus my whole life—well...until yesterday...It’s not like your wings are uncontrollable.” She looked down at her half-empty mug, before taking a sip.

“Mine are uncontrollable!” Pinkie stressed, pointing to her excitedly flapping wings one more.

“Maybe it’s a new Pinkie sense?” Spike proposed.

“That actually could be,” Twilight said poking her head out of the kitchen. “Maybe it’s one of your old senses coping with the changes to your body, or even a whole new sense.” the librarian offered before disappearing back into the kitchen.

Rainbow shrugged her shoulders. “It might be, who knows. Does it feel like how your Pinkie sense usually feels?”

“Umm, hmm...” Pinkie sat down on the ground, putting her hoof to her chin. Spike cracked a small smile as he watched the party pony think. She had an incredibly serious look on her face, her back was hunched over, and her hoof was pressed firmly to her chin. No one had ever seen Pinkie sit so still before, she looked like she was posing for a sculpture. The whole sight wouldn’t have been so entertaining if her wings weren’t still fluttering every few seconds. “I think it kind of feels like it? Wait, no...it’s different...”

“Different how?” Spike asked. Pinkie scratched her head, trying to pin-point what felt so off about her.

“Umm, It’s not outside...it’s inside...” She tilted her head to the side, as her face contorted. She was having a hard time deciding if that was the right wording she wanted to use. Finally after minor deliberation, Pinkie shook her head. “It’s like something’s off with me, not like something is about to happen.” she corrected herself. In a quick hop, she jumped back up onto all fours. “Oh! It’s off with Twilight and Rainbow Dash too!” she said after looking back at her flapping wings.

“Congratulations Pinkie, you discovered that something is different about us...” Rainbow Dash sighed as she took the final sip of her coffee. “I’ll alert the media.”

“Come on now, something else might be off other than our races.” Twilight reappeared from the kitchen.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Yeah, turning into a pegasus has made Pinkie even more crazy...”

Twilight hung her head with a slight shake as she approached. When she looked back up, she was inspecting Pinkie thoroughly. “There could be a multitude of things wrong that we don’t know,” Twilight said as she grabbed Pinkie’s fidgeting wing.

“Speaking of not knowing, did you find anything out about that mirror last night?” Spike asked. Twilight froze for a second, like a filly caught sneaking a cookie. Her wings twitched slightly, giving a small perspective into how still she actually was. Slowly she gave a nervous smile, which grew into an equally nervous chuckle. As Rainbow Dash and Spike stared at her, she realized how awkward she was being.

“Not yet,” she finally said. Her smile and laugh faded quickly, leaving a defeated pony in their wake.

“You should just write the Princess, she probably knows,” Spike urged.

Twilight shook her head firmly. “No, Spike...I have to solve this on my own.” She added a small annoyed glare at the dragon, accentuating her stance on the issue, before going back to inspecting Pinkie’s wing.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because I...I have to fix this. I got everypony into this mess, so I have to be the one to fix it!” Twilight’s frustrated explanation was interrupted by Pinkie giggling.

“That tickles!” She snorted as her wings started fidgeted again.

“That’s a pretty silly reason...” Spike muttered.

“More like stupid,” Rainbow Dash corrected him, rolling her eyes as she did so. “You mean to tell me you didn’t find a single thing about this what’s-his-face?”

“Heavenly Shimmer, and no, nothing at all. He’s not in any historical documentation that I read through, nor was his mirror. And this thing isn‘t in the encyclopedia of known magically enchanted artifacts.” Twilight gave up on her examination of Pinkie’s wing. After a second, she closed her eyes, sticking her lips out expectantly. After a quick sucking sound, Twilight’s eyes shot opened. She groaned as she walked back into the kitchen to actually grab the coffee she had forgotten. “I hate not having magic...” she muttered under her breath.

“So what are we going to do?” Rainbow Dash asked in an annoyed tone when Twilight came back.

“Oh I know, we could just bake a cake and throw a party to introduce the new us to Ponyville!” Pinkie pulled her three friends into a tight hug, almost causing Twilight to spill her coffee.

“I think she’s talking about a cure, Pinkie,” Spike coughed out as he was squeezed together with his friends.

“What in tarnations are you four doin’?” The southern drawl of Applejack coming from behind the party pony caused Pinkie to hop in place a bit out of excitement. Much to her captives’ dismay, she hadn’t let them go quite yet, so they were along for the excitement-induced ride.

“Oh a guessing game! Umm, let me see...we’re...being friends? Or are we hugging? OH! Maybe we’re playing a guessing game!” Pinkie started spouting answers without even turning to face the farmer.

“Pinkie, let go!” Rainbow Dash yelled, tired of being shaken. As her frustration built, her horn lit up. In an instant, a burst of magical energy blew the other three away from her, sending Twilight and Spike plowing into a book shelf, and Pinkie at the foot of their newly-arrived friends.

After a second, Twilight, and Spike shook their heads, trying to focus their senses again after the impact. When the looked back, they saw an unsteady Rainbow Dash wobbling back and forth, her eyes looking rather dazed, and unfocused from the sudden eruption of magical energy.

Pinkie immediately jumped up from the ground, still beaming with excitement. “That was fun!”

“Are you girls alright?” Fluttershy asked.

After a moment, Rainbow Dash shook her head violently, trying to snap herself out of her daze. She sighed, before nodding to Fluttershy. “Why does magic hurt so much?” Her hoof found its way to her temple, gently massaging her pain away.

“I know what ya mean RD,” Applejack agreed with a solemn nod.

“Magic doesn’t hurt, it’s only because you two aren’t used to it,” Twilight corrected them as she climbed back onto her hooves. “Wait, my coffee!” Twilight searched around her, finding only a broken mug and a puddle of black liquid. “Rainbow Dash!” she groaned. After looking at the still unsteady pony, she decided to let the matter go. There didn’t seem to be much point in yelling at an inexperienced unicorn over some spilled coffee. Twilight let out a dejected sigh, as she slowly walked back to the kitchen.

“So, the unicorns are struggling with magic, and the pegasi can’t even fly. Sounds like we two earth ponies are the only ones coping with our changes,” Rarity said with a smug smile growing on her face. She glanced over to Fluttershy, who tried to hide herself as best as she could behind her mane.

“I-I don’t know about that...” she muttered.

“Ya gotta be jokin’ me. When ya grabbed me earlier ya dang near pinched one’a my legs off,” Applejack give Rarity a stern glare, showcasing her bruised leg.

“Oh please, you’re overreacting.” Rarity laughed a bit.

“I can too fly!” Pinkie added, jumping into the air. She closed her eyes as she flapped her wings as hard as she could, only slowing her fall back to the ground. Everyone stared at her for a second, watching her flap her wings, and squeeze her eyes closed as she stood on the ground. Suddenly her wings came to a stop, and her eyes popped back open. “Did I do it?”

“Nopony is coping with these changes!” Twilight yelled, stopping the brewing argument. “I can’t fly any father than a pony could throw me, Rainbow Dash cant control her magic, Fluttershy can’t control her strength, and neither can Rarity apparently! Pinkie is too hyper to fly, and I’m sure Applejack is—” Twilight noticed a bandaged back leg on the cowpony. “What happened to you?” she rushed over to her farmer friend.

“Let’s just say buckin’ ain’t fer a unicorn...” She looked away, too embarrassed to look Twilight in the eyes.

“Clearly, you’re not adapting either...” she muttered to herself. “We just need to fix this,” Twilight added firmly.

“And how’re we gonna do that?” Applejack asked.

“I have absolutely no idea,” Twilight muttered, taking a small sip of her new cup of coffee.

“Well, what did you find out about the mirror?” Rarity asked the librarian only to see a defeated look in her eyes.

“She didn’t find anything out, Egghead here fell asleep,” Rainbow Dash interrupted.

“Rainbow Dash, I’m sure Twilight was trying as hard as she can.” Fluttershy jumped to Twilight’s defense with her motherly tone.

“Well, I got an idea, how about we just break the stupid thing. That might break the spell.” Rainbow Dash sat back on her hind legs, crossing her forelegs as she did so.

“Or that might just break our one chance to fix this mess,” Twilight remarked.

“Let’s take a vote then, who wants to smash the stupid mirror?” The former pegasus raised a hoof. Reluctantly Applejack raised hers as well, slowly followed by Rarity. “Well, that leaves a tie...Spike, what do you say?” Rainbow Dash looked down at the small dragon.

“Oh no, you’re not dragging me into this mess. Breaking a mirror is seven years bad luck, and that’s on top of what Princess Celestia will do to you.” Suddenly everyone in the room exchanged a worried glance, unsure how to proceed. It hadn’t occurred to Rainbow Dash that the mirror was Celestia’s. The thought of upsetting the princess sent a collective chill down everyone’s spine.

“Actually, a magical blast might possibly be enough of a catalyst to activate the mirror.” Twilight took a step forward.

“You can’t be serious, Twilight...” Spike looked at the librarian like she had lost her mind.

“It doesn’t have to be a strong blast,” she reassured. Her friends all shot concerned glances at one another, sharing in Spike‘s worry. Silence fell over the room as they thought about their choices.

“If it will get us back to normal, we should try it...right?” Rarity asked the rest of the ponies, like she was scared of her own suggestion. Rainbow Dash cautiously nodded her head in agreement.

“Wait now, if that thing gets so much as a scratch, the princess’ll have our hides!” Applejack tried to reason with her friends, but they ignored her.

