Heart Swap

Chapters

02 - An Eggcellent Experiment
03 - A Scrambled Search
04 - A Hatched Chaos
01 - An Eggciting Discovery
05 - The Eggstraterrestrial Creature

02 - An Eggcellent Experiment

The three fillies were outside of their clubhouse.

“...and then we'll meet up back here before sundown!” Applebloom finished with a big grin.

Her two friends however, were giving her a long and worried frown.

Applebloom sighed. “Aw, cheer up! I already promised you guys that we'll go and ask Twilight to help us if things get out of hoof!”

“Aren't things already out of our hooves?” Scootaloo pointed out, and Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement.

“...if things get even more out of hoof!” Applebloom corrected herself. “But come on!” she smiled at them. “This is a perfect chance for us to try and get our cutie marks in a swapped body way!”

“What kind of a special talent would that even be?” Sweetie Belle asked, shaking her head. “Pretending to be somepony else?”

“If changelings can do it, then why can't we?”

“Because we're not changelings, you dummy,” Sweetie Belle deadpanned.

“Uh, yeah,” Scootaloo scratched behind her neck. “What me just said... I'm still not sure if this is such a good idea...”

“The egg itself wasn't a good idea!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

“Come on, guys! Just this once?” Applebloom begged, complete with puppy-dog eyes and a pouty bottom lip.

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. “Ugh, fine... Now I know why my brother and sister can't refuse me if I start looking like that...” She turned to their other friend. “You okay with it, Sweetie Belle?”

Scootaloo sighed, her features drooping. “Like I have a choice?”

“It's settled then!” Applebloom jumped excitingly to the scooter, grabs the handlebars , and then blinked. “Oh. Right. I'm Applebloom now...” She smiled sheepishly as she stepped down from her scooter. “Momma's gonna miss you...”

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. Scootaloo gulped and shakily made her way to the scooter.

“Be careful with it, okay?” Applebloom watched her climb on the scooter. “This baby has been my baby ever since I was a baby!”

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes again.

Scootaloo shakily grabbed the handlebars with two hooves. “Um...now what?”

“Well,” Applebloom turned to Sweetie Belle. “Applebloom, I always take Sweetie back home with my scooter. So...” she gestured with a hoof, waving it at Scootaloo.

“This is getting dumber and dumber by the second,” Sweetie Belle grunted, marching to the wagon attached to the scooter, and climbed in. She then glared at the grinning Applebloom. “If I die, I'll haunt you forever.”

“Sounds fun.”

“I'm dead serious, Scootaloo.”

“Me?” Scootaloo squeaked. “W-what did I do?”

“Not you, dummy! The dummier!”

Applebloom grinned. “You mean you're the dummier?”

Sweetie Belle shot her an icy glare, but she only earned a giggle from her recipient.

“...doesn't that make me the ‘dummier’, too?” Scootaloo thought out loud.

Applebloom chuckled, and then turned to Scootaloo. “Wait...” She picked up her helmet and slammed it on top of their pegasus friend's head. “Safety first!”

“Ow... Thanks...” she rubbed the helmet, as if that would ease her aching head.

“Okay, so... Flap my wings!”

“...h-how am I going to do that?” Scootaloo asked.

Applebloom hummed, eyeing the pegasus' wings. “Hm... Maybe it I touch my wings, you'll feel them and you can work from there?”

“I...I guess?” Scootaloo turned to her and frowned. “You're the pegasus, so you should know more than me...”

“You're the pegasus at the moment,” Applebloom pointed out. She approached her and slowly, but gently touched the base of her friend's wing. It is her wings, after all, so she was careful with them.

Scootaloo jolted in place, feeling weird about the weird and foreign tingling sensation. “T-that feels weird... It's like...something's on my back...”

“Yeah, my wings,” Applebloom deadpanned, stepping back. “Now, try and feel it.”

Scootaloo nodded reluctantly, faced forward, squinted her eyes shut, and started to concentrate.

“...I look stupid...” Applebloom facehoofed.

“Everything is stupid,” Sweetie Belle mumbled, rolling her eyes.

“Hush, you two,” Scootaloo scolded them without moving her head but her lips. “Unicorn-turned-pegasus concentrating here.”

“You didn't really turn into a pegasus, you know,” Applebloom pointed out as she stared at the pegasus' small wings slowly flapping up and down. “It's more like...our minds just switched places.”

“Gee, I couldn't have figured that one out,” Sweetie Belle grumbled. “Thanks, Applebloom.”

“What's your problem?” Applebloom asked in annoyance.

“Everything,” she grunted before jumping out of the wagon. “Let's just walk and get this over with.”

“I guess that works, too,” Scootaloo nodded in agreement. She then tried to remove her helmet, but failing at it. “A little help here?”

“Damn. You're making me look stupid,” Applebloom sighed as she helped in removing the headgear.

“Heya, Applebloom!” Applejack greeted her little sister, wiping her sweaty forehead with a hoof. “Done with your crusades with your friends?”

“Um...” Applebloom fidgeted in place, finding it hard to look at her sister straight in the eyes. ‘Okay... Apple accent, activate!’ “...n-not really. We're just...taking a small break?”

“Ah,” Applejack nodded in understanding. It wasn't the first time she heard her sister say that anyway. “Mind helping me out a bit?”

‘Yes! She isn't suspecting a thing! I'm good at this,’ she smiled. “I guess? With wha—oof!”

A heavy...something was suddenly placed on her back, her legs shaking in an instant. She grunted, pushing her hooves to straighten up, and surprisingly, she managed to do so, and found it almost easy. ‘Wow... Applebloom is strong! Not that I'm gonna admit that to her.’

“W-where...?” Applebloom suddenly found it hard to talk with the something that is weighing on her back. “...uh...”

Applejack chuckled, and patted her little sister's head. “You still got a long ways to go, 'bloom. Take those barrels inside the barn over there, as usual,” and she finished it by pointing a hoof towards the barn, which was kinda a long walk away.

Applebloom gulped. “U-uh...sure thing, Applej—I m-mean, sis?”

It was going to be a looong afternoon, the little filly thought.

‘I'm starting to not like this idea of mine...’

“—and watch out for Opal. If you step on her, even on one single strand of her fur, she'll get angry and will hurt you,” Scootaloo warned her unicorn friend as the two of them were walking side-by-side towards Carousel Boutique, which was only a few more houses away.

Sweetie Belle sighed. “Number one-hundred and seventy-two... Watch out for Opal. Got it... Anything else?”

“Well...” Scootaloo squinted her eyes, deep in thought. She suddenly disappeared, a rainbow-streak replacing her wake.

“Sweetie Belle?” Sweetie Belle stared at the fading rainbow streak, and then turned towards the heavens, following her friend's terrified screams. “Well, I guess I'm gonna go through this on my own.”

Finally reaching the door of the boutique, she knocked on the door and waited politely for somepony to open the door from the other side, even though the sign on the door says that the boutique was open.

“Just a minute~” Rarity sang from inside. Finally, the door opened wide, hitting the bell on top. “Welcome to Carous—Sweetie Belle?”

“Hey—” she mentally slapped herself. “Hi, sis!” she grinned, a little too wide. “H-how's it going?”

Rarity was just staring at her.

Sweetie Belle fidgeted in place, her grin twitching. “Can...can I come in?”

“Oh my goodness, Sweetie Belle!” she immediately levitated her little sister up and puller her close, studying her eyes with a critical eye. “Whatever happened to your eyes?!”

“Um...” ‘Come on, brain! Think of something, and quick!’ “C-Cutie Mark Crusaders: Contact Lens Testers?”

Rarity blinked. “Contact lenses?”

“Yup! Can you put me down now?”

Rarity gently brought her sister down on the floor. “I...see... But you should be careful with those, Sweetie Belle. They might hurt your eyes.”

The filly nodded her head. “I know, and it doesn't, so I'm okay!”

“And why were you knocking? You know that you're very welcome to come inside the shop any time you want.”

The filly shrugged. “I just thought it was the polite thing to do.”

Rarity stared at her for a moment, and then arched an eyebrow. “I...see...”

“Geez, squirt! You screamed like a filly!” Rainbow Dash chuckled as she ruffled the shaking pegasus filly's mane. The two pegasi ponies were sitting on a puff of cloud above town.

‘Way...way...WAY...above town...’ the shaky Scootaloo gulped, nervously content of being a shaky statue.

“And here I thought you were ready for your very first stunt-flying lessons!” Rainbow Dash lightly punched the filly's shoulder. “What? Don't tell me you're scared!”

‘Scootaloo! I'm gonna kill you if I don't die first!’ Swallowing a very big lump of fear, she nervously turned her head to face the rainbow-maned pegasus mare. “I...I—uh... Um... I'm not s-scared! J-just excited! Yeah!” she squeaked.

Rainbow Dash blinked. “Uh-huh...right...” She then jumped out of the cloud, pulled her wings out and flapped them to get airborne. She turned around to face the filly at eye-level while keeping a good two meter distance from each other. “Well, the basics always help calm the nerves. So let's start with that!”

Scootaloo slowly, slowly noded.

Rainbow Dash nodded with a smile, and then stretched her front hooves to the side. “First is stretching! You gotta stretch those hooves and wing muscles, kiddo! Come on! You've done this before! Heh, even Tank does his stretching faster than what you're doing right now,” she chuckled to herself.

Scootaloo, on the other hoof, was shakily extending her hooves to her side. No stretching has been done by the filly for a number of minutes, even with Rainbow Dash's uplifting speeches.

Which weren't really that uplifting. “Geez... You're more stiff than Big Mac's—erm...”

“D-don't you mean, ‘stiffer’?”

Rainbow arched an eyebrow. At least she noticed that instead of a certain stallion's— “Have you eaten a dictionary this morning? That might explain why you're so booked up!” she laughed. “Don't tell me you and your friends went into ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders: Bookie Monsters!’” and she continued laughing. After her laughter died down, she looked back at the filly, and frowned. “Geez... Are my book puns really that bad? Pinkie liked them, so I thought that Twilight might find them funny, too...” She sighed. “There goes that idea...”

The filly actually liked the last one, but she found it hard to show it because she realized that she was slowly sinking down from the cloud she was currently sitting on. “R-R-Rainbow Dash...?”

“Yeah, squirt?”

She gulped. “I'm sinking...”

Rainbow Dash grinned. “I know! All the more reason for you to get up and start flying! You've stretched those mighty wings of yours already, right?”

Rainbow Dash confirming that she was indeed sinking just made her stomach go in loops. And she was positive that one of her hind hooves was now dangling below the cloud. “H...help?”

“Come on, kid! Flap those wings!” Rainbow Dash encouraged her. “We'll postpone the stunt-flying lessons if you want!”

“I...I don't know how to—” Poof! She was gone. “FLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY—!”

Rainbow Dash hummed in thought while staring at the falling filly. “Huh. I could have sworn that her eyes were blue...” She shrugged. “Probably Rarity's handiwork.”

Applebloom slumped down on the ground, breathing heavily after carrying four barrels of apples in one go. She let her tongue out and she doesn't even care if she tasted dirt already.

