Twilight Sparkle slowly yawned, stretching her forehooves out in front of her. The sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon, and the unicorn silently congratulated Celestia for such a beautiful dawn. This reminded her...
She peeled the covers aside and touched down onto the floor. Her horn was surrounded by a soft magenta aura, and the sheets and pillows psychokinetically rearranged themselves neatly. Nodding at her handiwork, Twilight then turned to Spike.
The equine knew that her scaly assistant hated getting out of bed this early in the morning, but they had work to do. She pulled back his blanket and gently shook Spike awake. “Spike,” she said. “Spike, wake up.”
“Bzuh...huh?” The little purple dragon lazily opened one eye. “Come on Twi, five more minutes...” Spike tightly hugged his pillow, desperate to return to sleep.
“Spike, come on. We have magic to practice for Princess Celestia.” There was no response. “I’m not going to stop bothering you until you get up.” Still no response from Spike. Twilight rolled her eyes. “The sooner you get up and help me, the sooner you can go back to bed.” The little dragon was lifted magically out of his bed and deposited smoothly onto the floor. He rubbed a green eye, and grudgingly followed the unicorn downstairs.
“So what kind of magic is Celestia having you l-l-look at?” Spike tried – and failed – to suppress a yawn. Twilight was already sifting through books, taking them down, looking at their covers, and putting them back on their shelves again. “It was a certain teleportation spell involving the use of artifacts. It’s here somewhere...” she muttered vaguely.
Spike raised an eyebrow and then glanced at the table. There was a brown package lying on the surface, halfway opened with a letter on top. He picked them up and examined the letter.
“To my faithful student,
“In this package is a book I think you might find useful. I want you to study the use of the enclosed Stellar Anklets and discover the secrets behind them that my sister and I have failed to unlock. I believe your magical capability will help you to understand what these anklets may be hiding.
“Yours, Celestia.”
“Twilight, is this it?” Spike asked, holding up the package. The equine turned around, saw the package, and let the three or four books she was checking fall to the floor. “Yes, I can’t believe I forgot it was in a package sent to me!” Her magical aura surrounded the small box, and before Spike could let go, both package and dragon zoomed over to the unicorn. Spike fell flat on his face, and the box was wrenched from his grasp. “Um…sorry,” Twilight said, blushing.
The box was ripped open all the way, and Twilight levitated out the book and two silver, star-emblazoned bracelets, one tinted slightly blue, the other shaded faintly pink. “Oooh!” she squealed. Then she opened the book, Moving Without Moving: A Guide To Teleportation. “Celestia said in the letter that I needed to read about the Stellar Anklets,” she said, flipping straight to the index. “Stellar…Stellar…S, s, s! Aha, here we go! Stellar Anklets, page forty.”
The book was flipped to the designated page. A drawing of the two anklets was inked above the words, “Trading Places”. Twilight read aloud,
“Only one pony is required for this spell, but two are recommended for best results. When cast correctly, the pony casting the spell and whoever is wearing the second anklet will trade places, each wearing the other anklet.” Here, Twilight silently read through the magical process for activating the spell, then went on to read the final note:
“The magic of the horn will activate the enchantment inside the bracelets, which is what will cause the two to swap positions. WARNING: The spell-caster must be thinking clearly of the other anklet or its occupant for the spell to work.”
“Okay, the instructions seem simple enough.” Twilight slid the pink anklet onto her, and then put the blue anklet on the floor across the room. “Here we go.” The unicorn’s horn shone a powerful magenta, and the Stellar Anklets shivered and began to vibrate, emanating a soft silver sheen. Twilight closed her eyes against the power and felt the familiar cold tickle of magic sweep over her.
When she opened her eyes again, Spike was cheering for her. “You did it, Twilight! First try!” Twilight opened her eyes. She was now standing on the opposite side of the room. She looked down, and saw with delight that she was now wearing the blue anklet on her opposite hoof. “Alright, Spike, I want you to put the other anklet outside somewhere, anywhere. Come back when you’re finished.”
Spike nodded, took the pink bracelet, and dashed out the door. Twilight sat down to wait, levitating the teleportation book in front of her. “Hmm…that’s interesting…” she mused to herself, busied with the History of Teleportation section.
Soon enough, Spike was back. “Oh…kay…” he panted. “It’s…somewhere. Try…it…now.” He sat down, gasping for breath. Twilight nodded and once again, focused her mind sharply on the pink bracelet. The magic swirled around her again, and she vanished.
Twilight once again opened her eyes to find herself sitting by the Carousel Boutique. She blinked a couple of times. Oh, Spike…she laughed internally. The little dragon was obsessed with Rarity, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he had visited the fashionista while he had the bracelet. That’s right, the bracelet, she thought, looking down to assure herself that the pink bracelet was now on her hoof. It was, and she couldn’t resist hopping around in a circle a couple of times. “Yes! Yes yes yes yes yes yes!”
Finally, Twilight calmed herself and used a regular teleportation spell to reach home so that the anklet would stay with her. When she once again set down on the wooden floor with the pink anklet still on her, Spike’s eyes widened. “Wow, Twilight, you’re really good at this! How did you know?”
“I didn’t know where it was, Spike. But I did have a bit of a hunch…” Spike blushed. The unicorn grinned.
In Somepony Else's Hooves
Twilight asked Spike to put on the blue Stellar Anklet. “I think I’m ready to perform this on someone else, Spike. I’m definitely getting good at this.” Spike nodded, slipping the silvery-blue bracelet over his wrist, where it hung loosely. “You are! I have complete confidence in you, Twilight.”