Twilight fetched the mirror from her saddlebag on the library shelf. She held it in her hoof for a second, giving the magical item a final look over. Her eyes continued looking onto its pristine surface, finding something particularly odd about the ancient item. As Twilight stared, it really bothered her, but she also couldn’t quite place her hoof on what was so off about the mirror.

Pushing it from her mind, Twilight placed the artifact down on the floor in front of Rainbow Dash. She shook her head at the old mirror, sad to be subjecting the antique to such a horrendous act. Just before standing clear of the unpracticed unicorn’s line of fire, she gave the athletic pony an uncertain glance. She wasn’t happy about blasting the mirror, and even more, she really didn’t trust Rainbow Dash with the task. But there wasn’t much choice in the matter, she couldn‘t use magic, and the other unicorn in the room wasn‘t any better suited. With a small sigh, she took a step back.

Rainbow looked at Twilight returning her unsure gaze. “I have to be the one to do it?” she asked. Twilight nodded her head in response.

“T-This doesn’t seem like such a good idea...or safe...” Fluttershy’s soft mutterings barely grabbed anyone’s attention.

“Yeah, I kind of like being a pegasus!” Pinkie stomped her hoof on the ground in protest.

“You were just complaining earlier that you couldn’t bake...” Spike pointed out to the party pony.

“Oh yeah,” she giggled.

“What else are we going to do? I can’t find anything on the pony who made this thing, and as far as every book in this library is concerned it doesn’t exist!” Twilight looked at her friends, radiating irritation.

“I bet Princess Celestia would know what to do...” Spike muttered from behind Twilight. He was met with a quick glare that screamed “not now”.

“Rainbow Dash, just focus on your horn. Channel your magic up to your horn, and build it up at the tip. Point down at the mirror and then fire,” Twilight explained plainly. Rainbow Dash gave her a blank stare, like everything she said had just been in a different language from Equestrian.

“What?” she finally asked, having been staring at Twilight for a few moments.

Twilight slapped her hoof to her face, suddenly realizing how Fluttershy felt trying to explain how to fly to her yesterday. Basic—even more basic than basic—the most basic of the basic of basic elements is what she had to explain; that’s how she would have to tell Rainbow Dash. Twilight paused, thinking how to explain things she didn’t even realize she was doing. It was like explaining how to breathe, or make your heart beat.

“Okay, when you use magic, you know what that feels like. Try to remember that feeling, and push it up through your horn. Make sure you hold it back a bit at the tip, and just let it build for a moment. Then after a few seconds just let it out, and it should be a simple magical blast.” Twilight felt like she was talking to a brick wall.

Rainbow Dash was only shaking her head, not sure of anything Twilight had just said. “Everything you’re saying doesn’t make sense. How am I supposed to even build up magic? I can’t hold it back, or even make it come out when I want to.”

Twilight groaned in frustration. Channeling magic was something every unicorn knew how to do, even from birth. Rainbow Dash has even used magic, so it’s not like the concept of it flowing through her horn shouldn’t be completely foreign. Twilight just didn’t understand how Rainbow Dash could be so inept at something so simple. Twilight took a deep breath, before she said something she might regret.

“You know that pain you felt? Imagine that. Remember when Pinkie was shaking you? Or when you were freaking out yesterday? Imagine feeling like that again.” Twilight was calm in her explanation. Relating it back to previous experience should jog the former pegasus’s memory on how to channel magic. If not, she only hoped Applejack could tap into it a little easier.

Rainbow Dash wasn’t going to be blamed for not trying. She closed her eyes, imagining her frustration when Pinkie was shaking her a little bit ago. She pictured herself being shaken back and forth, squeezed together with Twilight and Spike in the Pinkie's grip. The rocking back and forth, the tightness, how uncomfortable she felt. She took that mental image, and internalized it, let her body feel all that discomfort. A burning sensation grew at the base of her horn, causing Rainbow Dash to wince slightly from the pain. It felt like a boiling mass, shapeless, but definite; it had an edge, and she could see the roiling mass shifting in a mental image.

She remembered Twilight’s instructions and imagined herself pushing the hot bubbling magic up into her horn. As it moved through, her eyes strained from the heat, and power. The familiar sound of unicorn magic filled the air as she heft the unstable mass to the tip of her horn. Behind this burning magic she was moving, a steady stream followed, making the mass bigger, heavier with each passing moment. As she pushed, she felt like she was on the edge of a cliff in that instant, she realized this was the tip of her horn. Cautiously, she opened her eyes, seeing the magenta glow from her horn dancing just barely in her field of view. It was almost awe-striking how beautiful it was to her, she had never been so close to a unicorn’s magical aura.

“That’s it Rainbow Dash, you’re doing it!” Twilight cheered.

Rainbow Dash chuckled slightly. “Yeah I am pretty awesome,” she remarked, letting her guard down for a moment. In that instant her horn felt like it was on fire. The heat became completely unbearable, sending a pulsing ache deep into her head. Just as she was about to lose control of the power she had built up, she pointed her horn down at the mirror. Suddenly there was a bright flash as she released the stored power into a bolt of magic.

As Twilight watched her friend use magic for the first time purposefully she couldn’t help but think about what was off about the mirror. As the bolt of magic traveled at it, she realized what was so wrong with the artifact. There wasn’t a scratch, a ding, or even a scuff on the ancient item. That meant it was either a fake—and Twilight knew it wasn’t, it radiated too much magical energy for that to be the case—or it had very powerful protection spells on it.

As the bolt of magic hit, it quickly ricocheted off its target. The magical mass was sent flying where it bounced off the wooden wall of the library—apparently still under the protection spells influence. It rebound again, hitting the ceiling, and then narrowly missing Fluttershy. It bounced more, missing Spike, and then just barely Applejack. Rarity quickly ducked out of the way, dodging it on another pass-by. Pinkie jumped over the magic missile, making yet another narrow miss. The bolt bounce again, this time setting a course for Twilight. The librarian smacked the magical attack down at the ground with her hoof, causing it to fizzle. She looked at her friends rather unenthused.

“It really wasn’t a strong attack, girls. You may have gotten a small tingle from it.”

Rarity cleared her throat. “I-I knew that,” she mustered, getting her lady-like demeanor back.

“Well, what’re we gonna do now?” Applejack asked.

Twilight only sighed. Her idea had failed miserably, and never had a chance of working in the first place. Furthermore she didn’t know anything about the mirror, so she wouldn’t even know where to begin with fixing this mess. She looked around at her friends staring at her expectantly, their eyes filled with hope that she had a solution. The librarian couldn’t use magic to discern all the enchantments on the mirror, nor to devise a spell to fix this whole mess—not that she would know where to even begin with the latter. There really wasn’t any solution for this mess that didn’t involve getting help. Her eyes drifted to Spike next, who wore an “I told you so” look. Twilight sighed once more.

“Spike, take a letter...” she mumbled in defeat.

Heavenly Shimmer

Swapped
Ch. 4 - Heavenly Shimmer

Twilight and her friends stood outside the entrance to the throne room, awaiting their audience with the princess. The newly-winged librarian paced back and forth, trying to picture just how the meeting would go. However, each passing second only brought worse and worse scenarios to her already frazzled mind. Each tick of the clock overhead sounded like a bang on the final nail in Twilight’s coffin, slowly making her more and more desperate. Her eyes darted back to the clock for the hundredth time since they arrived. She watched as the seconds ticked past, slowly running out until the princess would have Twilight’s head for her failure. Her heart raced as she tried to reason with her dramatic unreasonable mental image of Celestia, but to no avail. They had recovered the mirror, but they still did not recover it without cost, and that is what Twilight could not look past.

Deep down she felt like her heart was being yanked out of her chest, a sensation she recognized as worry. Her eyes drifted back to her saddlebag as she fought the urge to look inside it for the umpteenth time, just to make sure she remembered the item in question. When her eyes met her side, she was forced to face the feathery truth on her back, the reason she felt so much worry, the reason the princess would banish her, or whatever horrible fate she convinced herself was awaiting her on the other side of that door. Saying she wasn’t looking forward to telling Celestia the series of events that led up to the accident was an understatement. She would rather fight Discord, Nightmare Moon, and Sombra all at once at this point.

Then there was the key bit of information she had chose to leave out of her letter. She wasn’t sure how the princess would react to their changes, mostly because she hadn’t mentioned that particular detail in her short request, but she was already assuming the worst. The princess had always been so proud of how talented Twilight was with magic, so how would view her student now that she was a pegasus? Hindsight was now making her regret not warning Celestia in the letter she sent.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I am writing to inform you that we have retrieved the magical artifact that you sent us to recover. However, there was a minor mishap along the way. It’s a rather trivial issue, and I’m not too sure if I should even bother you with it. In any case, we are not harmed. But, if you would be able see us at your earliest convenience so we can have your assistance in correcting this small incident, my friends and I would be most grateful.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

She remembered Spike’s disappointed look when he finished writing Twilight’s request. The letter was vague, and the severity of the issue far too downplayed. He didn’t want to send it, but Twilight was being rather steadfast. The last thing she wanted to tell Celestia was how careless she had been in a letter. She somehow convinced herself at that moment it would be easier to tell her firsthoof. That and there was also the issue of her self-perceived personal failure to protect her friends. As soon as the letter was whisked away in a puff of smoke, she immediately began to dread the reply. Luckily for Twilight’s stressed heart, it hadn’t taken long.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I am grateful that you have successfully retrieved Heavenly Shimmer’s Mirror, but I am also shocked, my faithful student. I am shocked that you believe my schedule too busy to see you and your charming friends after returning from such a dangerous errand. I am truly grateful to you for bringing the artifact back to its rightful home.