Big Macintosh chuckled.

The filly's ears twitch, not because of her big brother. She lazily lifted her head up. “Did...did you hear that just now?”

“Hm?” Big Mac stopped pushing a barrel with his head to look around, his ears turning to hear anything. “Nnnope.”

‘It sounded like a filly falling to her doom or something... And I take back what I said... Applebloom isn't as strong as I thought...’

“Tired already, little filly?” Granny Smith chuckled as she entered the barn. “From four barrels? Why, we must've been giving you quite a lot of free time if you've gotten this rusty!”

“Eeyup!”

“I'm not tired!” the filly complained, sitting up. “See? I'm up!”

Granny Smith blinked, and then smiled wholeheartedly. “Now there's the filly I know and love! Now, get back to your big sister Applejack and bring in sixteen more barrels!”

The filly blinked at the old mare.

“Go on. Get to it, little apple! Time's a-wasting!”

“Sixteen barrels?”

“Eeyup,” the old mare nodded.

“You're kidding, right?”

“Not this one, darling,” Rarity smiled sweetly, levitating the spool back to her frustrated little sister. “That one's tomato. I need sienna, which is slightly darker than tomato.” She then returned to her sewing machine and resumed her sewing.

Eye twitching and teeth grinding, the filly marched back to the tall cabinets of spools, spools and more spools. It's like every color has two tall cabinets! ‘And why in blazes is coffee orange?!’ She climbed up the cabinets to put back the spool, and randomly picks up a slightly darker spool. ‘She could have just labelled these darn things!’ The spool now secured in between her teeth, she jumped back down to the floor with an audible thud! She didn't notice the sounds of sewing had just resumed. She turned and marched back to the fashionista.

Rarity turned to her with a smile. “Ah! Thank you, Sweetie Belle! And it only took you twenty-three tries!”

“Gee... You're welcome,” the filly deadpanned, watching the spool being enveloped by an aura of magic. She took a deep breath and exhaled quietly. She calmed down. “Anything else, sis?”

“Hm...” Rarity stopped her sewing and placed a hoof under her chin. “Oh! I almost forgot!” She turned to her and smiled sheepishly. “I forgot to give Opal her lunch. Be a dear and open a can of tuna for her?”

The filly nodded her head. “Sounds easy enough. I just need to know where the can is, and Opal is.”

“Both are in the kitchen, darling. Do be careful if you're going to use the can opener, though.”

She nodded her head again and went to the kitchen.

“Hm...” Rarity was watching the retreating filly with a critical eye.

“Come on, squirt!” Rainbow Dash was flying high above and around the edge of town, up-side-down, and pushing a purple-maned filly up every time the said filly falls back down on her hooves. “Stop playing wingless and start flapping those wings!” she said encouragingly, although her patience was already running thin. “Come on! Don't be scared! Up ya go! I promise I'll catch ya if you fall! Up ya go again!”

Scootaloo was perfectly fine imitating a limp ragdoll now, still in shock from her free fall from earlier.

Frowning, Rainbow Dash stopped throwing the filly up and just held her on her hooves. Catching a familiar reflected light from the corner of her eyes, she grinned and immediately dove down towards the source in seconds.

Scootaloo finally came back to her senses, and as soon as she found herself underwater, strong hooves pulled her up, and she coughed and gasped for breath.

“Glad to see you back, squirt!” Rainbow Dash gently puts the soaked filly down on the grassy edge of the pond.

The filly shivered, and then shook herself dry.

Rainbow Dash was smiling.

The filly, now not-so-soaked anymore, blinked, looked around, and then stared up at the mare. “Um... C-can we uh...”

“Yeah?”

“Um... C-can we...”

“Spit it out, squirt!” Rainbow Dash chuckled.

“C-can we please not do any flying today?” she begged with teary eyes. “I...I think I don't feel like flying for today.”

Rainbow Dash blinked. “Oh... Uh... Okay, I guess?”

“Nnnnnnnnnnnnn—” Applebloom gritted her teeth as she tried her very best to push the barrel towards the barn. The fifth barrel. And she has been pushing it for quite a while now. “Gah!” she stopped pushing the barrel with her head and leaned on it to take a breather. She was sure as heck that she was finally in front of the barn now. A small break won't harm anypony, right?

She turned around, and saw Applejack, standing on the very same spot before the filly turned around and started pushing the barrel a few minutes ago.

“Um...hi?”

Applejack approached her with worry. “Are you alright, sugarcube?” She put a hoof on the filly's sweaty forehead. “Well, you're not having a fever. Something wrong? Aside from your blue-colored eyes, that is.”

Applebloom chuckled weakly. “Eheheh... I must've been pretty tired from crusading earlier... Y-yeah, that's it.”

“Uh...huh...” Applejack arched an eyebrow. “Well, I think we've been holding you off from your friends for a while now. Wanna head back to them?”

The filly almost recovered all of her strength right there and then. “Y-yeah. That sounds like a good idea, actually. See ya later, Applejack!”

Applejack just nodded her head with a smile, and watched her little sister slowly walking away towards the clubhouse. “Hm...”

“I told you to wait until I poured the darn tuna into your bowl!” Sweetie Belle hissed, keeping the can of tuna out of reach.

Opal hissed back, and started swiping the filly's hooves with her sharp claws, but misses.

“You won't be getting anything if you don't behave, you good-for-nothing fat cat!”

Opal jumped, but Sweetie Belle easily took a step to the side to dodge the tackling cat. “Oof!” she bumps into something soft and warm.

“Ahem...” Rarity cleared her throat, staring at her sister with an arched eyebrow. “Sweetie Belle?”

“What?” Sweetie Belle asked, annoyed.

“I...think I should feed Opal instead,” she said with a frown.

Sweetie Belle turned to her with an arched eyebrow.

Rarity tried to smile. “But thank you for opening the can,” she said as she levitated the can of tuna from the filly's hoof. “Now, um, why don't you run along and play with your friends?”

“Fine,” the filly huffed, trotting towards the front door of the boutique.

“Do take care, alright, Sweetie Belle?”

The bell jingled as the filly opened it, and it jingled again as she closed the door. Rarity didn't get any response from her little sister.

“Weird...” she thought, rubbing her chin, completely unaware that Opal has been jumping from the floor, desperately trying to reach the can of tuna.

Scootaloo reached their clubhouse, and immediately, she sat on the steps of the stairs. With a sigh, she looked at her hooves. They were still shaky, but at least they weren't as shaky and uncontrollable as they were earlier. Another sigh escaped her lips as she closed her eyes.

‘I wanna be Sweetie Belle again...’

“Hey there, me!” greeted Applebloom as approached the sad pegasus filly. “Hey, what happened?”

Scootaloo lifted her head to look at her friend. “I just had the—um, you smell...bad...”

“Oh, yeah...” Applebloom smiled sheepishly, scratching her mane. “Applejack made me pull some barrel-full of apples earlier.”

“Ouch,” Scootaloo flinched.

“Eh, it was nothing. So, why are you so down?”

Scootaloo sighed. “I just had the scariest moment of my entire life! Rainbow Dash scooped me up from the ground and put me on a cloud and forcing me to learn stunts or something.”

“What?!” Applebloom shouted. “Oh my gosh! Was it today?! I totally forgot!” She angrily stomped her hoof on the ground. “Darn it! I totally missed it!”

“I-it's okay!” Scootaloo tried to calm her down. “Rainbow Dash said that it was okay to postpone it!”

Applebloom turned to her, and was about to reply when an angry snarl interrupted her. She and Scootaloo turned to the source, and saw Sweetie Belle stomping her hooves towards them.

“Alright! Where's that egg?!” she asked angrily, standing before the two fillies. “I wanna change back right now!”

“Hey! Hey!” Applebloom tried to calm the angry filly. “Chillax, okay? Me and I just got here!”

“Then why the hay are we standing outside here for?” Sweetie Belle asked, and walked up the stairs without waiting for their replies.

Applebloom and Scootaloo looked at each other, and then followed the unicorn filly up in their clubhouse.

Sweetie Belle slammed the door open, letting the setting sun's light to enter their slightly-gloomy clubhouse. Her eyes twitched from what she saw. “I hope this is a prank, y'all! 'Cause I don't find this funny!”

Applebloom and Scootaloo stood beside their friend, and gasped after their eyes laid on the egg. At least, they were all staring on where the egg should have been. Now, there were only a pile of cracked transparent-blue eggshells.

“It...” Scootaloo breathed out.

Applebloom rubbed her eyes, making sure she wasn't seeing things. She blinked, and looked again. “...hatched?”

Author's Note

The egg hatched. Yey?

03 - A Scrambled Search

The sun was already setting in the horizon, and the streets of Ponyville were busy with ponies trotting about. They were going to and from the marketplace, to prepare for their meals later at dinner time.

Their hoofsteps and voices echoed all around, and it was like music to a lone, blue little creature that stood on a barrel in an alleyway, its long and blue antennae twitched ever so slightly at the sounds. One of its club-like arms was over its eyes as it smiled and stared at the sea of ponies going about.

“Mana,” it said to itself, smiling in wonderment. It has never seen such many creatures moving around before.

Well, to be fair, it just hatched, and that realization made the little creature blink, and then it chuckled to itself. It has heard its parents' voice already while the creature was still inside the egg, so when it pick their voices, it'll just have to follow it, which will lead it to them! The blue creature sighed dreamily.

Strange that the creature was left all alone inside that gloomy place. It even prepared a big smile as soon as it hatched, but no one was there to see it. Maybe its parents just went out to find food? The creature wasn't sure. It hadn't seen them yet, which was making the creature so excited. It wondered what mama and papa would look like. It also wondered why it heard three voices. Mama and papa makes two, so who was the third one? Uncle? Aunt? Or maybe its sibling? It doesn't know and it was very excited to—

It sniffed the air, and oh, how wonderful that aroma was. It felt like she was already swimming in the vast, beautiful and heavenly ocean. Sniffing again and again, it turned, following where that wonderful aroma was coming from. It opened its eyes, and it eyed a weird building across the path. It blinked, and looked down on its stubby feet. Huh, it didn't turn that much, it realized. It shrugged. Oh well. With a smile, it jumped down on the earthy ground, and wobbled its way towards the building to figure out what that sweet aroma was.

It didn't care of the many hoofsteps that might stomp on it. It didn't know any better, anyway.

“Save me some dessert, ya hear?” Applejack shouted back as she waved a hoof while walking down the path towards Ponyville. “I'll be back by dinnertime!”

“Just have fun, Applejack!” Granny Smith said, waving a hoof along with Big Mac outside their home's door. “And try to talk to some stallions that you meet on the way!” As soon as Applejack was no longer in sight, Granny Smith shook her head slightly. “Ung... That mare needs to find a stallion soon. I'm not getting any younger...”

Big Mac rolled his eyes. Not this again.

“And you, Big Mac, need to find yourself a mare! I wanna have some grandkids before I bite the dust! And no! Applejack doesn't count!”

