Chapter 1 - The Day the World Turned Lavender
Chapter 1 - The Day the World Turned Lavender
With a start and a cloud of confetti, Pinkie Pie threw herself from a dead sleep to her hooves. It was time to begin her day, and she had so much to plan for; three ponies had a birthday today, seven retired, eighteen got married, and a few had even asked her to throw a party. This many celebrations took careful planning and time management, requiring an early start in order to get it all done. Few ponies knew it, but she actually worked hard to claim her title of super-duper-party-pony, and she took it very seriously. She would work hard, with unwavering focus, until—
Ooh! What’s going on here? Pinkie bounced over to the mirror she had hung on the wall. Staring back at Pinkie was Twilight Sparkle. The lavender unicorn never broke gaze with Pinkie, waving in sync with her and bouncing simultaneously as Pinkie paraded in front of the mirror. I never knew Twilight could teleport into mirrors. Ooh! We can start a magic show, the two of us, amazing ponies all across Equestria with our special mirrors! That would be so much fun! What would we name it? Pinkie-thgiliwT? Or how about—
Pinkie’s internal ramblings were cut short as Twilight’s voice carried up the stairs. “Are you up there, Pinkie? Could you come down here, dearie?”
Breaking away from the magical mirror, Pinkie bounced down the stairs, towards Twilight, barely containing her excitement about their future magic act. Twilight would probably say no at first, but that’s because sometimes that pony didn’t know how to have fun.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Pinkie bounded into the front room. There, Twilight Sparkle stood behind the counter, looking nervously at Pinkie. “I-Is that you Pinkie?”
What kind of question was that? Of course she was her. Unless she wasn’t? Was she? Would she know if she wasn’t her? I’m pretty sure I’m me. “Of course I’m me, silly filly.” Twilight was acting rather strangely, nervous and pacing. Actually, that’s business as usual. “So what can I help you with, Twilight? Do you need help with your magical mirrors?”
Twilight seemed confused by this. “Magic mirrors? What do you— Never mind, it isn’t important. But Pinkie, dearie, I’m not Twilight Sparkle; I’m Mrs. Cake.”
Huh? Pinkie Pie cocked her head and stared at Twilight/Mrs. Cake. In all her years of pranking, she had never seen a body swap this detailed. Most were simple illusionary spells, sometimes more complex spells, and even occasionally a simple coat of paint (those didn’t work very well), but this one looked entirely real. Was Twilight pranking her?
The lavender unicorn stared back nervously. “Have you looked in the mirror recently, dearie?”
“Well, duh. That’s where I saw your magic mirrors! Or was it Twilight’s mirrors?”
Twilight/Mrs. Cake still looked concerned. “Here, take a look,” she said, raising a mirror to Pinkie’s head.
Pinkie stared into the mirror. Once again, Twilight Sparkle peered out. “See? Magic! Twilight is on the other side!”
Twilight/Mrs. Cake grew even more concerned. “Uh, this isn’t a magic mirror. I wasn’t the only one to transform...”
Suddenly, Pinkie got it. “Wait, this is real? This. Is. AWESOME! Wait! If I’m really Twilight, then do I have magic?”
Twilight/Mrs. Cake shrank down behind the counter. “Uh, maybe, Pinkie—”
Suddenly, Twilight/Mrs. Cake was cut off by Twilight/Pinkie Pie. “Hmmm, I’m not pink anymore, so you should probably call me Purplie Pie!” Pinkie grinned wide at her own cleverness.
“Anyways, dearie, perhaps this isn’t the best time to try to use magic.”
“Oh, yeah! Thanks, Twilight, I nearly forgot!”
Twilight/Pinkie Pie’s horn lit up. Focusing all her might on picking up the cupcake behind the counter, the purple mare exerted her will, and...
~~~
Rainbow Dash was shaken awake, much to her dismay, as a resounding shockwave passed through the tree she was sleeping on. Wait, tree? Giving the offending tree an icy glare, she stood up and stretched herself out. Trees were so uncomfortable. Which is why she usually slept in clouds. And as far as I remember, I fell asleep in one.
Rainbow craned her head to look up into the sky. Yep. One lone cloud above floated above the tree. I couldn’t have fallen out, could I? I haven’t done that since I was, like, three. Well, it looks like she would just have to fly up there and go back to sleep. Ugh, it’s too early for this.
Rainbow Dash stretched once again, then crouched, and leapt into the air. At the apex of her jump, she turned and extended her wings—
And fell.
Landing hard, Rainbow laid there for a few seconds, catching her breath and checking herself for broken bones. Finding none, she groaned and sat up. It’s still too early for this.
She turned around to massage her wings, which were so numb she couldn’t feel them. However, she was met with only a lavender coat and a purple mane, striped with pink. No wings. Blinking a few times, she looked once again at her body, and was once again met with her erroneous form.
It’s WAY too early for this.
~~~
Rarity awoke at her usual time, leaving herself plenty of time to fix her mane and do the various assortment of other things she did on a daily basis in order to have herself be presentable. Reluctantly she got up, though, knowing the routine like the back of her hoof, she left her eyes closed, savoring the semblance of sleep it left her with.