As for your mishap, I would be happy to help if I can. You only ever need to ask for my assistance and I would be more than happy to lend it. You and your friends may arrive at the castle tomorrow morning. I shall see you then.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia

The princess’s sweet words would have soothed any other pony’s worries, but not Twilight’s. She only saw a sarcastic tone that wasn’t there, and convinced herself that Celestia would be furious with her for putting her friends in danger. Twilight had let the heat and her temper get the best of her that day, and failed those that counted on her because of it. She had completely failed her friends by not reacting fast enough to the magic put out by the mirror, she wasn’t able to put up a barrier in time to shield herself and her companions from the mirror’s magic, everything was her fault.

Pacing and dwelling on the whole fiasco wasn’t making her feel any better. No matter how many times she replayed the event in her head, it won’t change what happened. She and her friends were still all switched about. Twilight gave a worried glance to her friends, all sitting perfectly still, waiting—well, except Pinkie Pie.

Rarity was still wearing Applejack’s hat, though it now had a lavender feather from Twilight rather than Pinkie’s vibrant, so-pink-it-was-almost-silly feather. Twilight thought Rarity was joking when she asked yesterday, and even laughed a bit at the request, but Rarity had been serious. It was actually kind of embarrassing for her to pluck a feather from her wings since she really didn’t feel like they were hers in the first place. But after a bit of coaxing, she reluctantly gave her one—of Rarity’s choosing of course. For some reason though, since the change Rarity had been rather attached to Applejack’s hat. Twilight found it odd to say the least, seeing that Rarity never showed any desire to wear a stetson hat before the accident. Perhaps it was her mind adapting to the change of becoming an earth pony by following an example. In this case a role model Rarity saw as a perfect example of an earth pony.

As Twilight musings shifted from Rarity to Applejack, she found the farmer sitting patiently, with a small scowl on her face. She was still rather upset with Rarity for keeping her hat for yet another day, considering she told Applejack she would give it back. Twilight had heard the whole story on the train ride since Applejack had given Rarity an ear-full for good portion of the trip to Canterlot. Apparently, she really wanted to make sure Rarity understood just how mad she was at her going back on her word.

Yet Twilight felt the farmer’s aggravation was more of a cover for her stress over her change. Applejack had lost something precious to her—her identity. Twilight could see it deep in the cowpony’s eyes; she was a workhorse who couldn’t work anymore. For a pony who held hard work and physical prowess in such high regard to suddenly be unable to do that physical labor—it had to feel like losing a leg to Applejack. She was desperately trying to grasp onto something from her old self—something that she felt embodied her. Consciously or subconsciously, it seemed she had chosen her hat. A sudden pink blur smacked Applejack in the head, causing her to grit her teeth slightly.

“Or maybe that’s why she’s so annoyed...” Twilight mused to herself, cracking a small smile as she fought the urge to laugh.

Pinkie’s wings hadn’t settled down after yesterday. They still fluttered frequently enough to be a bother to her, and anyone sitting next to her—an unpleasantry Twilight had the misfortune of dealing with first hoof on the train ride. As Twilight sat there, battered by the feathery limb every few seconds, she had determined whatever was going on with Pinkie’s wings wasn’t a side affect of the transformation. Whatever it was only affected Pinkie, and no one else had any strange side effects. She hadn’t quite discovered if it was her Pinkie sense, or her hyperactivity acting out in this way, but whichever one it was, it really wasn’t for her to fix.

Twilight’s eyes moved to Fluttershy next. She was a complete mystery to Twilight; she had no idea how the introverted pony was handling the change since she rarely spoke. Any time Twilight tried to engage, she would simply reply that she was fine, and shirk the subject. Which in itself told Twilight she wasn’t handling it very well. Since the accident, she had been even more quiet than usual, and that worried Twilight. This morning before they got on the train, Fluttershy seemed rather distant. Usually the shy pony was at least listening to a conversation if not participating, but not today. However, this change was affecting the soft-spoken pony’s life, it wasn‘t in a good way, Twilight knew that much.

A loud, drawn out groan grabbed Twilight’s attention. Rainbow Dash, who was sitting down next to Fluttershy, was clearly bored. The former pegasus was so bored she was becoming irritated, which if the past few days had given Twilight any inclination, this would lead to a fight between Rainbow Dash and her. It really didn’t get bad until yesterday, when Rainbow Dash suddenly stormed out of the room just before their friends left. Twilight assumed it was disappointment over not being able to go back to a pegasus, but she felt that wasn’t quite right.

“When can we see the princess? I’m tired of waiting!” Rainbow Dash jumped up.

“Have some patience, Rainbow Dash. It shouldn’t be much longer,” Rarity said, trying to settle the restless pony down.

“We’ve been waiting for forever!” she groaned.

“It’s been ten minutes.” Twilight replied. She immediately regretted speaking as an almost audible voice said in the back of her head that she shouldn‘t have said that.

“Oh, well, sorry I can’t keep track of time in my head like you can!” she snapped at Twilight.

“What’s wit’ ya, RD. There’s a clock right over yonder, ain‘t too hard ta figure out how long we been waitin’. Besides, it ain’t like Twilight was bein’ nasty ta ya, so why ya snappin’ at her for?” Applejack’s question only seemed to irritate Rainbow Dash more.

“It’s none of your business, Applejack,” she muttered, turning her back to her friend.

The large split door to the throne room was suddenly wrapped in a magical aura, and subsequently swung opened. Two pegasi guards stepped out in unison as the door opened. A unicorn guard followed closely behind them, his horn glowing with the same color aura around the double door. The two pegasi stood on opposite ends of the entry, taking post, while the unicorn stepped off to the side, allowing the group of friends access to the throne room. Twilight let out an audible gulp as the guard stepped aside.

Twilight looked back at her friends, finding them gathering behind her, almost urging her forward. With a small sigh she reluctantly entered the huge throne room, her friends following behind. When the doors closed behind them, it finally sunk in that she was going to have to face the music. As she walked up to the throne, many regrets rushed through her mind once again. She wished she had told the princess what to expect, or at least hinted at their change.

“Again, Princess, I am terribly sorry for the mix up.” A high-pitched, almost nasally, masculine voice came from the just before the throne. There stood a lanky unicorn stallion, with a brown coat, and dark brown mane. A pair of glasses sat towards the end of his nose. He was dressed in a business formal attire, with a black coat, and a tie. Even by Twilight’s standard this stallion looked bookish, and up-tight.

“Please, you have already apologized. Mistakes happen, and it has already been corrected.” The princess tried to put the stallion at ease, but he refused to relax.

“I assure you, punitive measures have already been taken against the pony responsible for the error.” He protested against the ruler’s kind tone.

Celestia rolled her eyes, catching a glimpse of a group of ponies walking towards the throne. Her face lit up with relief at the sight of Twilight and her friends. “The mirror is here, and I do not require “somepony’s head on a platter” as you so eloquently put it—for this little misunderstanding.” Celestia motioned to Twilight and her friends behind the stallion, bringing the group to his attention. As they came closer the princess’s eyes opened slightly wider as she took notice of the change in her student and her friends. After a brief moment of shock, her eyes returned back to their normal calm demeanor.

“I suspected that this might be the “minor mishap” you mentioned in your letter.” She said with a small laugh. Twilight lowered her head in shame.

“I’m sorry, Princess, I know I should have been more careful, and—”

“Twilight, please. You could not have foreseen this.” Celestia used her magic to lift her student’s head up. She gave the former unicorn a warm smile, telling her it was alright.

“B-But I should have—” she was cut off again.

“If it’s anypony’s fault, it is mine for not warning you of the dangers.” Her teacher’s reassuring words did little to relax her. She still felt like she had let her friends down, and failed her mentor in the process. When her eyes made contact with Celestia’s again, she felt a familiar calming attribute deep in her teacher’s gaze. In that stare, she was telling Twilight not to worry, and things would work out, all in just her eyes. Twilight gave a soft nod before taking a deep breath to calm herself.

“So you knew this could happen?” Rainbow Dash asked feeling like she had been betrayed. Her rude tone garnered a glare from Rarity, and Applejack. Much to the two’s relief, Celestia was not offended. Before Twilight could even retort to the rude comment, Celestia had raised a hoof to her student, telling her it was alright.

Celestia gave the former pegasus a nod. “Yes, there was a possibility,” the princess said in a solemn voice.

“If ya don’t mind me askin’ yer majesty, why didn’t ya warn us about this thing?” Applejack asked.

“It has been inactive for many years, and the magic itself isn’t malicious,” the princess explained.

“Well, it could have fooled me,” Rarity muttered, adjusting her hat out of her eyes.

“The item I had you recover is known as Heavenly Shimmer’s Mirror, it’s a tool for helping ponies better understand one another. The fact that you ponies are under its effects tells me that you may need to do a bit of understanding yourselves,” Celestia said with a small chuckle. Though she teased, her voice still had a calming aspect to it that put the ponies at ease. For some reason her voice gave them hope that they wouldn‘t be stuck this way forever. “The item was given to the Canterlot Museum for safe keeping.” She glanced over at the stallion, who was now standing off to the side, silently.

“Again, I am sorry about the mix up, your majesty,” he said, bowing his head once more.

“Wait, so who is this guy?” Pinkie asked, popping up behind the straight-laced pony. The sudden appearance of a pink figure behind him caused the up-tight unicorn to jump back.

“My name is Flawless Masterpiece, I am the curator of the Canterlot Museum.” He straightened his tie that became slightly askew when he was startle, while giving Pinkie a small glare.