“Glad to hear it, Spike. Now, I don’t want to mess up the streak I’ve got running-” Here, Twilight could not suppress a grin, “-so I need complete silence. We don’t want anything distracting me from this.”
Spike raised a questioning eyebrow as she began the spell. Honestly, Twilight, this is a library, not to mention your home. What could possibly distract-
“GAAAANGWAAAY‼” Spike’s thought was abruptly cut off by a loud yell, followed by a deafening crash as something slammed him into the bookcase. The anklet flew high in the air and landed squarely on the wingtip of Rainbow Dash.
Twilight’s eyes widened as the shocking event pulled her focus away from Spike and the anklet. Her horn began to vibrate violently, the magenta changing to an angry shade of red. Both anklets began rumbling and quaking, the silver sheen racking up to a powerful, blinding white. Rainbow looked at Twilight as her eyes took on the same glow as the bracelets. “Um, Twi?” she asked nervously.
There was a deafening roar as the magic was released in a huge wave. Twilight’s body rocked with spasms as the tingle of magic, amplified by a thousand times and now searingly hot, washed over her body with the force of a tidal wave. She screamed. Above the din, she could barely hear Spike’s shouts of fear and Rainbow’s yells of pain. She closed her eyes. She just wanted it to be over…
And, almost in response to her prayer, it was. Her body ached all over. She was lying down now, though she couldn’t remember collapsing. Slowly, Twilight stood up, putting a hoof through her hair to check her horn for damage.
She froze.
The horn wasn’t there anymore. Twilight began to hyperventilate, rifling through her hair, knowing the horn was gone, but wanting so desperately for it to be there. Finally accepting the fact that she could no longer use magic, she slumped in defeat. Had the surge of magic literally obliterated her horn?
“Ow! Ow ooo ow…” Twilight disbelievingly recognized her own voice, and looked over to the source, freezing up for the second time. She blinked hard. It was still there.
There was a second Twilight standing across from her, with a slightly smoking, but otherwise intact, horn. Had she somehow cloned herself? The answer was waiting for her as she looked down at her hooves to escape the second unicorn. She froze up again for the third time in less than two minutes. A lump formed in the pit of her stomach as she stared at her cyan hooves. No, no, no. My hooves are lavender, they aren’t blue. Unless…
Unless these aren’t my hooves. Comprehension dawned on the once-unicorn as she dreamily sat down. When the mind isn’t focused on the anklet or its bearer, the spell will still cause the holders of the Stellar Anklets to trade places. I’m quite literally in the place of Rainbow Dash.
She resignedly looked behind her. There was only a slight thrill of surprise when she saw wings on her back. I’m Rainbow Dash. And Rainbow Dash is me. We’re stuck like this until Dash can learn magic.The panic set into her once again as Twilight re-thought that last sentence.
We’re stuck like this until Dash can learn magic.
Oh, of all cruel twists of fate, why did it have to be Rainbow Dash?
The now-pegasus stood up and walked over to Twilight-no, Rainbow. She had to think of this unicorn as her friend, not herself. “Rainbow,” she began. Her voice was rough, coarse. She suppressed the urge to clear her throat. This was Rainbow’s voice, not hers. She began again. “Rainbow Dash, look at me.”
“H-huh? What happened? Why is there another one of me? Are the changelings back?” Rainbow glanced around nervously. Twilight sighed.
“Rainbow, it’s Twilight. I know this is going to be hard on you, but my teleportation spell malfunctioned, and we are in each other’s bodies.” Twilight prepared for the explosion. She didn’t need to wait long.
“WHAT?! You’re…you’re joking, right? Twilight, this isn’t funny! This kind of prank is totally uncool! It’s supposed to be funny when you realize it’s a prank, and believe me, it isn’t!” She stomped a hoof on the ground. “Knock it off, wherever you are, Twi!”
Twilight reflexively tried to hold Rainbow still with magic while she explained, then remembered that she was a pegasus now. Instead, her wings shot out as she tried to calm her friend down. “Rainbow, I am dead serious! Does it look like I’m the type to prank you?”
Rainbow stopped her advance on Twilight. “We’ve…we’ve really switched bodies? I…I won’t be able to fly?” The mixed anger and fear in her now-indigo eyes was replaced by despair. “Twilight…you’ve gotta fix us, you just gotta.”
Twilight shook her head. “I can’t, Rainbow. I’m a pegasus now. You’re a unicorn.” Rainbow felt for her horn, found it, and stared blankly at her lavender hoof. Twilight swallowed hard. “You’re the only one that can fix this, Rainbow. I need to teach you to use magic so you can reverse this. Until then…” She paused, realizing what a body swap could mean, “Until then, we have to live each other’s lives.”
“I can’t live an egghead life like yours, Twi! Reading books, doing that weird floaty stuff with your horn, turning rocks into top hats...the friendship reports, I can handle, but there’s no way I could live your life! Honestly, I’d rather take even Fluttershy’s life over yours! Taking care of animals may be hectic, and I can’t be the awesome mare that I am, but at least I can fly!”
“I don’t like it either, Rainbow, but I don’t want to be the one explaining to our friends, the entire town, and probably Celestia herself that we’ve switched bodies. It would cause a full-scale panic! ‘What if it happens again and we ALL trade lives’?”
Rainbow looked at Twilight. “I guess you’re right…” She sighed. “When do we start magic training?”
“Right now. All you need to know right now is basic psychokinesis.”
Rainbow could not possibly look any more confused. Twilight sighed. “The floaty thing.”
“Ohh! I see. It shouldn’t be too hard, you manage it easily.”
“Well, for a case like yours? It might not be as easy as you think.”