Going down the stairs, she started a breakfast for her and Sweetie Belle, then returned to her bedroom to begin styling her mane. With a quick application of magic, bottles and vials were orbiting her mane, applying mixtures to her mane. Then finishing off with a deft touch of additional magic, she curled her mane into her usual style, then opened her eyes to inspect her work.
~~~
Awaking at the break of dawn, Applejack went about her preliminary chores, barely able to contain her excitement. After all this time, it’s finally here again! It’s Applebucking Day! However, before she and Big Mac —who was suspiciously absent— could start working in the field, they had to prepare the barnhouse for the storm of action that was about to engulf the home.
Chores were being done so quickly she hardly had time to breathe; she had lain out the pots, cleaned the furnace, lit the pilot flames, sharpened the peelers and various knives, raised the Apple family flag, and all before Celestia could raise the sun.
Finally, with the sun just barely breaking the horizon, Applejack galloped into the field. All around her were bright red apples, ready to be harvested and eaten. Applejack could hardly wait. Wasting no time, she ran over to the nearest tree, spun around, and gave a solid kick to the tree—
Suddenly, pain. So much pain. Collapsing to the ground, Applejack could feel that she had been a breath away from cracking her hoof, and perhaps the rest of the leg as well. She turned back to inspect the damage, and found... purple. Why is mah leg purple?
Continuing her inspection, she found that her entire coat was purple, as well as most of her mane, barring a stripe of pink. More surprisingly, she found a horn attached to her head. How long has that been there?
Cautiously, she reached up, and gave it a gentle tap. Sure enough, she could feel it attached to her skull. How’d Ah miss that?
~~~
Fluttershy was awoken by a small squeak in her ear. Rising, she turned and saw Angel sitting impatiently on her bed-frame, glaring at her. She shook herself awake before going over to him.
“What was it you needed, Angel?”
“Squeak-squeak, squeak-squeak-squeak, squeakity-squeak-squeak!”
“Oh... my.” Shrinking behind the bed, Fluttershy attempted to make sense of what was happening. I can always understand animals! What’s going on?
Remaining crouched, she crawled over to the door, ignoring the unintelligible roars, squeaks, and barks coming from the other side. But when she came to the center of the room, she stopped, halted by what she saw before her. Across the room stood a mirror, and within was not Fluttershy, but Twilight Sparkle.
“Oh... my...”
~~~
Twilight Sparkle woke up at daybreak, as her alarm clock was always set to. Yawning, she stood up, stretched, and began her trek towards the kitchen. Making sure to step over the carefully bundled Spike, she padded down the hallway, down the staircase, and into the kitchen.
Inside the kitchen, she assembled a quick breakfast of oat pancakes and syrup. Forgoing the baking process, she walked over to the dining table, sat down, and began eating. Her food was sort of bland, but it was filling, and would allow her to last throughout the long study session she had planned for the day.
All in all, a completely regular morning.
Unfortunately, that peace was interrupted by a frantic knocking at her front door. Is it too much to ask for one simple day of quiet? Sighing, she made her way over to the door. Looking mournfully back at her unfinished breakfast, she pulled the door open.
Outside her door stood Twilight, Twilight, Twilight, Twilight, and Twilight.
Chapter 2 - Pronouns are Prohibited
Chapter 2 - Pronouns are Prohibited
Facing Twilight Sparkle was Twilight, Twilight, Twilight, Twilight, and Twilight, each looking concerned. Twilight was the first to speak. “Twilight, darling, I believe we need to speak.”
Blinking a few times to check her sanity, the lavender unicorn nodded, and beckoned the others inside. Sweeping aside the now-forgotten breakfast, Twilight Sparkle slammed her hoof onto the table and said, “Alright now, does anypony have any idea what’s goin’ on here?”
Twilight Sparkle looked around the table, then spoke. “No, I don’t know what’s going on here, though I may have an idea. Normally, I’d say this is impossible, but clearly it’s happening. So, our only choice of action here is— yah!” Suddenly striking out, the purple mare shot a bolt of light at Twilight. The spell was the same one used to send Mirror Pool clones back to the pool, but it simply bounced off of Twilight’s coat, ricocheting around the room before striking the front door.
“It-it didn’t work. Why didn’t it work?” Twilight was tackled to the ground by Twilight. “It should have sent the clone back to the pool. Why didn’t it work?”
“Hey, listen up, egghead! We aren’t clones!” Twilight shouted down at Twilight. “We were your friends until yesterday, then today we woke up like this!”
“But-but that’s impossible!” the mare shouted back. “Mirror clones, I can understand, but this, this is simply impossible. It CAN’T happen!”
Twilight snorted. “Obviously, sugarcube, it can, and it has. The question is, what are we gonna do about it?”
With that, the lavender mare allowed Twilight to her hooves. “You good? No more magic missiles?”
“I’ll try.” Standing, Twilight Sparkle looked around the room. Everything seemed normal, except for the quintet of Twilights standing before her. Suddenly remembering somepony important, she shouted up the stairs, “Spike! Can you come down here? Spike!”