“Neat,” said the bubbly mare as she rejoined her group of friends.

“So why are you here?” Rainbow Dash asked in an obnoxious tone.

“I have come to personally recover the stolen item. I’m guessing you are the ponies transporting the mirror?” he asked the group.

Twilight gave the tight-laced pony a small nod. “Yes, I have it with me.”

“Good, I am glad to see such an artifact was not lost to a dragon,” Though he was thanking the group, his tone was impatient, and rude.

“How did you even let this thing get stolen, I mean if it’s basically dragon bait, why didn’t you beef up security or something?” Rainbow Dash was clearly enjoying pestering the up-tight stallion.

“Heavenly Shimmer’s Mirror was accidentally included in an exhibit being shipped to Manehatten due to a...clerical error—again, I am so very sorry, Princess.” Celestia only chuckled, finding the number of times he had apologized becoming amusing.

“So the mirror wasn’t even supposed to be included in the exhibit?” Twilight looked at the curator and the princess, puzzled. In that instant Celestia’s humor vanished, and was replaced with a small blush. Both ponies gave her a small uncomfortable nod. Clearly, the curator was embarrassed about the mix-up, and Celestia was equally ashamed about having her student clean up the accident.

Twilight hefted her saddlebag off her back, before fishing the mirror out with her mouth. She suddenly felt slightly embarrassed about having to grab something with her mouth, rather than magic. It wasn’t unheard of for a unicorn to use their mouth, but still a bit of a rare sight, and now that she was a pegasus, she didn’t have any other choice but to use her mouth. She carefully dropped the mirror into her hoof before presenting it to the princess. Her teacher refused the item by holding up her hoof.

“The item was being stored for her majesty indefinitely, but due to somepony’s blunder, it was labeled as part of the Equestrian History exhibit. Again Princess I’m—”

“Sorry?” she asked, finish his question with a small smirk.

“Y-Yes,” he muttered, blushing slightly.

“Equestrian History? Who was silly enough to make such a mistake? I mean for goodness sake, Twilight couldn’t even find any information on this pony. At a museum you would think ponies would know a thing or two about history.” Rarity added. Her criticism caused the lanky stallion’s face to shift into a brighter shade of red before shaking off his embarrassment.

“They were new,” he muttered as he adjusted his glasses.

“Still, something this powerful...The unicorn who made it had to have left a mark on history, it’s odd that I couldn’t find anything about him...” Twilight remarked, looking into the pristine surface of the mirror once more.

“Very astute, Twilight. Normally a pony of such talent would certainly leave their mark on history. However, Heavenly Shimmer made a choice to keep himself out of the history books. He published all of his spells anonymously for the reason that he felt he did not deserve recognition.” Celestia had a smile that told everyone in the room she knew more on the subject, but chose to leave it off there. Twilight’s wanting eyes, pleaded with her teacher, begging for more, to which Celestia nodded softly. “Flawless Masterpiece, would you please excuse us, I have much to discuss with my student and her friends concerning their...situation.”

“What about the, umm...mirror, your majesty?” he asked with a sudden wave of nervousness washing over him.

“I will contact you again soon, as to when you can come retrieve the mirror,” she replied. The curator nodded his head before bowing to the princess. After a moment he took his leave, quickly rushing past the group of friends, and out of the throne room.

“I would like to start by thanking the six of you for returning the mirror to me. And I would also like to ask exactly what were the circumstances leading up to your...transformation?” She raised her eyebrow which was quickly followed by that all-knowing smile reappearing on her face. Celestia had a lousy poker face, but everyone in the room knew it only lousy because she wanted it to be lousy. Any other time it was impossible to know what the ancient ruler was thinking.

Twilight fidgeted a bit, trying to work up the courage to explain the situation. This had been the moment she was dreading, when she would have to explain her failure to her teacher. “W-Well, as you may know, a few days ago it was rather, umm...hot out...and that combined with the stress of climbing a mountain to the dragon’s lair, as well as some other...umm...mild irritations along the way led to tempers running high.” Twilight forced an awkward smile on her face, trying to garner some sympathy. This only seemed to backfire as the princess looked more amused than sympathetic. After she fought the urge to laugh, Celestia gave a nod, urging the group to continue their story.

“Basically, yer majesty, we all might’a said a few thing we regret...” Applejack added while rubbing the back of her head with her hoof.

“I see...” Celestia’s smile slowly faded as she forced a serious look onto her face. “I take it your races are the only thing changed?” she asked, causing a bit of surprise among the group. Twilight looked at her friends, seeing they were just as confused as she was.

“Could anything else have changed?” Rarity asked with more than a mild amount of worry in her voice. She glanced back at her cutie mark first, still finding the three diamonds she had always had. She ran over the rest of her body with a quick glance once again, much as she had done after she noticed the change and things had calmed down.

“The changes I speak of would not be on the outside, my little ponies.” Celestia said with a small laugh as the group inspected themselves. The ponies looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to elaborate more.

“Perhaps it would be best if I told you the whole story. Twilight, I believe you would enjoy hearing this very much, since Heavenly Shimmer was a unicorn comparable in strength and skill to a hero of yours, Star Swirl the Bearded.” The princess gave her student a sly smile, knowing her little tag line would capture her student’s attention rather quickly.

Twilight’s eyes beamed with excitement. “Comparable to Star Swirl the Bearded?” Twilight was in awe for a moment as she mused how powerful of a unicorn he must have been.

“Who cares...” Rainbow Dash muttered.

“You should care, Rainbow Dash. You won’t be able to return to normal until you take this story to heart, and learn from Heavenly Shimmer.” Celestia said in a kind, but firm tone. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at the lecture. After a brief moment, she reluctantly sat down and let out a drawn out sigh. “The story begins over two thousand years ago with an evil, and powerful unicorn by the name of Dark Star,” she began.

Dark Star was a pony exceptionally gifted in magic, perhaps the likes of which have not been seen since. He possessed a brilliant mind, was a masterful spell crafter, and had such charisma about him. But he was also a power-hungry tyrant who would stop at nothing to accomplish his goals. Back then, as you all should know from the play you put on during Hearth's Warming Eve, the three tribes were split from one another. At this point in history, Unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies were bitter rivals locked in a constant state of cold war, both with one another, and even amongst themselves. It wasn’t uncommon for self-proclaimed rulers to rise, and attack surrounding villages of their own race just to bring them under their control. Life was hard back then, and it was truly a trying time for pony kind.

It was in this strife that Dark Star rose to power by killing a king, and assuming control of his own kingdom of unicorns. It didn’t take long for his new subjects to bow before the charismatic pony, with his promises of wealth, and power. He made his goal no secret to his new subjects; he wanted to conquer the entire unicorn tribe. Yet this was only a stepping-stone. He planned to then use the combined might of the unicorns to conquer the other two tribes and unite all of pony kind under his tyranny. It was an ambitious goal to say the least, but the tyrant invigorated his followers, demonstrating his power by easily bringing in the surrounding villages under his control.

As I said, Dark Star was a rather intelligent pony, and he was well aware of his short comings. Unicorns, were not the most suitable foot solders, and Dark Star knew this. His kingdom was mostly poets, writers, and scholars. Outside of his guards, hardly any of them knew combat magic, and even fewer had ever actually used it. Yet he still formed an army, and had them train tirelessly.

Advantages is what war is all about, creating them, and seizing them when the opportunity arises. Dark Star knew his army wouldn’t stand a chance in combat against the fortifications and combat skills of the earth ponies, the air strikes of the pegasi, or the spell bombardments of the other unicorn kingdoms. For those advantages he sought after, he trained his solders in dark magic we would consider forbidden today. Yet he still knew even that would not be enough to guarantee his victory in the coming battles.

He devised a plan to cause chaos in the ranks of his enemies, leaving them in complete disarray, while also giving himself an advantage. His plan was beyond clever, almost to the point of foolish. No pony would have believed it possible, except those familiar with Dark Star. For his plan to work, he would need a tool, a magical conduit to pour his foul magic into. He spent years crating such an item, and weaving his dark magic into it.

“That item is the mirror in your possession, Twilight.” The princess nodded to her student, anticipating her question. Twilight and her friends all exchanged worried glances.

“This mirror?” Applejack looked at the small mirror in Twilight’s hooves. The princess gave a small nod. “I thought ya said this thing’s magic weren’t evil’er nothin’, Princess.” The cowpony gave a cautious glance at the artifact.

“All in due time, Applejack,” she replied. “It is here in our story that a young pegasus colt by the name of Skychaser comes in.”

“Hold on, I thought this was a story about Heavenly Shimmer. First you started talking about this Dark Star guy, and now a pegasus named Skychaser? I mean, where is Heavenly Shimmer in all of this?” Rainbow Dash gave a skeptical look to the ancient ruler. “...Y-Your majesty...” she added after realizing how outright rude her tone was. The unicorn sunk down a bit, forcing an awkward smile on her face. The sight caused Celestia to chuckle a bit.

“I-I’m actually a little curious about this myself...” Fluttershy peeped from behind Twilight.

“In due time, my little ponies.”

Skychaser was an average pegasus colt, raised by two pegasi parents in a small cloud village. He spent his time playing in the clouds with friends, enjoying his youth, and generally causing trouble as young ponies often do. However, this all changed one day when he was out alone. On this day, he had the misfortune of being attacked by a group of unicorns under the command of Dark Star.