The red stallion sighed. He doesn't really have the time to go out there and find a mare to get to know with. Well, he can always ask one of his sister's friends. Rainbow Dash seemed to like him, for they do spend some time for a while, but he was just too darn busy with the farm, now that Applejack was also one of the ambassadors of friendship, or whatever it was called.

The two Apples went inside the barn house. As soon as the door closed, a filly's head popped out from a bush near the house. Sweetie Belle then slowly and quietly moved towards the windows, and took a peak inside.

‘If that thing's inside, then one of them is probably gonna freak out,’ she thought, moving slowly towards the back. ‘The thing just hatched, so I guess it's probably hungry. If it's a carnivore, then it'll probably prey on easy targets, since it just hatched, after all.’

She saw the Apple Family's chicken pen, and the chickens inside were ‘boking’ normally, without a care in the world.

The filly sighed. ‘I just wish those two are having better luck than I am...’

“Where the heck could that thing be?” Applebloom said to herself as she trotted through the many ponies in the busy street. She already bumped into a number of ponies though, but she didn't care. She was looking for something, and she and the girls needed to find it before it starts causing trouble. What kind of trouble? She wasn't sure, but her and her friends' current condition was a pretty good hint. ‘I wonder if I should ask anypony... Nah, I wouldn't want them to panic... That might put us in even more trouble...’

She finally reached a fork, where there were less ponies and more air for the filly to move and breathe. After taking a small breather, she looked around, and saw Fluttershy trotting towards her. “Hello, Applebloom.”

“Hey there, Fluttershy!” Applebloom greeted, and then she mentally slapped herself for forgetting to add some accent. “U-um... How are you today?”

Fluttershy smiled. “Oh, I'm good. Thank you for asking. Angel finally brought in his new family at the cottage, and oh, the cute little baby rabbits are so cute!” the pegasus squeed.

Applebloom fought the urge to roll her eyes. “Um... T-that's great! I guess...” ‘Wait... That annoying rabbit has a family now? There's going to be a lot of Angel Juniors soon?!’

“Um... Applebloom?”

“Buh?” Applebloom snapped back in reality.

“Are you alright?”

“Huh? Oh!” The filly shook her head. That future rabbit problem is future Scootaloo's problem. “Y-yeah! Sure! Why wouldn't I be?”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I am! Now uh...wait,” she blinked. ‘Well, maybe she can help, slightly.’ “Have you seen any weird animals lately, Fluttershy?”

The pegasus mare frowned. “Applebloom, you already promised not to put my animal friends into your crusades.”

“I know, I know. I was just curious, since we don't meet that often anymore.”

Fluttershy blinked. “But you invited me to your farm yesterday to check on your chickens...”

“Er... I'll take that as a no then. Well, thanks Fluttershy, but I gotta go! Bye!” and the filly ran off to a random direction.

“Weird...” Fluttershy muttered to herself before she continued her trot towards the castle. “I just hope that nothing's really bothering the poor filly. I should probably ask Applejack to check up on her sister later...”

With Fluttershy now out of sight, Applebloom finally trotted out from hiding behind a tree. She turned and stared at the direction towards Fluttershy's cottage. “I wonder if the little guy went there?”

“Here ya go!” Pinkie Pie gave a paper bag to an earth pony customer. “Two chocolate cupcakes for your kids, one daisy cupcake for your sweetie plum, and, blech—” she stuck her tongue out in disgust, “—one plain bread...”

Her customer chuckled, rolled his eyes, and placed the bits on the counter. “Sorry Pinkie. But you know that I'm not allowed to eat anything sweet. Doctor's orders.”

“I know! And it sucks!” Pinkie wailed. “Not eating anything sweet! Oh, the horror!” she shivered, pupils shrinking to dots. She shook her head and then took a deep breath. “Well, anyway, thanks and come again! Next!”

“Hey there, Pinkie Pie!”

“Why, hello there, Spike!” Pinkie leaned over the counter to pat the little purple dragon's head. “How's our favorite dragon doing?”

Spike shrugged. “Eh, you know. Still trying to control myself from eating Twilight's new crystal castle.”

A few ponies behind him chuckled.

Pinkie Pie nodded with a smile. “Heheh... That's our Spike! So, how may I help ya?”

“Well, Twilight said that she ordered something for later?”

“Ah, the cupcakes! Be right back, Spike,” she said, bouncing towards the kitchen. She returned behind the counter not long after, a purple-colored box balanced on her back. “Here you go, Spike! Twilight already paid for it, even though I insisted that she didn't need to!”

“Sugarcube Corner will go broke if you don't accept payment, Pinkie,” the little dragon chuckled, said and waved goodbye, and turned to the door as Pinkie called her next customer.

And he bumped into something blue and kinda soft. The dragon blinked, and so did the weird creature. It was the same height as he was, until the creature extended its antennae as it looked around, completely ignoring him.

“Friend of yours, Spike?” one of the mares in line asked.

Spike slowly, slowly shook his head, his eyes still locked on the weird thing. “Not...really...”

“Mana...” the creature whispered with a growing smile.

“Uh, hello?”

No response.

“Hello?”

The creature started sniffing the air. That's something, Spike guessed.

“Um...so can you move please? You're kinda in my way.”

The creature closed its eyes, deciding to let its nose lead it to the source of the sweet aroma. Which was everywhere. At least there was something sweet close by. Opening its eyes again, it saw the box the dragon was carrying on top of his head with both claws holding it for balance.

“Mana!” she smiled, and then started pointing at the box.

“Uh, no,” Spike guessed. “It's a box, not your momma.”

“Mana!” the creature hopped in place. “Mana! Mana mana!”

“Oh dear,” one of the ponies in line said. “Is it looking for its mommy?”

“I have no idea...” Spike sighed, balancing the box on his scale on his head so he could use a claw to push the thing to the side. Gently. The thing was so soft Spike felt that it was so fragile. “Excuse me, little guy, but I need to get going.” He smiled wearily at the smiling creature that was still eyeing the box on his head, and then he slowly walked out of the store. Once he was out, he let out a sigh of relief, and he then went towards the castle. “I wonder what that—ugh,” he grunted, regaining his balance, “w-what that thing was. I better ask Twilight about it later. Gangway, ponies! Spike the dragon, coming through!”

Little did the little dragon know that the little blue creature was now happily sitting on top of the box that was over his little head. And the ponies just looked and stared and blinked and wondered.

Scootaloo was about to knock on the door when the door itself swung open inwardly.

“Scootaloo?” Rarity blinked. “Do you need anything, darling?”

Scootaloo blinked. ‘Oh, right... I'm still Scootaloo.’ She fought the urge to sigh, instead, she smiled. “Hey there, Miss Rarity,” ‘it's really weird calling my sister like that.’ “Is Sweetie Belle here?”

Rarity shook her head as she stepped out of her boutique. “She was here a few hours ago. Oh, and the blue contact lens looks good on you, by the way.”

The filly blinked. “Uh, thanks?”

“I believe my sister went back to you clubhouse, my dear. Although,” Rarity tapped her chin with a hoof, “she was acting kind of strange.”

The filly gulped.

“Did something happen?”

“Um... M-maybe?”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “I should have known. I guess I'll be asking her about it later.”

Scootaloo wasn't looking forward to that.

“In any case,” she turned and summoned magic to her horn, closing the door with magic and locking it. “I'm sorry if I should be sending you away, Scootaloo, but I must be going to the castle.”

“Oh, well, it's okay, Miss Rarity!”

“If you see my sister, tell her that I'll be back by dinnertime. I'll be off now.”

As Rarity turned and trotted towards the castle, Scootaloo waved a hoof at her retreating form. “Bye, sis,” she whispered, and sniffed. She shook her head and turned back to the door with squinting eyes. ‘If something came inside, my sister would have noticed and freaked the whole town. So it's safe to assume that it's not inside...I think.’

She looked around, and after making sure that nopony was paying her any attention, she turned and grabbed a key behind a flower pot by the door.

‘But it's better to be safe than sorry, I guess.’ She inserted the key to the keyhole, and turned it, opening the door in the process. ‘I just hope Scootaloo didn't have any bad history with Opal.’

She went inside and closed the door behind her.

Outside, by the main road, Spike blinked. “What was Scootaloo doing?” After a while of staring, he shrugged and continued on his way. “Meh. Probably another crusading stuff.”

He still wasn't aware that he was drawing ponies' attentions with that cute little blue creature sitting on the box, happily munching on the cupcakes.

A stallion was about to call the dragon's attention, but his wife slapped his hoof, stopping him, and telling him that bad things will happen if they try and stop bad things from going to happen.

It didn't made sense to the poor stallion.

‘No signs of any weird creatures here...’ Sweetie Belle sighed as she closed the Apple Family's pig pen. ‘And whew... Is it just me, or was it pretty dang sticky in there.’ She blinked after she saw her white hoof. ‘Probably just me being Sweetie Belle...’ She sat on the ground and put a muddy hoof on her chin. ‘I was really certain that it was gonna be here, to eat something. Wait... Maybe it's not a carnivore after all! Gah!’ She slapped her forehead, cringing a bit when she accidentally hit the base of her horn. ‘Ow! That hurts like hell! Are horns really that sensitive?’ She shook her head. ‘Anyway, why didn't I think of that sooner?! The clubhouse is surrounded by apple trees! If the thing really was not a meat-eater, then it probably just climbed up and ate a few apples! If the thing can climb, that is...’

With that in thought, she hurried back to their clubhouse, failing to notice the red stallion who just went out from the back door of the barn house. Blinking, Big Mac stared at the retreating filly's form. “Now what the hay are those fillies up to?”

“Ahhh!” Scootaloo screamed as she ran around, trying in vain to avoid the claws of the vicious and angry Opal. “I'm sorry! I'm sorry!”

Crash!

Applebloom reached Fluttershy's cottage. It was already starting to get dark, and she was starting to get tired, but she shoved the feeling to the side and started wandering around the cottage, looking at the animals around. She was thankful to see no signs of bunnies.

“Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary,” the filly said to herself, taking note of how calm and peaceful the animals were. The sun was almost completely gone, and the moon was already visible by the horizon, so it would make sense that the animals would be preparing to sleep and call it a night.

...a light bulb turned on.

“Wait. Birds consider their hatching place as their home!” Applebloom said out loud, remembering that Rainbow Dash had taught her that during their flying lessons. “And I think most creatures consider their birthplace as their homes, too!” At least, that's what she remembered from their ‘field trip’ at Fluttershy's cottage a few months ago.

With that information in mind, she galloped down the path, back towards Ponyville.

With jingling bells, the door of Carousel Boutique closed. As soon as it did, Scootaloo slumped down on the welcome mat with a tired sigh. The poor filly's mane and fur were messy and full of scratch marks. A few of her feathers weren't as lucky as well.

Street lamps suddenly glowed, as if by magic, illuminating the streets before it complete got dark. Scootaloo stared at a lamp and remembered that Rarity had told her that the lamps were magical, wherein they'll store sun energy and will release said energy when sunlight was no longer present.

After another sigh, she slowly opened her eyes, and saw a bright, pink, and grinning face in front of her. The filly was gone with a yelp of surprise.