At the top of the stairs, Twilight Sparkle came through the doorway, rubbing her eyes and glaring at the bright light the windows allowed in. “Come on, Twilight, you know it’s far to early for this.”
After shaking herself awake, Twilight looked down at the library floor, and nearly tripped down the stairs. “Umm, Twilight? Have you been visiting the Mirror Pool again?”
Twilight glared at the purple unicorn. “You know what happened last time. Do you really think I’d go back so easily?”
Twilight glanced nervously at her companions. “Last time?”
The lavender unicorn gestured dismissively. “It’s not important. But what is important is finding out what happened to cause this. What we need to do is—“
The mare was cut off by a trio of knocks on her door. Sighing, she returned to the front door, and impatiently swung it open. “Yes?”
Three Twilights stood at her door. One Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Twilight. “Cutie Mark Crusaders?”
Caught off guard, the three Twilights stood there, mouths agape and blinking rapidly for a few seconds. Then Twilight recovered, and stared at the violet mare warily. “Yeah, how’d you know?”
“There are three of you, and this is literally the least opportune moment. Who else could it be?”
Thinking about this, Twilight nodded in agreement. Looking around, the unicorn said, “We should probably go inside. Ponies might start wondering what we’re up to if we stay outside too long.”
Glancing around the empty town square, Twilight stepped back, and gestured over towards the kitchen. “Feel free to make some breakfast, if you’d like. I doubt you’ve eaten already.”
Ignoring the shouts of delight, the mare returned to her friends. “Okay, so what we need to do is—” Three knocks at the door. You’ve got to be kidding me.
She walked back over to the door. Swinging it open, the unicorn angrily demanded, “Yeah?”
Outside the door, two Twilights stood tall. At her frustrated demeanor, one remarked to the other, “Funny, sister, I did not remember your student to be so... incensed.”
“Usually, she isn’t. However, under these circumstances, I believe it to be reasonable.”
Twilight took a step back, as the implications of the exchange hit her. “Uh, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna? Forgive me, today has been extremely—”
“I understand, dear student. But for now, we should retreat inside. Ponyville begins to awake, and they will wake with a rather alarming surprise.”
The unicorn cocked her head. “Do you mean to say all of Ponyville has transformed into... me?”
Twilight nodded regally. “Not only Ponyville, Twilight, but all of Equestria. At the moment, messengers are attempting to establish communications with Saddle Arabia and Griffonia, as well as the Diamond Dog warrens and the Zebra tribes. I fear this malady may have spread beyond even our borders.”
This is really bad. If this is as widespread as it sounds— Twilight shuddered at the implications of that. No identifying traits, no pegasi, no earth ponies. Uncorrected, this could be really bad. Luckily, I have a plan!
Walking back over to the table, Twilight introduced the Princesses to her friends, then went to the head of the table. “This problem may be more widespread than we originally thought. However we can deal with this. What we need to do is—”
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Twilight gave the door a death glare that would rival the sun in intensity. Is this a conspiracy against me? She stomped over to the door, flung it open, and dragged the Twilight outside into the library with a blast of telekinesis, and slammed the door shut. “What do you want?”
The violet unicorn chuckled at Twilight’s display. “Oh, Twilight, is that any way to treat a friend?”
Twilight’s eyes narrowed at the distinctive ironic tone and blatant sarcasm. “Discord?”
The mare grinned at Twilight’s revelation. “The one and only!”
Twilight jumped up from the table. “Hey, that’s my line!”
Twilight, ignoring the purple mare, began to interrogate Twilight. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, being Twilight, can I go anywhere other than the library?”
Good point. “True. But did you turn us all, barring myself, of course, into me?”
“Did the god of chaos turn every pony into the most powerful unicorn in Equestria? What kind of question is that? I’m insulted! That you doubt me so... I’m wounded! I truly am.”
After a quick eye-roll, Twilight glared at the purple unicorn. “Why? Why would you do this?”
Now it was Twilight’s turn to roll her eyes. “Did you miss the whole ‘god of chaos’ part? Do I need more explanation than that?”
“For anypony else, I’d say yes. But regardless, I demand you return us to our original forms right now!”
Twilight’s grin faltered for a second, but quickly returned. “Well, you see, my dear Twilight, there’s one little problem with that. As a god of chaos, I easily had the power to turn everypony into you. But as a mere Twilight Sparkle...”
Twilight, listening to the unicorn’s speech, suddenly had a sinking feeling. “As me, you don’t have access to your chaos magic...”
“Yep! And no chaos magic means no magical cure for Lavender Unicorn Syndrome (patent pending).”
Ignoring the doubtful legalities of the previous statement, Twilight pondered their current conundrum. I certainly don’t have enough magic to revert this... With Discord without chaos magic, and the Princesses similarly indisposed, does that mean...
“Does that mean we’ll be stuck like this?”
“It certainly looks like it!” Twilight’s grin was from ear to ear. Then, with a quick blast from her horn, she disappeared.
Author's Note
I apologize if that hurt.