The young colt was taken by the group of unicorns, away from his family and friends to be imprisoned. They threw the young colt in a cell, and kept him against his will. For ten years he was tortured, and had unthinkable magical experiments done to him. In his years of imprisonment, Dark Star chose him as the primary focus for his new weapon. All that time, perfecting its twisted magic for combat use. According to records, the mirror changed his race, his talents, and even his cutie mark on several occasions.

“But why?” Twilight interrupted.

“Dark Star believed that switching races between two armies would cause chaos. Unicorns wouldn’t know how to fight without magic, pegasi would fall from the sky, and earth ponies would be made far more vulnerable and physically weaker. His army on the other hoof, would train under the effects of the mirror. Turning them into a versatile army of ponies able to utilize every race’s strength.”

“That’s terrible...” Fluttershy said.

“To add even further to this, his army of scholars would become an army of fierce warriors by changing talents, and cutie marks; turning his army’s greatest weakness into its strength.”

“So, by taking a pony’s talent for combat, and their destiny, his band of intellectuals would become an actual army...” Twilight added with a sense of dread in her voice.

“Yes, leaving the opposing army with weakened, disoriented ponies, who no longer had innate talents for fighting, but instead had skills in poetry, and the arts. You all have experienced what it is like to change races. I’m sure you can protest to how unsettling, and shocking it can be.” The group of friends agreed without any hesitation.

Skychaser spent years being the primary subject of Dark Star’s experiments. As the time went on, he slowly became accustom to an earth pony’s strength, and a unicorn’s magic. He was able to teach himself some basic spells that any unicorn can do, such as levitation, and simple magical blasts for self defense. This became his method of passing time when he was locked away. Slowly as he became accustom to magic, he began to understand that he could hurt a pony if he needed. A plan started to form in the stallion’s head.

Any pony held captive, and subjected to what he was put through would dream of freedom. Skychaser spent his time exercising his magic power, slowly understanding how it worked—not a simple task for a pegasus-born pony. He started spending his time during experiments watching Dark Star. Carefully he observed how the tyrant used the mirror, slowly memorizing how the item worked. It took him the entirety of his ten years of imprisonment until he was confident enough that he could escape.

The day he happened to break free, was on the day Dark Star was performing the final test; the day before Dark Star would have unleashed his foul magic unto the world. Dark Star entered the room he had been using for experiments, bringing in a captured unicorn test subject with him. For Skychaser, this couldn’t have gone better, he was already an earth pony from the previous test, which meant this was his moment; this was his chance he had been waiting for

As soon as Dark Star turned Skychaser into a unicorn, the young stallion shot him with a quick blast of magic, dazing the tyrant. In that moment Skychaser got his chance. His attack gave him just enough time to snatch the mirror from stunned ruler. Dark Star’s carelessness was his downfall. He felt he didn’t need to be on guard with a pegasus who didn’t know the first thing about unicorn magic—at least that is what he thought. His own pride blinded him from seeing that a non unicorn could learn to use magic.

With the mirror in Skychaser’s hooves, it was now the moment of truth. He mimicked the tyrant‘s spell, and fortunately for him, it worked. The mirror activated in a blinding flash. This was the end for Dark Star. In that flash of light, Skychaser changed the unicorn test subject back, changed Dark Star into an earth pony, and traded a few pegasus talents of his with Dark Star‘s talents for magic—all to ensure that the evil pony would never again be able to make such an item.

“That’s...wow...” Twilight said, trying to wrap her head around what she just heard.

“So he stole Dark Star’s talents? And just left him there as a hodgepodge of a pony?” Rarity asked. The princess nodded her head to the designer, a solemn look in her eyes.

“That’s pretty awesome...and mean at the same time...” Rainbow commented.

“It sounds like this Dark Star was a ruthless monster. I find it an appropriate punishment for a pony who had such little regard for others.” Twilight replied. Pinkie and Fluttershy nodded their heads.

Skychaser fired yet another blast, wounding Dark Star, and sending the tyrant flying across the room. That was the last time Skychaser ever saw the evil unicorn again. He freed his fellow captive, and fled the castle. The two narrowly managed to escape Dark Star’s solders, and finally earn their freedom. Skychaser was finally a free pony once more, but for him it was a bittersweet victory; he was free, but still trapped. Skychaser was originally a pegasus, and he longed for his family, and friends. He longed to return to the normalcy he had before Dark Star took that all way from him. He longed for the sky.

Yet, he had in his hooves the power to change his fate, and become a pegasus again. But at what cost? He could not bring himself to curse another pony with the fate that had befallen him—it was too cruel. In Skychaser’s eyes Dark Star deserved his fate, but any other pony was innocent. Instead he vowed to find another way to return home once more, without the need of the mirror. He parted ways with his former cellmate soon after their escape, letting the unicorn return to his own family.

Skychaser became a nomad, a wandering pony who traveled from village to village, looking for instruction on magic. He had decided that delving into unicorn magic was his best bet for finding a way to be reunited with his family. Fortunately, with Dark Star’s talents, he found magic was easy enough to understand, and was able to master spells quickly. He learned what most unicorns would spend years trying in mere months; perfecting spells that take years of practice with relative ease.

“Eventually Skychaser became a powerful unicorn in his own right. He made a spell, one that you yourself used to visit Cloudsdale during the Best Young Flyers Competition, Twilight.” Celestia gave a small smirk to her student.

“Wait, he invented that cloud walking spell?” Twilight’s eyes widened a bit.

“Just to see his family again? That’s so sweet,” Rarity said with a small smile spreading across her face.

Unfortunately for Skychaser, life was not always so easy. The pegasi of his former village weren’t so accepting of a unicorn walking on the clouds. He was treated as a monster, and forcibly removed from the town. Just before he was ejected, he learned his father had passed away in a weather accident. His mother remarried, and left the village. His years of absence had left the veil of childhood naiveté over his eyes when it came to the outside world. While he was locked away by Dark Star, he put the outside world on a pedestal. He truly believed things were perfect, at least in his village. This ideal was shattered once he returned home only to be treated as a monster, and further still to find his family was broken. Even his former friends, they had been the very ones to throw him out, claiming that the Skychaser they knew had died long ago.

Most ponies would have been devastated from such a realization, but Skychaser was different. He did curse his misfortune for a time, but he understood something other ponies of that era did not. He was still the same pony he was all those years ago. He knew he was no different as a unicorn than he was as an earth pony than he was as a pegasus. Skychaser was still himself regardless of what race he was, if only he could make other ponies realize that as well. Then it dawned on the young stallion. He had the power in his hooves to make a difference in the world, and show ponies the lesson he had learned himself.

He looked at the mirror he had been carrying all this time, and vowed to take this curse, and change it into something that the world can learn from. He set out to teach ponies that their differences are only superficial. That all ponies, whether they are pegasi, unicorn, or earth ponies, are still ponies. For this change in his way of thinking, he cast off the name Skychaser, and took on the name Heavenly Shimmer. He chose the name as a way to embrace the unicorn he had become, while still acknowledging his pegasi roots.

He spent the remaining years of his life dissecting the vast, and complex enchantments placed on the mirror, finding many of them to be beyond his level of understanding. It took him years of study to even be able to comprehend the spider web of enchantments Dark Star had woven into the mirror.

Celestia levitated the mirror from Twilight‘s hoof to her own. “For instance, he found this mirror is nigh indestructible. Most magic will bounce off it, physical attacks won’t so much as scratch its surface, even time has not worn on this artifact,” Celestia explained. Twilight let out a sudden cough, as she tried to push their previous attempt at activating the mirror out of her mind.

“After years of study, he was able to change how the mirror activates. It is no longer able to be used purposefully. Now it reacts to emotions of those around it—particularly those of intolerance, and jealousy.” Celestia looked at the ponies with knowing eyes as they all fidgeted slightly. Not one of them wanted to admit it, but they had all felt like that on their trip, and in that final argument right before the mirror activated.

“We only said a few mean thing ta each other, ya mean ta tell me that mirror changed us on account’a that?”

Celestia gave a small nod. “Intolerance is intolerance, and that is what the mirror will act on. Whether it’s short-lived or long-harbored, the mirror still casts its spell all the same. It matters what is in your hearts at the moment.”

“So...how do we fix this?” Twilight finally asked the question she and her friend‘s had been waiting for. She gave a quick glace back at her wings, with an uncertainty in her eyes.

“You don’t. The mirror will reverse the spell on its own after you all take Heavenly Shimmer’s lesson to heart.” Celestia have a warm smile to the group of friends. “Once you truly understand what he wanted to teach the world, the mirror will change you back.”

“So, what was the lesson exactly?” Pinkie asked, scratching her head slightly.

“To not judge a book by its cover?” Fluttershy asked.

“I thought it was treat ponies how ya want ta be treated...” Applejack scratched her head as well, seeming rather confused by the long story.

“Oh! Beauty is only skin deep?” Pinkie giggled.

“Now you’re just saying old phrases...” Rarity covered her face with her hoof while shaking her head.

“It was: no matter what, every pony is still a pony, and we need to try and understand them for who they are, not what they are...” Twilight said in an intellectual tone like she was reciting an answer for a test.

“Well, we can say we know what that means, but how do we know we know what that means, ya know?” Pinkie asked with a puzzled look, not sure if she herself understood what she was asking.

“Why don’t you try learning from one another?” the princess suggested. “Each of you has spent your whole lives as a race of pony, certainly you can help your friends understand what it’s like to live in your shoes for a little while.”

“I suppose that could work...” Twilight muttered, pondering for a moment.

“Yeah right, I don’t want to teach Twilight how to fly. She doesn’t know the first thing about being a pegasus!” Rainbow Dash suddenly said with a stubborn look in her eyes.