“Hey there, scaredy pants!” Pinkie Pie greeted the pegasus filly that was flying a few feet in the air. “Wat'cha doing?”

“Pinkie?” Scootaloo asked, looking down. As soon as she did, she realized that she was flying. Her wings froze, and she fell down.

“Whoopsie,” the pink party pony caught her before the welcome mat did. She put her down on her shaky hooves and giggled. “So, jumpy pants, what's up?”

“Well...” she bit her tongue. She wondered if telling Pinkie that she was looking for some sort of baby monster would be a good idea. Maybe she can be vague about it? “The girls and I are just looking for something...weird.”

“Weird? Okay!” the mare nodded.

“So like... Have you seen anything weird lately, Pinkie Pie?”

“Hm...” the pink mare brought a hoof to her chin, thinking. “Well, I had a customer who bought a sweetless loaf of bread earlier.” She looked back at the blinking filly. “Does that count?”

“I...guess so?”

Pinkie Pie smiled, and patted the filly's head. “Glad I could help! He lives two houses away from the currently-under-repair library to the left. Have fun!” and she bounced off towards somewhere, leaving the filly sitting on the mat and sighing. “I wonder if Spike noticed that weird blue creature that was eating our cupcakes for the meeting...”

Scootaloo blinked, and then her eye twitched. She jumped on all four. “W-wait, Pinkie!”

Pinkie Pie froze in mid-air.

Scootaloo was suddenly beside her. “What did— Um... You can go down now.”

Pinkie did just that.

“What did you just say? About a blue creature?” The baby creature was blue, right? It would make sense, since the eggshell was blue as well.

Pinkie blinked. “What blue creature?”

Scootaloo's eye twitched. “Just...forget it...” At least she knew where it was. “Can I ask for your help?”

“Sure! I love to help my friends!” she hugged the filly, and let's her go.

Scootaloo coughed twice. “Uh, right... Can you tell me where Applebloom and Scootaloo are?”

Pinkie Pie blinked at her.

The filly's ears drooped. “Uh... I mean Sweetie Belle.”

“Why are your eyes blue?”

“That's not important right now.”

“Okie dokie lokie! Sweetie Belle's a few apple trees away from your clubhouse. Applebloom's in town, but she's running back to your clubhouse.”

“Thanks! Gotta go, so bye!” and the filly dashed for it.

Pinkie shrugged and bounced towards the castle. “I wonder if Rarity has an extra pair of blue contact lenses...”

“But Pinkie Pie, you already have blue eyes!” Rarity reasoned as she sat on her crystal throne-like chair. Each of her friends has one that circled around a crystal-like round table.

“Rarity has a point, Pinkie,” Applejack nodded, and then returned to Rarity. “But Rares, why'd you gave them those...lenses anyway?”

The white unicorn shook her head. “I didn't give them those, Applejack. I don't even own a pair.” She rose her nose up in the air. “My eyes are perfectly clear, just so you know.”

“I never said anything about your eyes, Rares,” Applejack shook her head. “I just thought that they came from you 'cause I heard that those things are, y'know, some sort of fashion accessory or somethin'.”

Rarity blinked. “Huh. Well, they kinda are, actually. But no, I don't own any.”

“So where can we buy some?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“But why would you need them, dear?” Rarity asked. “Surely, you don't have any eye problems, right?”

“I already told you! I think blue looks good on me,” the pink mare smiled brightly.

Her other friends sighed.

“Anyway,” Rainbow Dash said, sitting up. “I'm wondering if you guys noticed anything strange with your sisters?”

Rarity and Applejack turned to her.

“I mean, Scoots is cool and all, but earlier today, she seemed...I dunno...weird. Maybe something happened to their crusading or something. I dunno... I wanted to ask Scoots about it, but...eh...”

“Well,” Rarity brought a hoof to her chin. “Sweetie Belle was acting strange earlier, too.” She turned to the apple farmer. “Her actions earlier kind of reminded me of your sister, Applejack.”

“Huh?” Applejack blinked. “Whatever for?”

Rarity shook her head. “I don't really know. But that was the impression I had on my sister earlier. She even fought with Opal!”

“Huh...” Rainbow Dash blinked. “Scoots acted a little skittish earlier. And she talked weird... I don't know if she was trying to imitate Sweetie Belle's squeaky voice.”

“My sister does not have a squeaky voice!” Rarity defended.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Pfft... Please, Rares... You know better than anypony else that what you just said isn't true.”

“Hmph!” Rarity turned away from her.

Applejack just rubbed her cheek. “Well, Applebloom was kinda...acting slightly weird, I guess?” she shrugged. “But I think it's just that we haven't asked her to help around the farm for a while now.”

Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were just staring at their friends during their exchange. Both were unsure if they should let their presence known.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, girls,” Twilight said, smiling sheepishly as she levitated a tray of cups and a teapot behind her, Spike following close behind with a box on top of his head. “I somehow managed to misplace my tea set...again...” her ears drooped, “...for the seventeenth time...”

“Oh, it's totally quite alright, Twilight,” Rarity said, summoning her own magic to help Twilight set up the tea on the table. “I'm sure you're still adjusting to your new home. Give it time.”

“I'm sure you'll be comfortable here in no time,” Fluttershy smiled.

Twilight tried to smile, but sighed after a while. “And that's the problem,” she said as she sat on her chair and levivated the box of cupcakes, placing it on the middle of the table. “I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to having my own castle. I mean,” she smiled slightly as Spike sat on his chair, but glared at him when Spike began licking the crystal chair. He stopped immediately. “I mean, the library was homely enough, and I guess I've gotten used to it...”

“Isn't that why you ordered those construction crew to repair the library, Twi?” Applejack smiled reassuringly.

Twilight sighed. “It just doesn't feel right to have somepony else to fix it. The library felt like home, and I feel like I should be the one repairing it.” With her alicorn powers, she was sure that she can do it, if she was provided with the right materials for the repairs.

“You know that you can always lend a hoof in the repairs, right?” Rarity asked.

The alicorn nodded. “I know, I know... But every time I show up, the ponies there go all ‘super-working mode’ just to impress this ‘newly-crowned princess’,” she complained, complete with air-quotes.

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie chuckled.

“Well, you are a princess, after all,” Rainbow chuckled again.

Twilight sighed. “I just wanted to be Twilight again. The normal Twilight, not Princess Twilight. I want everypony to treat me like how they used to treat me.”

“A librarian virgin?” Rainbow teased.

Twilight glared at her. Pinkie Pie giggled. Fluttershy blushed.

“Give it time, sugarcube,” Applejack smiled, ignoring Rarity scolding Rainbow Dash. “Lyra and Bonbon aren't treating you like a princess now, last I heard from you.”

“And the Cakes still treat you like the old Twilight!” Pinkie Pie chirped.

Twilight smiled. “I...guess there are a few ponies.” She eyed the box. “Well, anyway... I'm getting kinda hungry. Let's start this meeting now, shall we? And stop licking your chair, Spike!”

“I'm sorry! It won't happen again!”

Their friends chuckled at their exchange.

“Oh, I knew I should have started counting how many times Spike would be saying that,” Rainbow said.

Twilight just rolled her eyes and started enveloping her magic around the cupcake box. ‘Odd that the contents feel weird... I wonder if Spike dropped a few, or ate a few...’ It wouldn't be the first time. Rolling her eyes, she lifted the box's lid with her magic.

‘Still nothing,’ Sweetie Belle sighed as she trotted towards the next apple tree, and stared at the leaves and branches.

The sun was completely gone now, but the silver moon was giving off enough light for her to see. Their clubhouse was close by, she noted, and she kept an eye on it, in case the creature decided to come back.

‘Come to think of it, how did that thing got out? I doubt it could be tall enough to open the door. Or maybe we left it open?’

Her ears twitched when she heard sounds of hooves from a distance. She turned and saw Applebloom rushing towards their clubhouse.

“Oi!” Sweetie Belle called, running towards the clubhouse as well to meet with the earth pony filly. “What's the rush? Did you find anything?”

“No,” Applebloom was gasping for breath as she and Sweetie Belle stood before the stairs. “B-but I just thought that it might be back! The day's over, so it must be back home.”

“Home?” Sweetie Belle arched an eyebrow. Her eyes then grew wide in realization. “Oh! I get it! But I didn't see the thing coming back, I'm afraid.”

“Well,” Applebloom climbed up the stairs. “I'm checking it out anyway.”

Sweetie Belle shrugged and followed her.

Reaching the door, Applebloom pushed it open, letting the setting moon's glow to enter their gloomy clubhouse.

There were still no signs of the creature around.

Ears drooping, Applebloom sat down and sighed. “This is getting stupid.”

Sweetie Belle tapped the earth pony filly's shoulder. “I have a feeling it'll get even stupider,” she said, staring at the familiar filly who was galloping towards the clubhouse.

“Huh?” Applebloom stood up, turned and looked. “Oh, hey! It's me!”

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes and went back down the stairs, Applebloom following close behind.

“Girls!” Scootaloo gasped, gasping for breath after reaching her friends.

“Did something happen?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Worse,” the pegasus filly gulped. She was looking tired and worried. “I...I-I think I know where the creature is...”

“Wow, really?” Applebloom smiled excitedly.

“Then tell us!” Sweetie Belle said desperately. “No offense, Sweetie, but I'd rather have my own body back.”

Scootaloo blinked at her former self. “Ugh... Rarity's so gonna give me an earful after she sees me like that!” she pointed at the dirty unicorn filly.

Sweetie Belle deadpanned. “Ahem...”

“Oh, right...” Scootaloo's ears drooped. “W-well, the thing is inside—”

“What is that thing,” Rainbow Dash went back to her seat, while pointing at the box with a hoof. “And what's it doing inside the box?”

The rest of her friends were still craning their necks, staring at the sleeping blue thing.

“Aww,” Fluttershy aww'd, “it's so cute! Can I keep it? I promise I'll take good care of it!”

“Fluttershy,” Twilight said.

“Pretty, pretty please, Twilight?”

The alicorn slowly shook her head. “We don't even know what this thing is!”

Her voice made the blue creature to slightly move and stir on its sleep, now on its back, but still sound asleep.

A few of them aww'd again.

“Oh, hey,” Spike blinked. “That's the thing that bumped into me earlier at Sugarcube Corner.”

“Oh?”

The dragon nodded. “It kept on saying ‘momma’ or something...”

“Mana...” the creature mumbled.

“Yeah, that,” Spike confirmed.

Twilight sat back on her seat, a hoof rubbing her chin. “Hm... Interesting... I did hear it, Spike. Maybe that thing can talk.”

Fluttershy and the rest returned to their seats. “And it sounds like it's lost and looking for its mother. Oh, the poor dear.”

“Should we wake the thing?” Applejack asked, blinking at the creature, and noticing the rise and fall of its chest.

“We should,” Rarity agreed with a nod. “But we should do it in a delicate way. The poor dear looks like an infant.”

Twilight nodded.

“Hey there, kiddo!” Pinkie shouted as she jumped on the table and leaned her face closer to the startled blue creature, leaving her friends startled and shock on their seats. The party pony picked the thing up with both hooves and raised it up on eye level. “You're new in town, and do you know what that means?!”

The creature started shaking.

“Pinkie,” Twilight called, nervously. “I don't thi—”

“A party!” the pink mare shouted, throwing the creature high up, and making her friends gasp in unison.

“Mana-aaaaaaaaa!” the creature started crying, even after it was safely caught by the pink mare.

Pinkie Pie started rocking her. “Shh... Shh... There, there... It's alright.”

“Pinkie Pie!” Rarity scolded. “What were you—”

“—naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!” the blue creature's ears glowed brightly in white and red.

“Uh... Twilight?”

Red energy lines soared into the air from the creature's ears, and it quickly struck everyone around in a zigzaggy pattern.

There was a bright, white, and familiar light coming out from the opened doors of the crystal-like castle, and the three galloping fillies skidded to a stop as soon as they got inside, and waited for the light to die down.

“—naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!”

Their hearts froze.

“—naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!”

They didn't even notice the crying blue creature running pass them, out of the castle.

“H-hey!” Applebloom snapped back and turned, spotting the fleeing blue...something. She chased after it. “Get back here!”

The castle became quiet, and then, sounds of groaning echoed around as the ponies and the dragon slowly regained their consciousness, rubbing their aching heads.

“W-why does my hoof and my head feel weird?” Spike asked in a mumble.

“...can we tell them now?” Scootaloo asked quietly.

Sweetie Belle slowly nodded in agreement. “We're dead.”

04 - A Hatched Chaos

“Manaaa-aaa—!” the blue creature cried as it ran to...anywhere, and unknowingly zapped the ponies in the streets with its glowing ears.

“Stop!” Applebloom shouted, chasing after it. ‘For a tiny baby...thing, you sure can run!’ she thought bitterly, as she jumped and dodged the fainting ponies in front of her. “I said stop!” ‘We're gonna be in so much trouble!’

If only the poor creature wasn't crying, it would have recognized one of its parents' voice by now.

“Ung...w-what happened?” Fluttershy rubbed her eyes.

Scootaloo elbowed Sweetie Belle, and whispered, “we can still make a run for it.”

“Why do I feel so weird?” Rarity groaned, eyes swirling.

“We can't hide this forever, you know,” Sweetie Belle whispered back.

“Can anypony please make the room stop spinning,” Applejack groaned. “...and my voice sounds weird...”

“We can pretend that we don't know anything,” Scootaloo nervously whispered back.

Pinkie rubbed her eyes. “Ugh... Pinkie... Please be a dear and don't ever do that again...” She blinked. “Wait... That's not my voice.” She then stared at her hooves. “And these aren't my hooves!”

“AHHHHH!” Rainbow Dash screamed. She grabbed a startled Twilight and held her like a mana gun, pointing at the party pony on the table. “Twilight! It's one of my pond-clones! They're back!”

“I-I'm not Twilight,” Twilight said, voice too soft.

“Quick! Charge that horn of yours and fire!” she pulled the alicorn's tail, making Twilight's face turn red.

“Rainbow Dash!” Spike shouted, glaring at the pegasus.

“What?” Applejack asked, rubbing her eyes.

Spike ignored her. “Stop doing that on me! Wait...” he blinked. “Why am I there while I'm here?”

Everypony on and around the table blinked.

The two fillies by the door gulped. “Three...”

“...two...” They both covered their ears with their hooves.

“...one...”

Granny Smith and Big Macintosh were having a peaceful and quiet evening, enjoying the silence, and especially their meals. The old mare was about to take another sip from her tea when everything slightly shook and faint sounds of screams were heard.

The old mare grinned. “Now that's what I'm talking about,” and she then took a sip.

Big Macintosh rolled his eyes.

“And you should have been there, mister. You're missing the fun your little sister's having.”

Somehow, Big Macintosh doubted that.

“You're me!”

“A-and you're me!”

“Girls!”

“I'm you!”

“But I'm not me!”

“Girls!”

“What the hay happened?!”

“Ohmygoodnessohmygoodnessohmygoodness—”

“I want my body back right now!”

“GIRLS!” Spike shouted at the top of his lungs. He heaved and glared at the mares staring at him.

“...am I considered to be a girl now?” Rarity quietly asked.

“At least my body-self now has glowy-blue eyes!” Rainbow Dash clapped her hooves.

Spike glared at them both.

Rainbow Dash's ears drooped. “Gonna be quiet now...”

“Thank you,” Spike said, before jumping down on the floor, and started climbing up the table. But he can't. “A little help, please?”

“Oh, sure thing, Spiky-wikey,” Pinkie Pie said, and leaned her head forward, expecting something. She blinked. “Uh... Never mind then,” she chuckled nervously.

“Here, sugarcube,” Fluttershy said, and helped the dragon up on the table with gritting teeth. With that done, Fluttershy sighed tiredly as Pinkie Pie carefully stepped down and went back on an empty chair. “Phew... Damn, Fluttershy... You need to workout some more!”

Twilight blushed, and shrank on her seat.

Applejack chuckled. “You have no idea how many times I tried asking Flutters to workout with me and Big Ma—aaaa...” she bit her lip.

Fluttershy furrowed her brows. “Raaaainbow Dash? Are you and my brother doin' somethin' behind my back?”

Applejack blushed, and looked away. “Mmmaybe?”

“Oh my,” Pinkie Pie covered her mouth with a hoof.

Rainbow Dash grinned. “Oh! You have no idea how crazy those two can get! And they can literally try everything in one—mmf!”

Applejack shoved a hoof at her cyan pegasus friend. How she knew about that, she wasn't sure, but she doesn't want to find out either. Or maybe she was just making it up.

Sweetie Belle's pupils shrunk, the information kept on echoing in her head.

Scootaloo was lost.

Twilight blushed and shrunk even further.

“Ahem,” Spike cleared his throat. “Alright everypony. Let's just all calm down and not think of anything else at the moment.”

Fluttershy glared and mouthed ‘we're not done yet’ at the nervously-smiling Applejack.

“We need to figure out what's going on,” the dragon said.

Rarity arched an eyebrow. “Isn't that already obvious, Twilight? Wait... You're Twilight, right?”

“...point taken, Rar—who are you?”

Rarity deadpanned.

Spike blinked. “Spike. Right. Anyway, so we've switched bodies.”

“Or minds.”

“Stop interrupting me, Spike!”

“S-sorry. But can you please stand on two feet? You look weird. I look weird!”

Spike blinked, and looked down. He was standing on his legs and on his hands like a pony. “Oh.” Carefully, he stood up, and wobbled a bit. “T-this is weird... But anyway, now that we know that we swapped bodies, or minds, we need to figure out what caused this.”

Pinkie Pie raised her hoof.

“Yes, Pinkie?”

“I'm Rarity, darling,” Pinkie corrected her. “And I think it's safe to assume that the blue and cute...uh...thing, has caused this.”

Spike nodded. “Sounds about right, since the swap happened after that flash of light or whatever it was.”

Rarity whistled in awe. “I never thought I'd see myself as an intelligent dragon.”

Spike ignored her.

“What was that thing, anyway?” Fluttershy asked.

Spike shrugged. “I have no idea.”

Rarity's ears drooped.

Applejack chuckled, and leaned close to the white unicorn to whisper, “not so smart now, huh?”

Rarity pushed her back with a huff.

“So, what's the plan?” Fluttershy asked.

“We'll try and find that thing that caused this,” Spike said. “After that, we'll figure a way to bring us back to normal.”

Applejack nodded. “Sounds good. Okay! I'm going ahead.” She leaped, and fell on top of Spike on the table. “Ow...”

“Swapped bodies, Rainbow Dash,” Pinkie Pie reminded her.

“Get off of me!” Spike complained as Rainbow and Rarity laughed out loud.

“M-maybe we should split up?” Twilight suggested, voice still low, but loud enough to be heard. “That way, we could cover more ground and also not intimidate the poor thing with our numbers...”

“That's a good idea, me,” Spike said, dusting himself. “Okay, so... We'll split up.” He pointed, “Rarity and Applejack, middle of the town.” He turned and pointed, “Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, the western side of town. ” He turned and pointed again, “Fluttershy and T—me, the eastern side of town. I'm gonna go and find some books that will help us return to normal, just in case. Now let's move!”

The mares all blinked at him.

“Um...” Rainbow Dash scratched her head in confusion. “Am I Rainbow Dash now, or still Pinkie Pie?”

Spike blinked, and groaned. He waved a claw to shoo them. “Just...pair up and decide where you girls wanna search.” He turned, and saw the two fillies by the door. “Er...how long have you two been standing there?”

“Ooohhh...” Lyra groaned, rubbing her aching head. “What happened?”

“No idea...” Bonbon replied back, wincing as she too was rubbing her head.

The two mares were on a bench in the park. What they were doing there in the middle of the night, nopony knows.

Shaking their heads, they finally eased their aching heads a bit to hear faint groaning noises around town, and two sets of hooves running towards them. Turning, the mares saw Fluttershy and Applejack running towards them, skidding to a stop in front of them.

“Sorry to interrupt your date y'all,” Fluttershy said, wiping the sweat on her forehead as she panted for breath. “But any of ya seen a tiny blue abomination 'round here?”

Lyra and Bonbon blinked.

“Blue, about this size,” she raised a hoof, guessing the thing's height, “probably crying, has long arms and a long pair of ears.”

Applejack whistled in awe. How she managed to remember all of that, she wasn't sure.

“Uh... Fluttershy?” Lyra asked, confused. “Are you...feeling alright?”

“Yeah,” Bonbon said, confused as well. “You talk like Applejack. And what's with the weird glowing blue eyes?”

Lyra gasped, horrified. “Eep! Don't tell me your changelings!”

The two elements deadpanned.

“Changelings have green eyes,” Applejack said, shaking her head.

“Oh, right...” Lyra chuckled nervously.

Applejack turned to Fluttershy. “We're wasting time! Come on!”

“Right,” Fluttershy nodded her head, and the two ran towards town. “But after this is over, we're going to have a talk.”

“Alright, alright, sheesh...”

The two mares on the bench blinked. They then looked at each other. They then gasped at the same time. And they then pointed at each other.

“You're me!” they shouted at the same time, looking horrified. They then looked at themselves. “I'm you!” they shouted and turned back to each other, sly grins on their faces.

“You thinking what I'm thinking?” Lyra asked.

Bonbon purred.

“No. No. Not this one—uwaaah! Steady, Scootaloo!” Spike said, leaning on the bookshelf for support.

The dragon and the two fillies were inside the library section of Twilight's castle. The fillies were quite thankful not to get an earful about what they have done. Then again, maybe they will, after they tell everypony what happened.

“S-sorry!” Scootaloo said, standing on her hind hooves for Spike to reach the higher portions of the shelf as the dragon stood on her reddened face.

“What's making you so nervous, anyway?” Spike asked as he pulled a book out and mentally read the title. “I promise that things will return to normal, so don't worry!”