“That’s why you would need to teach me,” Twilight said rolling her eyes.

“Alright then, first lesson.” Rainbow Dash, stuck up her hoof, indicating the number one. After a second she flipped her wrist, pointing at Twilight’s wing. “Fix your wings, because if you even try flying with those you’re going to hurt yourself.” The former pegasus gave a condescending gaze to Twilight’s new wings.

“What’s wrong with my wings?” she asked, unfurling them. She glanced back at her recent feathery additions, inspecting them closely. After a moment of staring at the feathers, she still wasn’t sure what she was looking for. She shot her eyes back to Rainbow Dash, giving her a suspicious look.

“They’re a disaster,” she added, raising an eyebrow to Twilight.

“They look fine to me.” Twilight brushed off her friend’s comment, giving her wings a small flap in retort. Suddenly a stinging sensation flowed up from her sides causing her to yelp slightly.

“Umm, Twilight? Your feather’s are messy. They need to be straightened, or else it will sting really bad when you try to flap them.” Fluttershy said, peeking out from behind her mane. “I-I didn’t want to say anything before, but now that Rainbow brought it up...” she muttered before ducking back behind her pink locks.

Twilight looked around in shock for a few moments, unsure how to handle what she had been told. No one had ever called her messy before. She was always neat, and tidy in her appearance. Then again, she never had to care for wings before, so how would she know how to upkeep them. Her cheeks turned a shade of red, as she tried to hide her embarrassment. “P-Princess, thank you for your time,” she muttered before trying to slip away.

The princess stifled a small giggle from seeing her student so embarrassed. “Oh, Twilight! Please take the mirror with you. You will need it on hoof for it to fix the spell.” Celestia called after her student.

Twilight stopped in her tracks after registering what Celestia said. “W-Wait, I have to keep it?” she asked for confirmation. The princess nodded firmly, leaving no room for misinterpretation. Twilight’s mouth hung open slightly as she debated whether to object, but she reasoned that if she needed the mirror to fix the spell, then there wasn‘t any way around it. She didn’t want to keep an ancient relic that turned her life up-side-down in the library, but after she saw Celestia’s eyes, she knew there was no room for negotiation. The newly-winged student nodded weakly as the princess levitated the mirror to her.

“Return the mirror to me next week,” Celestia added, giving her student a small smile.

“You’re only giving us a week to fix this?” she asked after stashing the mirror away in her saddlebag, only to receive the same firm nod as a response. Twilight sunk down a bit, suddenly feeling an immense pressure on her heart. She couldn’t very well let her teacher and her friends down, but a week didn’t seem like enough time to take such a life lesson to heart. Twilight knew what the lesson was, she understood it enough, but she obviously didn’t know it the way Heavenly Shimmer wanted ponies to know it, or the mirror would have fixed them already. That panicky feeling she usually got when she felt rushed was coming on already. “S-So by a week you mean—”

“Seven days, Twilight,” Celestia confirmed. She still had a small smile on her face, though it hinted more at a sense of sadistic enjoyment, than the warm smile she often wore for her student.

“Seven days from today?” Twilight asked in an ever shrinking voice.

“Seven days from today,” Celestia replied, continuing to torment her student. Her sly smile grew ever so slightly when Twilight let out a small eep.

Twilight lowered her head, before nodding to her teacher. “Well, we had best be going. Thank you for your time, Princess,” she muttered as she turned to leave.

“Also, just try to enjoy yourself. This is a rare opportunity that hardly anypony has had,” she added, causing Twilight to stop once more. “And that goes for all of you. I urge you to spend time exploring your new race, and not to just focus on your lesson.”

“What fun could I possibly have as a unicorn...” Rainbow Dash said sarcastically.

“You never know Rainbow Dash, that’s for you to find out,” she gave a confident smile to Rainbow Dash. “Be safe, and try not to fight, my little ponies.”

Twilight, and her friends sat quietly on the train back to Ponyville, letting the news they heard sink in. Rainbow Dash was laying on a bench by herself, appearing to be asleep. Across from her sat Pinkie, whose wings still fluttered frequently enough that no one wanted to sit next to her for fear of being feather-dusted to death. Twilight sat next to Fluttershy on the adjacent bench, while Rarity and Applejack shared a bench across from Twilight, much to the cowpony’s chagrin. An awkward silence filled the car, with the group of friends being the sole passengers.

Twilight stared out the window, trying to wrap her head around the story the princess had told them. She had to learn a lesson about tolerance, but that in itself she struggled with. She had always considered herself a rather tolerant pony already—except for those few off comments she made to Rainbow Dash on their way up the mountain—she never thought herself better than a pegasus, or an earth pony by any means. Twilight had always been nice, and helpful to other ponies.

Yet here she was, a pegasus, and not a unicorn. Her only hint to figuring out this mess was that she had to learn Heavenly Shimmer’s lesson, and that upset her more than anything. How would she know when she learned the lesson? Would the mirror just suddenly activate, and fix her? Would she have to wait for her friends to learn it before the mirror fixed them? How does the mirror know when she sufficiently learned her lesson? She just wanted to hit her hoof against the floor she was so frustrated. It felt like she was given a test with no prior notice, and she didn’t know what subject it was on. She was running a race without a goal line in front of her. She had absolutely no idea what the criteria for fixing this problem were.

To make matters worse, her friends didn’t look like they would go along with the princess‘s suggestion. Applejack looked like she was about on her last straw with Rarity, Fluttershy was completely unresponsive to any discussion on the matter, and Rainbow Dash was jumping on Twilight’s back every chance she got. She felt completely alone in this situation. They all had to learn this lesson together, but none of them looked like they were ready to cooperate. Twilight was at a complete loss for what to do, and that was a new sensation for her. She felt like she was going to be stuck as a pegasus for the rest of her life.

“What’d y’all think she meant by “explore yer new race”?” Applejack asked finally breaking the silence.

“Who knows, or cares. We just gotta be nice to each other right?” Rainbow Dash replied, letting her friend’s know she wasn’t asleep.

“No, we have to be tolerant of other ponies,” Pinkie Pie replied.

“Ya better care, we gotta know to fix this whole mess. I don’t think she’d tell us somethin‘ if it weren‘t important.” Applejack put her foreleg against the wall of the train, and rest her head against her hoof.

“Maybe it‘s like a riddle or something?” Pinkie asked, tilting her head to the side. “What do you think, Twilight?”

“I don‘t know, Pinkie! We only have a week to fix this, and then Princess Celestia is taking the mirror back. If we don’t have it fixed by then, we’re going to be stuck like this!” Twilight yelled, letting loose some of her pent-up anxiety. Pinkie and Applejack looked at Twilight with wide eyes, rather confused by her sudden outburst.

“For goodness sake, Twilight, calm down. I-I’m sure we could ask her to borrow the mirror again once we learn this little life lesson,” Rarity replied. “You’re far to worried about this, darling.” Rarity was busy staring at the floor the whole time she spoke. Her voice was trembling the entire time as well. When Twilight looked over at her, she saw her hoof was shaking slightly.

“Says the pony who’s still fussin’ over coverin’ up her head. Am I ever gonna get my Pa’s hat back?” Applejack narrowed her eyes.

“O-Of course, I just need to make myself a hat,” Rarity said, nervously. She still had her eyes glued to the floor.

Applejack gave her a deadpan look. “Ya said that yesterday. Now, it don‘t usually take ya this long ta make somethin’ unless it’s mighty special. When ya gonna go ahead and git it done?”

“S-Soon...” Rarity turned her head away so Applejack couldn’t see her face. Her hooves went from shaking to fidgeting under her. Rarity was clearly hiding something from her friends, her body language spoke volumes. Once she realized just how suspicious she had to look, she forced her hooves still by pressing down on the bench she was sitting on.

The cowpony narrowed her gaze in on Rarity, seeing something was amiss. “Somethin’ the matter there, sugarcube?” Applejack asked, probing the former unicorn for answers.

“Nothing is the matter, Applejack, I’m just...tired...” she muttered.

“U-Umm, Rarity? You’re breaking the bench...” Fluttershy pointed down at the cracking bench Applejack and Rarity were both sitting on. Everyone’s eyes stared as the wood splitting from Rarity’s iron grip on it. Carefully, she pulled her hoof back from the mangled wood, her face flushing red in shame.

“Whoops,” she said with an awkward smile. She finally looked up at her friends, but her eyes darted around, scanning their faces.

“Ya can’t control yer strength, can ya...” Applejack asked plainly.

“Of course I can! It’s just...everything is so very fragile...” She pulled her hooves in close, and began twiddling them to occupy herself.

“Uh-huh, now that’s a load of bull and ya know it.” Applejack continued staring at her friend. Her gaze felt like a tidal wave, pushing Rarity for a confession of whatever she was hiding.

“It most certainly is not,” the designer replied.

“Is so.”

“Rarity, if you don’t tell us what’s wrong, we can’t help you out.” Twilight said in a gentle tone to coax the truth out from her. Her more friendly approach seemed to work over Applejack’s when Rarity actually made eye contact.

After staring at Twilight for a moment, Rarity took a deep breath to ready herself. “Fine, I can’t sew.” she said quickly. Her cheeks were almost glowing red in contrast to her pale coat once she said what she had to say.

Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy all looked at one another, not quite sure if she said what they think she said. “You can’t sew?” Twilight asked hesitantly. Rarity only nodded to her friend. Her eyes were closed, and she hung her head low as her shame was dragged out into the open.

As she looked at her ashamed friend, Applejack suddenly felt incredibly guilty over hounding her over a hat. As she watched the dejected designer sit there, moping, she realized Rarity was simply too ashamed of herself to tell Applejack the real reason for keeping the hat. She had only held onto it because she didn’t want to admit her inability to sew to her friends. Whether it was pity or a desire to help a friend, Applejack didn’t care if Rarity had her hat anymore.

Granted Rarity had plenty of other hats she could have worn other than Applejack’s. But she had lent her that hat, and an Apple never went back on their word. That meant that Rarity could use Applejack’s hat for as long as she needed to. A soft smile, and a heartfelt gaze came from Applejack as she was happy that her friend finally came clean on what was bothering her. She placed a hoof on the designer’s shoulder to comfort her. “Sorry, I uhh...didn’t realize ya were havin’ such a hard time,” she said in a low tone.

“It has become rather difficult for me to sew without magic...I’m not used to this strength, nor do I have the dexterity I had with magic.” she added, pulling her hat down to cover her eyes.

“What do you mean? Earth ponies are plenty dexterous, just look at me! I’m like a baker or something, and I get by! Do you know how hard it is to do all those designs on cupcakes?” Pinkie suddenly slipped next to Rarity, wrapping a foreleg around the designer as she slid into place.

“She’s right, I ain’t ever had a problem doin’ delicate stuff on account of me bein’ an earth pony.” Applejack flashed a bit of confidence at the designer to lift her spirits, but it wasn’t working.

“Please, you two obviously don’t know how delicate my designs are. It takes perfect precision for me to sew my beautiful masterpieces. Precision only magic can bring!” Rarity shrugged off her two friend’s hooves.

“Actually Rarity, there are plenty of earth pony and pegasus designers. I’m sure you can do fine without magic too,” Twilight added. All the ponies gathered around Rarity nodded.

“If yer lookin’ fer somepony ta teach ya the ropes of bein’ an earth pony I can lend ya a hoof if ya want.” Applejack put her hoof back around the designer, pulling her in close. This time it was more a show of friendship than comfort.

“I have no intention of getting used to this...” she muttered, fixing her hat after being pulled into Applejack’s chest.

“Oh that’s a good idea! We can pair up with a pony who used our current race!” Pinkie suggested in a rare display of brilliance. Her friends looked at he with a bit of shock. After a moment, they all nodded to one another, seeing her line of reasoning. It wasn’t a bad plan at all, Pinkie was two for two that day, a new record.

“That could actually work, Pinkie.” Twilight was genuinely surprised by the spastic pony’s proposition.

“Well...since we have to learn to understand our new race, you might as well let Applejack teach about being an earth pony, Rarity...And you can help her out with magic too....oh, if that‘s okay, I mean...” Fluttershy started to fall quiet as she spoke, her insecurity catching up with her mid suggestion.

Rarity took a moment to think about what Fluttershy said. “I-I suppose I could lend a hoof...if you’re willing to lend one to me...” she finally said, though be it with a bit of reluctance.

Applejack laughed a bit at how much face Rarity was trying to save. “Sure thing, sugarcube.” She extended a hoof for a shake on their deal. Rarity stared down at the offered hoof for a moment, inspecting it for dirt or grime. When she didn’t find any, she cautiously accepted the arrangement by giving Applejack‘s hoof a small shake with her own.

“That’s the spirit, Rarity! I guess that means me and Fluttershy are going to help each other!” Pinkie jumped off the bench. Once she hit the floor, she wrapped her shy friend in a tight hug.

“I-I guess that’s fine...” Fluttershy mumbled nervously. Her eyes darted around looking for an escape from Pinkie’s hug.

Twilight realized this was her chance. “Fluttershy, you really haven’t told us if you’ve been struggling with anything.” Twilight probed, taking her opportunity to find out how the introverted pony was coping. The shy mare froze solid at Twilight’s remark, meaning her shut down sequence was activating.

“Umm, t-things have been fine...” she said barely louder than a whisper. Her friends wouldn’t have heard her if they weren’t so used to her hushed tones.

“Oh come now, Fluttershy. You have heard my little problem, why don’t we hear yours?” Rarity asked, knowing she was hiding something.

“I-I’d rather not...” Her mane seemed to shift on its own, covering her face. Her eyes instinctively found their way down to the floor, avoiding everyone’s gaze. Her whole body shrunk as she tried to make herself take up the least amount of space possible, subconsciously hoping she would just vanish. Fluttershy’s defense mode was fully operational, and that meant she wouldn’t look at any of the ponies pressuring her. Twilight wasn‘t deterred. She knew this was her opportunity to gauge how Fluttershy was reacting to being changed into an earth pony, but before she could speak Rainbow Dash let out a loud groan.

“Fluttershy, we’ve all got issues with this, Twilight can’t fly worth jack, Applejack almost broke her legs, Rarity’s breaking things like Ditzy Do in a china shop, Pinkie’s wings are spazing out, and I suck at magic, so what’s your deal, huh?” Rainbow Dash shot up from her nap on the bench adjacent to Twilight and Fluttershy, her voice radiating with aggravation.

Fluttershy snapped up straight from her hunched posture. “A-Angel bunny...” she muttered with tears coming to her eyes.

“What about Angel?” Twilight asked with concern.

“L-Last night...when I was grooming him...I-I think I hurt him...” Fluttershy sobbed into her hooves.

“You hurt him? How?” Rarity inched closer.

“When I was brushing him...I pressed a little to hard, and he scurried away...Now he won’t even come near me...” She looked up with tear filled eyes.

“Oh, you poor dear.” Rarity sat next to Fluttershy, pulling her into a hug.

“He’s probably fine,” Rainbow said, lying back down.

“Rainbow Dash, be a little more sensitive! She’s heart broken.” Rarity glared at her.

“I couldn’t reach the bird feeders either to take care of the birds...” Fluttershy added, wiping a tear from her eye.

“Well, I can help you with that!” Pinkie giggled.

“How?” Fluttershy asked.

“Simple, I can just show you how to not push down on things so hard, and how to jump so you can take care of the birds!” Pinkie gave Flutter shy a big smile.

“Jump?”

“Yeah, I jump all the time. You can reach those high feeders of yours pretty easy if you bounce right.” The bubbly pony gave a smile. Her confidence told everyone that she thought it was common knowledge how to jump so high.

“I-I’m not too sure...”

“Actually, I think it would be a good match for you two to help each other. Pinkie can help you get your strength under control, and you can help her with...“ Twilight paused for a moment, seeing that Pinkie’s wings chose that moment to flutter quickly, causing a small gust. “...calming down, since those wings of hers just won’t stop.”

“I guess that makes sense...” Fluttershy didn’t sound too convinced.

“I jus’ hope we can get this together in a week...wait...Ah dagnabbit, my family is back in town tonight. I‘m gonna have a whole mess of explainin’ ta do...” Applejack put a hoof to her head, starting to plan how to break it to her brother, sister, and granny.

“Oh no, Sweetie Belle! I have to watch her this week while my parents are out of town!” Rarity’s eyes shot opened at the sudden realization.

“What’s so special about that?” Rainbow Dash asked as she sat up, deciding to join in the conversation again.

“How am I going to explain a lack of a horn to my sister?” she asked rhetorically while pointing to her forehead. “Maybe we can just hide it? What do you think, Applejack?”

“How the hay am I gonna hide a horn on my head without my hat?” she asked as she gave an unenthused look.

“You’re right...you will need to go buy a new hat.” Rarity placed her hoof to her chin as she ran through a mental list as to where Applejack could buy a new hat.

“Ya know what, I don’t feel sorry fer ya no more. Give me my hat back!” She said snatching her hat off of Rarity‘s head.

“How dare you!” she gasped, covering her forehead in shame.

Applejack gave a smirk, as she put her trademark stetson hat back on her head. The first thing she did was unceremoniously pull Twilight’s lavender feather out from its resting place in the hat, and toss it aside. “Snooze ya lose, Sugarcube.” She gave a small chuckle as she adjusted her hat so it sat further back on her head, giving her new horn some room to breathe.

“Give it back please, Applejack?” she pleaded, but Applejack only shook her head.

“Yer jus’ gonna have ta face the music, Rarity,” the cowpony said with a chuckle. “Cause I ain’t givin’ ya back my hat.”

“Oh for the love of—who cares if your sisters are coming!” Rainbow Dash yelled.

“We care, Rainbow Dash!” Rarity argued.

“Actually, I don’ really care that much, jus’ gonna be a mess ta explain s’all,” Applejack said, scratching the side of her face.

Rarity stared at her almost in shock. “Applejack, have you no pride as an earth pony? Surely you must be worried what ponies will say, or think about you?”

“Rarity, most of us have already been seen around town with our changes. It’s not like Pinkie Pie and I can wear a hat to cover our wings...And besides, you wearing Applejack’s hat has probably already drawn some suspicion.” Twilight’s explanation only caused a look of dread in the designer as the realization that everyone already knew she was an earth pony sank in.

“Ya really didn’t think walkin’ around Ponyville wit’ me ‘n Fluttershy would draw some attention ta ya, sugarcube?” Applejack couldn’t help but chuckle at Rarity’s short-sightedness

“I-I was a little preoccupied thinking about fixing this whole mess!” she snapped. Her defense only made Applejack laugh harder.

“So, I guess that means you and Rainbow Dash will be helping each other out?” Fluttershy asked Twilight.