When something is right in front of someone's face, it's hard to avoid not to stare. “R-right... I knew that.”

“Why not just use the ladder, Spike?” Sweetie Belle tapped the said ladder with a deadpan.

Spike blinked. “Huh... I forgot that it was even there...”

Applebloom found the creature by the fountain, in front of two fillies.

‘Of course!’ she thought, ‘we found that thing in the pond! So it's probably an aquea—whatever!’ She was about to call the shivering creature's attention when she finally recognized who the other two fillies were in front of it. ‘Ah, ponyfeathers...’

“Whoops! E-excuse me! S-sorry... Step back! Don't touch me!”

“Seriously, Spike?” Pinkie Pie sighed, watching the white unicorn mare to catch up to her, while carefully not touching anything, except her hooves touching the ground. “I know I don't like to dirty myself, but don't you think you're a little bit exaggerating?”

“S-sorry Pi...Rarity,” Rarity said, finally catching up to the pink mare, and both then started to trot. “I just don't want to ruin your perfectly beautiful body, that's all.”

“I appreciate it, Spikey-wikey,” Pinkie smiled, “I really do, but perhaps you should concentrate more on the task at hoof?”

Rarity slightly shook her head. “I-it's not just that though...”

“Oh?”

“Uh... It's kinda...weird, to be walking on four legs...”

“Well, as long as you don't trip with your own hooves and—”

The unicorn tripped on her own hooves and fell on the ground, face-first.

Pinkie winced. “...w-well, at least we no longer need to worry about getting myself dirty, right?” She blinked. She covered her mouth with a hoof, her cheeks blushing a bit. “Oh my... That sounded wrong...”

“What sounded wrong?” Rarity asked, rubbing her aching face.

“Nothing!” Pinkie replied, a little too quickly. “We should continue looking for the blue little dear now, Spike.”

“Whatever you say, Rarity. But...can I ask a question?”

“Hm?”

“It's kinda a favor than a question though... Well, ever since I became...you, well, I feel a weird feeling of absence...down there...if you know what I mean.”

Pinkie's pink cheeks blushed again.

“A-and I've been itching to loo—”

“No!”

“But my min—”

“No!”

“It really feels wei—”

“I said ‘no’, Spike, and that's final!” Pinkie glared.

“Okay, okay! Sheesh... I'm sorry!”

“Turn us back!” Silver Spoon snarled, her glasses almost falling off of her face. “Turn us back this instant!” she stomped a hoof, her glasses finally fell.

Diamond Tiara quickly snatched it before the ground did. “Careful with these!” she pouted, embracing her glasses.

Silver Spoon glared at her. “Not no—wait,” she blinked, surprised. She gasped. “Gah! My eyes! Everything's blurry!”

“I-it's okay!” Diamond Tiara tried to calm the other filly down. “Just wear these glasses and you should be fine!”

“Glasses? I thought you said your eyes were perfect and those glasses were fake!”

“Psst.”

The sobbing blue creature's ears twitched at that familiar voice. It quickly turned, its crying face immediately replaced by great joy after seeing another weird four-legged...thing, gesturing with a hoof for it to come over.

“Mana!” it cried in joy, quickly running towards Applebloom.

The said filly winced. ‘Well, so much for a silent escape...’

“Momma?” the other two fillies asked after the other placed the glasses over the other's face. They turned, and saw Applebloom scooping the weird creature up.

“You!” Silver Spoon snarled. “What do you think your doing?!”

“Uh...”

The blue creature happily jumped, grabbed the startled filly's face, climbed up, and slid down and settled behind her back. “Mana!”

“I'm not your mama,” Applebloom replied.

“Your its mommy?!” the other two fillies asked, surprised.

“Um...” Applebloom looked around, other ponies looking dumbfounded at her, while trying to ignore the weird thing that was snuggling on her back. “H-hold that thought.” She kicked her hooves and ran away.

Rainbow Dash was cheerfully bouncing on the path, and over groaning ponies and scattered foods and items that littered the ground. Twilight was ever-so-gently gliding beside her friend as she worriedly stared at the poor ponies lying on the ground.

“We should probably help these poor ponies,” Twilight said, fighting the urge to fly to the nearest pony and help.

“We are helping them!” Rainbow Dash cheerfully replied with a big smile. “We're searching for that weird blod thing!”

Twilight's eyes shrunk. “B-b-blood? We're not gonna hurt the little thing, are we?”

Rainbow blinked, and looked up. “Huh. I meant to say ‘blob’. Eh, maybe it was just a typo,” Rainbow shrugged, and bounced along.

Twilight scrunched her face in confusion. “Typo? What?”

Rainbow giggled. “Never mind!”

Twilight frowned, but then returned to look at the ponies everywhere. “W-well, isn't Twilight good with magic?”

“Yeah?”

“M-maybe I could teleport everypony back to their homes?”

Rainbow stopped bouncing and turned to the alicorn. She blinked in an unreadable expression. “You know how to use magic?”

Twilight landed and looked around. “Well, no. But I could try. Rarity and Twilight make it look so easy and natural.” She looked up, trying to stare at her horn. “Since I'm a unicorn now—”

“Alicorn,” Rainbow Dash corrected.

Twilight didn't seem to care. “—temporarily I hope, maybe I just need to feel natural about magic?”

Rainbow blinked. She sat on a groaning stallion's back. “I have no idea what you just said, Fluttershy eks Twilight, but!” she grinned and started scratching her mane. “It sounds like fun to watch! Now where's that popcorn...”

“Why do you have popcorn inside your mane?” Rarity asked as she stared at the popcorn on her hoof.

Pinkie Pie shrugged. “Remember who this body belonged to, Spike.”

Rarity blinked. “Ah, right. I forgot...” She turned the popcorn up-side-down, letting the contents fall on the ground, before giving the bag to the heaving Berry Punch. “Okay, just take it ea—”

The mare dumped her earlier meals inside, making both elements wince and shiver. The mare hiccuped. “Oohhh... W-why does the great and powe—hic!—powerful Trixie feel so...dizzy?”

Rarity and Pinkie Pie blinked.

“Trixie?” Rarity asked. “What are you doing here?”

“Work...part-time...waittre—uurf!” she went back to the bag.

“Awww yeah!” Trixie's excited voice echoed from the bar in front of the trio of mares. “Who's up for round two?!”

Cheering voices could be heard from inside.

Rarity slowly leaned closer to Pinkie. “W-why are we here again?”

“Let's just walk away, Spike.”

“H-help me!”

Applejack and Fluttershy blinked at the frog on a barrel. Why the latter can understand what the frog was saying, she wasn't sure.

“Please! You girls have got to help me!”

Beside the barrel was a brown earth pony stallion, sitting like a frog. Thankfully, for Fluttershy's sake, his two hooves were covering his preciousness. “Crrrrrrrrrroak...” he said with absent eyes, blinking them one at a time.

“Please! Don't just stare at us! Help us!” the frog pleaded, crying.

“...this is getting weirder and weirder...” Fluttershy rubbed her head, already feeling a headache coming.

Applejack blinked. “Uh... Are you saying what I think I'm thinking?”

“Stallion and frog switched bodies...”

Applejack flinched. “Ouch... Lucky there weren't any flies flying around the castle...”

Fluttershy shivered at the thought.

“Get back here!” a filly's voice shouted from behind them.

They turned and saw Diamond Tiara tailing behind an angry Silver Spoon, who was chasing after—

“Applebloom?” Fluttershy blinked.

Applejack gasped. “The blue thing!” She leaped and yelped when gravity reminded her of something. “Ow... I hate being wingless...”

Fluttershy was about to give chase, but the three fillies and a small number of ponies who were chasing them were already too far away. “Dagnabit...”

“Why do you talk like Applejack?” the frog asked.

“Don't you have an important matter to trouble with?” Fluttershy turned and glared at it.

The frog blinked. “W-well... I've always wondered if frogs can breathe underwater.”

Fluttershy rolled her eyes, but then her eyes then landed on her wings. “Hm...”

It was hungry, tired, thirsty and sleepy, but the little blue creature would never say no to a pony-back ride from its mommy.

“Mana!” it cried excitingly.

“I'm not your momma!” Applebloom yelled back, annoyed.

“Get back here!” her pursuer shouted behind her.

“Ahhhhhh!!!” a mare shrieked, thrashing her hooves as she was levitated, dropped, levitated again, thrown side to side, dropped, and etc.

“S-s-sorry!” Twilight apologized, horn fluctuating. “J-just tell me wh-where you live and I'll teleport you there. I pr-promise not to burn you like the rest...” she took a quick glance at the pile of blackened and unconscious ponies, flies swirling above them. And they weren't dead yet, Rainbow Dash assured her.

“Aaahhhhhhhhh!!!”

Rainbow shook her head. “Dunno where that is, even though I already know where everypony lives.”

Twilight's eye twitched, her horn's magic immediately gone.

“Aaahhh—” thud!

Twilight turned to her friend, smiling. “W-well, Pinkie Pie... Can you tell me where that mare lives?”

“I'm a stallion!” the mare shrieked, and then looked down at her hoof that wasn't there. She cried. “I was a stallio-ho-o-ooon!”

Rainbow shrugged. “I dunno. I know where that mare lives, but I have no idea who that stallion inside her head is.”

“Mana!”

Applebloom passed them by.

The mare shrieked again. “N-no! I'm not a mommy! I don't wanna give birth! I don't wanna experience it!”

Twilight gasped. “It's the blue...thing!”

Rainbow gasped, then cheerfully bounced after the fleeing fillies.

Twilight gave chase, but immediately went back and smiled at the sobbing mare. “W-we're gonna help you, and the rest, I promise! You just have to be patient, okay?”

The mare shivered, sobbed, and then looked up at her. “I...I'll try. Thank you, princess.”

“Oh, no. I'm not Twilight.”

The mare blinked. Her eyes watered. She cried. “We're doomed!”

“Gah!” Crash!

A yellow pegasus dived towards the garbage bins in an alleyway, accidentally throwing a screeching stray cat up in the air.

Stifling a giggle, Applejack rushed over and helped the groaning pegasus mare out. “You okay?”

The pegasus glared at her, ignoring the half-rotten banana peel on her head.

The earth pony mare stifled another giggle. “I'll take that as a ‘no’ then.”

Fluttershy shook herself, throwing the gunk off of her. “Remind me to stay on the ground no matter what specie I end up turning into in the future.” That said, she turned and galloped towards where she saw the filly was running.

Applejack galloped close behind.

Rarity scratched her hind leg with the other. She looked at Pinkie Pie, who was busy talking with a few confused ponies on the side of the road. Squinting her brows, she turned and looked do—

“Spike.”

She immediately rose her head back up.

Pinkie Pie just turned to her with a frown, and trotting towards her. “They vaguely saw anything. All they knew was there was a flash, and then they found themselves in another pony's body.”

“Well, that's not helpful,” Rarity smiled nervously.

Pinkie Pie arched an eyebrow, opened her mouth to ask, but her ears twitched, and so was Rarity's, and the two turned towards the noise, and saw Applebloom running towards their direction, being chased by two other fillies, and a few more ponies. The two stepped clear from the path.

“Wasn't that...on her back... Spike!” Pinkie gasped, and galloped after them. “The creature was on Applebloom!”

Rarity stood and waited until Pinkie was out of sight. She smiled, sat down, and finally looked down. “Wow... So that's what a real thing looks like.” She nervously lifted a trembling hoof. “I wonder if—”

“In public? Seriously?”

Rarity froze, pupils shrinking.

Fluttershy was glaring at her, while Applejack was looking away, pretending to not have seen anything.

“Uh...” Rarity gulped. “...I can explain?”

‘I dreamed to become as popular as Rainbow Dash one day...’ Applebloom thought, her hooves burning as she pumped more blood to keep them running. ‘Crowds cheering. Literally be anywhere I go.’

“What is that?”

“It's the thing!”

“What thing?!”

“Eek! Why does that filly have it?!”

“Applebloom?! I should have known...”

“Chase it!”

“Chase them!”

“I want my body back!”

“Me too!”

“But I didn't expect it to be like this!” Applebloom yelled, slightly turning to her left, and just in time too, for a horseshoe passed by from where she was. “Go away!!!”

“Turn us back to normal first!” the mob behind her shouted back.

“Eureka!” Spike exclaimed, quickly pulling a book out and holding it above his head like a trophy. “I've found—uh oh...” Because of his haste, he was slowly leaning backward, dangerously close to falling down to the floor from the ladder he was on. “Waaahh—” but thankfully, he was only on the first step of the said ladder. He blinked as he laid on the cold crystal-like floor. “...oh.”

Scootaloo chuckled, and offered a helping hoof. “You okay, Twilight?”

“Eheheh...” Spike chuckled nervously, accepting the offered hoof. Now on his feet, he opened the book and started looking for the right spell, the two fillies stood behind him and looked over his shoulders. “Let's see... Tee, tee, tee... Transfer! There you are. Transfer items... Transfer kidneys?” She flipped to the next page. “Ah, here it is. Transfer minds! Hm...”

He skipped the magic's introduction and history section, and read straight into the application theory.

He licked his lips. “Hm... Sounds easy enough. Okay!” He took a deep breath, exhaled to calm his nerves, and closed his eyes.

The two fillies behind him blinked, and then looked at each other, confused.

Sweetie Belle tapped his shoulder.

Spike's closed eye twitched.

Sweetie Belle tapped his shoulder again.

“Not now, girls,” he grunted. “I'm concentrating.”

“On what, exactly?” Scootaloo asked.

Spike sighed and turned to them. “I need to see if this spell works.”

“How, exactly?” Sweetie Belle pressed.

“Magic, of course!” Spike rolled his eyes. “Now, if you please just let me concentrate?”

Sweetie Belle sighed. “Twilight, no offense, but you seem to have a memory of a goldfish.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“You're inside Spike's body,” Scootaloo pointed out.

Spike blinked, and then looked at one of his claws that held the book. “Ah...right... I forgot...”

“Again,” Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes.

“Yes... This is a problem. Hm...” he turned to the unicorn filly. He opened his mouth, hesitated, closed it, blinked, and asked, “...you're not Sweetie Belle, are you?”

“Nope,” was Sweetie Belle's simple reply. “I'm Applebloom.”

Spike nodded, and turned to Scootaloo.

“Sweetie Belle,” the pegasus filly said.

Spike nodded. “Right. No use waiting here and doing nothing then...” He walked passed the two fillies, heading to the doors. “Let's move back down and wait for the others.

The three descended the second floor by the stairs and went to the table. Spike sat on Twilight's chair, blinked, went down again, went behind the chair, pushed the chair closer to the table, went back, and laid the book on the table.

“Phew...” Spike wiped his forehead as the other two fillies sat on a chair close to him. “Right. I guess we should start training Applebloom how to be a unicorn.”

“What?” the unicorn filly blinked. “Why?”

“Well, for one, you're a unicorn. Two, we need to test and see if this spell will work. Three, there are no other unicorns here at the moment.”

“Can't you just write Princess Celestia a letter, asking for help?”

Spike nodded. “I'll do that if there will no longer be any other options left for me to try. I'm a princess now, and I should practice responsibility and not always depend on my teacher.”

Sweetie Belle nodded. She admired the princess' sense of responsibility. ...wait.

The filly chuckled, interrupting Spike's and Scootaloo's discussion.

“Sorry,” the unicorn filly chuckled lightly. “I just find the thought of Spike being a princess rather silly.”

Scootaloo blinked, then giggled. “Heheheh. Wouldn't that be funny?”

“It won't be if the effect is permanent and can't be fixed with magic, which I doubt that it couldn't,” Spike said, reading the spell. “There aren't really any other ways to switch minds other than magic, so I am one-hundred percent sure that—what's that noise?”

The castle's tall double doors were open, and the three craned their necks to see what was outside, which was Applebloom, running towards the castle, while being chased by a large group of angry ponies.

The two fillies' ears drooped, nervously turning to Spike.

Spike closed his eyes, took a breath, and sighed. “Inner peace...”

Chaos entered, but Discord was in another castle, unfortunately.

Author's Note

Twilight is now Spike.
Spike is now Rarity.
Rarity is now Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie Pie is now Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash is now Applejack.
Applejack is now Fluttershy.
And Fluttershy is now Twilight.

01 - An Eggciting Discovery

“What do you think is inside it?” the very excited Scootaloo asked her two friends as she buzzed her wings to pull their small wagon with her scooter.

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle turned their heads back, staring at the weird blue egg that sat inside the wagon. The egg was as tall as them, and its shiny blue eggshell was shiny. It looked transparent, for they can see a red sphere-like thing inside of all the bluish liquid inside. And aside from the egg, there was also a big butterfly net in there. They were supposed to try and catch some butterflies by the pond. They ended up using it to try and get the egg.

Applebloom shook her head and returned her attention ahead. “I dunno. It looks like trouble, if you ask me...”

“But it's just an egg,” Sweetie Belle said. “It is just an egg, right? What harm could an egg do, anyway?”

“Who cares?!” Scootaloo said as she turned, their clubhouse now within sight despite the thick trees around them. “We found it, and now it's ours! Maybe we can even get our cutie marks from doing whatever with the egg!”

The sound of a possible cutie mark dispelled Applebloom's worries, if only slightly. “Well, what are we waiting for?! Let's get to the clubhouse and start planning!”

In their clubhouse...

“Is it hatching yet?”

Scootaloo blinked, and then looked down on the egg she was sitting on. “Eh, I don't see any cracks yet.”

“Me neither,” Sweetie Belle frowns after circling around the egg. “I didn't know this egg is tough enough for Scootaloo to sit on.”

“Hey!” the pegasus glared at her unicorn friend. “What do you mean by that?”

The unicorn filly smiled nervously.

The pegasus then turned to their other friend. “And why do I have to be the one sitting on top of it? It feels weird!”

Applebloom shrugged, immediately coming up with something to save Sweetie Belle's hide. “Well, pegasi can fly, so I thought they should be lightweights, and since you're a filly and a pegasus, we figured that you're lighter than the two of us.”

Scootaloo blinked. “Huh... I guess that makes sense.”

Sweetie Belle smiled her thanks at Applebloom. The earth pony shrugged in reply.

“So...how long do you think I'll be sitting here?”

Applebloom shrugged again. “No idea. But I heard from Granny Smith that eggs should be warmed so they could hatch faster...”

“But we found this by the pond,” Sweetie Belle says, looking at the egg. “Maybe it's an aquatic creature, so we shouldn't be warming it?”

“Then why the hay am I sitting on it then?” Scootaloo yelped and slid down from the egg, joining her friends in staring at the egg.

“Well, staring at it won't help either,” Applebloom said, sitting down and humming in thought. “There's gotta be a way for us to help whatever's inside to hatch faster.”

“Maybe we should tickle it?” Sweetie Belle offered, receiving deadpans from both of them. Her ears drooped. “Eheheh... Well,” she smiled, “maybe Twilight can help!”

“Huh, that's actually a great idea,” Applebloom nodded.

Scootaloo, on the other hoof, shook her head. “Nuh-uh. Bad idea.”

“Huh?”

“Why's that?”

Scootaloo closed her eyes, cleared her throat, and then looked at the blue egg. “Oh my goodness, girls! Is this an egg?! I've never seen an egg like this before! In real life nor from my books! Oh! Maybe this is an egg of a new specie! I should maybe go and ask Fluttershy for help!” she said with her best Twilight-like voice. Which wasn't the best. Anyway, she turned back to her friends with a frown. “And yada-yada-yada...”

Sweetie Belle blinked. “Well, what if it's a pony-eating creature?”

Applebloom shook her head. “I don't think pony-eating creatures lay eggs, Sweetie Belle...”

The unicorn turned to her. “And how do you know that?”

The earth pony glared back. “And what is that supposed to mean, huh?”

“Dragons are said to eat ponies if they wanted to! And they lay eggs!”

“Spike is a dragon!”

“But he's different!”

“And so will...whatever is gonna hatch from this egg!” Scootaloo butted in, earning her friends' attention. “Come on! Didn't Miss Cheerilee taught us that the first breathing thing a hatchling sees is going to be their mother?”

The pair blinked at her.

“Huh, well...” Applebloom said, eyeing the egg. “I guess that's true.”

“Mom, Dad and Rarity are sooooo gonna kill me when they found out I'm a mom all of a sudden...”

“You girls...” Scootaloo facehoofed. “Who says anything about telling anyone about this?”

Sweetie Belle blinked. “Wait, we're not?”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Duh! Of course not! How can we try and get our cutie marks with this thing if they know?”

“How can we even try anything if we won't let anypony know about it?” Applebloom asked.

“We'll do it here, of course!”

“And if we need to try things outdoors?”

“We'll do it close to our clubhouse, of course!”

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle blinked.

Scootaloo sighed. “I just don't want anypony else to know about it yet. Besides, maybe this really is a new creature! We could be the very first ponies to ever study and document about it!”

“...we're documenting it?” Sweetie Belle asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Of course we are!” Scootaloo beamed. “Maybe we could get a documentary cutie mark!”

Applebloom blinked. “Haven't we tried that already?”

“A ‘new-specie-documentary’ cutie mark!” Scootaloo corrected herself.

Sweetie Belle chuckled. “I'm surprised that we even remember everything we ever tried just to get our cutie marks.”

“Or maybe a ‘taming-a-new-creature’ cutie mark!” Scootaloo continued. “Or ‘discovering-a-new-creature’ cutie mark!”

“Alright, alright... We get it.” Applebloom smiled, rolling her eyes. “Nopony else is to know about it until we get our cutie marks.”

Sweetie Belle frowned. “...just thinking ahead, and sorry if I sound like a downer, but what if we won't get a cutie mark from this?”

“We let it go, of course.” Scootaloo replied quickly. “And that's going to be our last attempt of getting our cutie marks. The ‘releasing-a-new-creature’ cutie mark.”

Applebloom rolled her eyes.