“Of course, if you think about it, me and Fluttershy used to be each other’s races, so did Rarity and Applejack, and Twilight and Rainbow Dash! It’s almost like this whole situation was planned! They have to help each other out!” Pinkie’s wings began to flap as she spoke, lifting her off the bench just a bit. When she stopped talking, he wings snapped back down to her side, causing her to plop back down in her seat. “That’s how stories work!” Everyone shot confused glances to one another, not too sure what she was talking about.

“What?” Twilight asked, voicing everyone’s confusion.

“This is a pretty common set-up in books,” she added. Twilight slowly nodded her head, finally catching up to Pinkie’s train of thought.

“Forget it, I don’t want to learn how to use magic,” Rainbow Dash said stubbornly.

“You heard the princess, we have to spend some time learning about our current races, or else we won't turn back! So if you want to be a pegasus again, you’re going to have to give learning magic a shot!” Twilight jumped up, finally fed up with Rainbow Dash’s attitude. She walked across the isle to the bench Rainbow had been lying on this whole time to confront the irritable pony.

“So you want to teach me how to use magic, and I have to teach you how to fly? Please, you don’t deserve my awesome teaching skills.” Rainbow Dash hopped up, coming face to face with Twilight.

“Why are you being so difficult? Everypony else is willing to learn. We’re stuck this way for at least a week, longer if we don‘t learn this lesson!” The two ponies fumed at one another, unwilling to back down.

“Well, I don’t want to learn magic, okay?” Rainbow Dash, gave Twilight a small push back, getting her friend out of her face. Suddenly, a familiar burning started to build up in her forehead as her aggravation grew. She fell back on her hind legs, and immediately started rubbing her hooves against her head to relax the pain.

After Twilight regained her balance from Rainbow’s shove, she scoffed a bit at the inexperienced unicorn. “This is what I’m talking about. You have to learn magic to get this under control. Take a deep breath.”

“Shut up! I don’t need to learn to control magic! I just want this fixed!” She glared up at Twilight.

“Well, so do I, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight yelled at her stubborn friend, suddenly grabbing the pain-stricken pony’s attention. “We all do, so stop being so selfish and let me help you out okay?”

She let out a sigh, avoiding the librarian’s gaze for a moment. “So coach me then.”

“Take a deep breath, and relax. Don’t focus on your horn. If you do the magic will continue to build there. Focus on your hooves, or something.” Twilight watched her friend, still seeing the magical aura building around her horn.

“I can’t...” she muttered. Her eyes were straining from the pain in her forehead. “It hurts too much!”

Twilight rolled her eyes as she walked to Rainbow Dash’s side. She kept a keen eye on Rainbow’s horn, seeing if the aura was dying down. When it didn’t, she gave a small kick to her side. Once Twilight’s hoof made contact, the aura died instantly.

“Why the hay did you kick me?” she asked, grabbing her side.

“It made you stop focusing on your horn didn’t it?” Twilight replied with a satisfied smirk. She couldn’t deny she got a bit of enjoyment out it, but it was also a quick way to get her to stop. “It was also for being such a brat.” Twilight added with a playful smirk.

Rainbow Dash simply stared at Twilight for a moment, in shock she would do such a thing. After a moment, she glanced down at her ribs, realizing they didn‘t hurt anymore. “I guess it did make me stop...” she muttered. Though she still wasn’t too pleased with the librarian’s action, it did at least have results.

Twilight took a seat next to Rainbow on the ground, wrapping a foreleg around her friend. “Now, how about you tell me what your issue is? It’s not all because of this change we went through, you weren’t this upset about it yesterday, so why are you so mad at me?”

“Because you have no pride as a pegasus!” She shrugged off Twilight’s foreleg, not in the mood to be comforted.

“Pride as a pegasus?” Twilight asked, looking over to Fluttershy for a bit of a hint. Fluttershy only nodded softly, silently understanding Rainbow Dash’s frustration.

“Umm, I think Rainbow Dash means when you gave Rarity a feather yesterday,” Fluttershy answered, to which Rainbow Dash gave a firm nod of agreement.

“You don’t do that! A pegasus just doesn’t hoof out feathers, and that goes for you too Pinkie!” She pointed an angry hoof at Pinkie, who was giggling a bit.

“Sorry, wings still kind of tickle,” she added, still stifling a laugh.

“I don’t really understand why...” Twilight asked.

“Of course you don’t...look, you just don‘t ever do that!” Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs. Her head locked off to the side, so she wouldn’t have to look at Twilight or any of her friends.

Everything fell silent for a moment, only broken by an occasional flap of Pinkie’s wings. Twilight didn’t know why Rainbow Dash was so upset over a silly feather. Was it really such a big deal that she needed to be upset at her for a whole day without even telling her why?

“I’m sorry?” Twilight said, not too sure if that’s what Rainbow Dash was looking for. Unfortunately, the athlete let out a big sigh, telling Twilight that wasn’t what she wanted.

“You’re not sorry though, you don’t even know what you did wrong! A pegasus’s wings are their pride and joy, you don’t just pluck a perfectly good feather from them for no reason. You have to take care of them!” She turned back to Twilight, poking an accusing hoof into her chest.

“A-Alright, I get it. No more giving out feathers.” Twilight, backed up, holding her hooves up in defense of the unicorn’s poking assault.

“That’s not all though, you have to act like a pegasus!” Dash added, sounding more like she was pleading than scolding at this point. “Pegasus ponies are strong, agile, and pure awesome! You have to walk tough, puff out your chest, and act like you’ve got a pair!” Rainbow continued to poke Twilight in the chest emphasizing every point she made. A short-lived silence fell over as Twilight felt confused by that last part.

“I think she means a pair of wings...”Fluttershy said, filling in the gap.

“O-Okay, I get it,” Twilight said, backing into the bench behind her, trying to avoid Rainbow Dash’s insistent poking.

“No you don’t! Stop saying you do! It’s like if a unicorn filed down their horn, you’d freak out about it, right? Or an earth pony not taking care of their hooves!” She shot a glance to Pinkie, stressing her last point.

“Not taking care of your hooves is just an outrage for anypony,” Rarity said with a dismissive laugh, acting as though the mere thought were absurd.

“If you’re going to spend some time as a pegasus, you have to try and be one! Don’t just expect that you‘re going to fly and that‘s it, it‘s not that simple!” She gave one final poke to Twilight’s chest, leaving her hoof in place.

As Twilight sat there being scolded by her friend, she couldn’t help but notice the pure passion in Rainbow Dash‘s eyes. She had never seen her talk so fervently before, even when she talking about The Wonderbolts. It made her realize just how important being a pegasus was to Rainbow Dash. For her, being a pegasus wasn’t just about flying, it was her job, her heritage, her entire life. She had never been upset because of a silly feather; she was upset because Twilight hadn’t cared about being a pegasus, just like Twilight was upset at Rainbow Dash for not caring about being a unicorn.

A small, gentle smile grew on Twilight‘s face as the answers to her questions started to come into focus. She had been saying they wanted to fix this, and when the princess told her to learn this lesson, she thought she needed to learn about pegasi, but that wasn’t it. She didn’t need to learn about pegasi, she needed to learn to be a pegasus. She had to grow an appreciation for it like Rainbow Dash had. She had to understand every aspect of being a pegasus, just as she understood what being a unicorn was like. It wasn’t a clear goal, but a state of mind that once she reached it, she would have learned her lesson.

“Well, I’ve never been a pegasus before, Rainbow Dash, so that’s why I need you to help me out with this, alright? And I can help you out with the unicorn stuff. Sound fair?” She slowly extended a hoof for a hoofshake.

Rainbow Dash was taken back by the offer for a moment. Twilight asking for her help had been the last thing she expected from the librarian. Until now Twilight had been rather demanding, expecting Rainbow to just teach her, and for Rainbow to learn magic like it was easy. But here she was now, not demanding, but asking Rainbow Dash for help, as a friend. She looked down at the extended hoof and then back up to Twilight. She could tell there was something different with her, something had just changed in her eyes. Only a second ago there was this forced sense of obligation; a sense that Twilight had to be a pegasus so she could turn back to normal, and that her friends all had to pretend they liked their new race as well so they could all be fixed. But now that was replaced by something softer in her eyes. Twilight had a look of understanding, like she legitimately wanted to try being a pegasus. That was what Rainbow Dash had been wanting from her friend, some sincerity.

Whatever Rainbow had explained to her seemed to get through. Twilight was actually being serious about learning how to be a pegasus. She could tell this wasn’t some silly experiment or study session to the librarian, now she really wanted to know what being a pegasus was like. That was a little exciting for Rainbow Dash. She would finally get to share the sheer awesomeness of being a pegasus with a pony who never felt it before. Best yet, she would get to share this sensation with a friend. Suddenly she thrust her hoof into Twilight’s, and gave it an abrupt shake. “Alright I guess I can help, but only because we’re friends,” Rainbow Dash added, with a confident small smile.

Twilight returned her cocky friend’s smile. For the first time since she had changed, she felt excited. The princess had told them that this was a rare chance, and Twilight had the opportunity that no other unicorn had. She could actually experience life as a different kind of pony. As Twilight and Rainbow Dash made up from their little squabble, a sudden pulse of light from her saddlebag drew the everyone’s attention. With a nod from the librarian, Applejack reached into the bag, and pulled out the ancient mirror. Once free of its confines, the item pulsed again with a strange glow. “I think that means we’re on the right track,” Twilight said with a small laugh.

Author's Note

So I heard you like stories so I put some stories in your stories, so you can read while you read.

Hope people like the set up so far, my next release for this should have about 3 chapters out at once.