Scootaloo brought a hoof under her chin, squinting her eyes in thought. “Or maybe...before we do that, we could try breeding it? The ‘breeding-a-new-creature’ cutie mark?”

Sweetie Belle glared at her. “I'm not gonna let something...breed with me again, after last time!”

Applebloom nodded in agreement. “Yeah. We're still too young to be even doing that on ourselves, as a matter of fact...”

Sweetie Belle shivered again. “...Rarity would kill me if I have gotten pregnant...or if she ever finds out about it...”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Isn't that the reason why 'bloom and I promised not to tell anypony about it? Also, we did our research before we forced you to do that! We bought those safety-thingies from that store! And ponies aren't even compatible with—”

“Alright, alright!” Applebloom interrupted her. “Just...not with Sweetie if you're really set on it...”

Scootaloo smiled brightly at her. “Thanks, Applebloom. Your sacrifice will not be in vain.”

“...wait, what?”

“Aaanyway,” Scootaloo turned back to the egg. “We should try and start doing something with this egg. Y'know, stuff that we can do with a filly-sized egg.”

“I thought breeding needs two compatible partners...” Sweetie Belle whispered to herself.

“...like what?” Applebloom asked Scootaloo as she stared at the egg.

“Maybe we can try and wash it first?” their unicorn friend suggested. “The pond where we took it from was kinda dirty...”

“I guess we can start from there,” Scootaloo shrugged, and turned to the door. “Maybe we can even get our cutie marks by cleaning it. I'll go get some water from the farm.”

“And bring some things to eat,” Applebloom said to the retreating pegasus. “I just remembered how hungry I am after a whole morning of crusading. Wait, you know what? I'm coming with you. Sweetie Belle, guard the egg, okay?”

“Sir, yes sir!” Sweetie Belle stood up straight and saluted. “A ‘guard-a-new-creature-that-is-still-inside-an-egg’ cutie mark, coming right up!” she chuckled.

Applebloom nodded and walked out of their clubhouse, closing the door behind her. Sweetie Belle then turned to the egg and sat on the floor, staring at the weird red sphere that looked as if it was slowly turning in its own axis. With a hum, she studied the egg more closely. She took notice of a few smaller and white orbs that were orbiting around the red sphere in a slow pace.

She blinked. “Yep. Weird egg is weird.” She looked around, searching for something. “Now where did we put those brushes and rags again?”

“You better not be stealing any eggs from our ducks and chickens for this crusading of yours, young filly,” Applejack joked, waving a hoof to shoo the two fillies away. “And it better not be an egg from inside the Everfree Forest!”

“Sis, I already told you!” Applebloom shouted as she and Scootaloo headed back to their clubhouse. “It's neither! We found the egg from the pond!”

Applejack smiled and shook her head. It was always fun to tease her little sister. “Pond, huh?” she shook her head and approached a tree. “Probably frog eggs. The next thing we know, we have frogs jumping around the farm... That sounds like a good idea though. Might help getting rid of these pesky mosquitoes. Meh...”

She turned her back on the tree, and gave it a powerful buck, making the apples fall on the barrels.

Applebloom and Scootaloo were heading back to their clubhouse, with a bucket of water and a tray of sandwiches in their wagon.

“I thought we agreed not to let anypony else know about it?” Scootaloo glared at her earth pony friend.

“How was I supposed to lie to my sister? She's like a living lie detector!” Applebloom whined. “And besides... You'd rather have her going inside our clubhouse if we tell her lies?”

“Er...” Scootaloo flinched at that. “N-no...”

“Exactly! Good thing that we found that egg outside the Everfree, and not inside!”

Scootaloo chuckled. “Yeah, I guess...”

After Sweetie Belle's sad revelation of not getting a ‘guard-a-new-creature-that-is-still-inside-an-egg’ cutie mark, and after eating a late lunch with sandwiches, they began to set up a pile of old rags and newspaper on the floor, where the three fillies carefully placed the egg over the pile.

With that done, the three fillies grabbed their cleaning weapons: a brush, a rug and a—

“Toothbrush?” Applebloom arched an eyebrow. “Really, Scoots? Eggs don't have any teeth yet!”

“Hey! I use an old toothbrush to clean my scooter's wheels back home!”

Applebloom rolled her eyes and dunked the rug into the bucket of water. She squeezed the excess water out and then she started wiping the egg. Sweetie Belle dunked the brush on the water as well, shook the excess water off, and levitated the bucket beside Scootaloo.

“I wonder what kind of creature is inside,” Sweetie Belle asked out loud as she began to brush the egg.

“I bet it's going to be awesome!” Scootaloo grinned as she brushed the shell of the egg with a toothbrush. “With massive wings and big claws and tough leathery skin!”

Applebloom rolled her eyes. “You know that it's going to be a baby when it hatches, right?”

“Uh... O-of course I know that!” Scootaloo blushed. “I-I just said what the guy would look like when he grows up!”

“He?”

“He. She. It. Whatever! You know what I mean.”

“Oh, I just hope it's gonna be cute and adorable!” Sweetie Belle squeed, gently brushing the egg. “With big, adorable eyes, and cute, little horns, hooves, claws, paws... I just hope everything about it is cute!”

“Eewww,” Scootaloo stuck her tongue out. “‘Cute’ isn't cool! It's girly and eewy.”

“Eewy?”

“It's a new word, 'bloom. Deal with it,” Scootaloo said.

“Whatever you say,” she replied with rolling eyes.

“What do you think, Applebloom?” Sweetie Belle asked with a smile. “What do you think is inside this egg?”

“I still think it's going to be trouble,” the earth pony filly replied flatly. “With a capital ‘trouble.’”

Scootaloo snorted.

Sweetie Belle chuckled. “Well, I think we're already used to deal with trouble. But I wanna know what you think is inside.”

“Fine,” Applebloom sighed in defeat. “I think...it will have four legs, like a pony. Small, cute, maybe with wings, and a horn, and probably gonna follow us around, thinking we're its momma.”

Sweetie Belle squeed. “Oh, that's sooo cute!”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Well, at least she thinks it'll have wings. I'll be the one teaching him how to fly when he gets old enough.”

“We're...we're keeping it?” Sweetie Belle blinked.

“If it's not trouble,” Applebloom shrugged, “then sure. Why not? The fella might be useful in the farm or something.”

“Wouldn't that mean that we're gonna tell everypony about it?”

“We can't hide the thing forever, ya know.”

“Well, that's true, but...”

“Let's just not worry about that stuff for now!” Scootaloo said. “Right now, I'm not seeing an ‘egg-cleaning’ cutie mark...”

Both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle stopped their cleaning to look down on their flanks. It was bare of any sign of a cutie mark.

“Well, at least the egg is clean now,” Sweetie Belle sighed. “So, what's next?”

Applebloom shrugged. “I dunno. I don't really have any cutie mark ideas around eggs, except for selling 'em in the market.”

“We can't try that,” Scootaloo pouted. “E-even if we might be able to get a ‘new-creature-egg merchants’ cutie mark.”

“Obviously,” Applebloom said. “Guess we should dry the egg up and then come up with something.”

Her two friends nodded in agreement. They set aside their tools while Applebloom wiped the egg dry with a clean cloth.

“Maybe we can try that egg-selling idea when we start breeding?” Scootaloo asks as she carried the bucket of water outside.

Sweetie Belle, following close behind, grunted in disapproval, levitating the wet rags and newspaper behind her.

“We already agreed that we're not using you this time, you know!”

“I think I'm going to the library and borrow a book about it and let you read it properly,” Sweetie Belle hissed.

“The library's destroyed, remember?”

“And it's already being repaired, remember?”

With the bucket of water now on the wagon, the wet newspapers now on a trash bin and the rags now hanging outside to dry, the two fillies went back inside, and found their earth pony filly friend staring at the blue egg that was now glowing in a beautiful blue color.

“I didn't do anything!” Applebloom shouted at them. “Honest!”

Scootaloo was immediately by the egg, looking excited. “Oh! Oh! Is it hatching? Is it?”

“I'm not sure...” Applebloom replied uncertainly as she turned to their approaching unicorn filly friend. “Is it hatching?”

“You live in a farm and you sell eggs, and you even watch a few hatch into little yellow chicks. So you tell me!”

Applebloom arched an eyebrow. “Since when do you talk like a smart-flank?”

Sweetie Belle's ears drooped. “S-sorry... I guess I'm just nervous, confused and excited at the moment...”

“Look! Look!” Scootaloo pointed a hoof at the egg. “Something white is glowing and circling around the red circle-thing!”

“Aaannnddd...that's exciting, why?”

Scootaloo turned to glare at Applebloom. “It just looks cool, okay?”

They could hear a quiet and constant hum from the glowing egg. Slowly, slowly, they leaned closer, their eyes growing into saucers as they held their breaths. Finally, three small and white-glowing orbs emerged from the dimming and quieting egg.

Blinking, Sweetie Belle stared at the orb in front of her, then at the egg, and then back at the orb. “Um...h-hello?”

The orb didn't do anything.

“Is...this it?” Scootaloo said, disappointment in her voice as she tried to touch the orb in front of her, but somehow, the said orb dodged her touch every time. “What is this thing?”

“Beats me,” Applebloom shrugged. “Maybe they're Breezies?”

“Breezies?” Sweetie Belle asked. “They don't look like Breezies to me...”

“Maybe they're Parasprites!”

Applebloom arched an eyebrow while staring at the orb. “Parasprites reproduce from their own...poop...or vomit, Scootaloo...”

“Oh, right...”

Applebloom, seeing that Scootaloo was still trying to touch the orb, thought that there doesn't seem to be any danger, at the moment. Swallowing a small lump of doubt, she jabbed a hoof to the orb floating in front of her, only for it to swiftly dodge her hoof by a hair. “What the hay?” She tried again, and again, and again.

Sweetie Belle giggled at her friends who were starting to get frustrated. She tried to touch her own orb, but it dodged her all the same. “Maybe we should try touching it at the same time?”

Her friends stopped their attempts, looking at each other.

“Eh, whatever.”

“No harm in trying, I guess.”

“Okay then,” Sweetie Belle nodded at them, and then turned to her orb. She lifted a hoof. “On three.”

Both her friends lifted a hoof, locking their aim on their orbs.

“One... Two... Three!”

Three hooves missed three orbs.

“Dagnabit,” Applebloom cursed, and then she stared with curious eyes as her orb suddenly shook in place. Looking around, she noticed her friends' orbs were shaking as well.

“I'm scared...” Sweetie Belle whispered.

Scootaloo blew a raspberry. “Pfft... What harm could these little things do?”

As if to answer her question, each orb shot themselves towards the yelping fillies, creating a bright flash of white light in the process.

Cracking open an eye, Applebloom could only see the blue egg sitting in front of her. “Um... W-what just ha—” she froze. “...w-what? My voice?”

“What's wrong, 'bloom?” Scootaloo asked.

Applebloom gasped after recognizing that voice: her voice! She turned and saw Scootaloo, her face frozen in shock, and slowly scratching her neck. “Um...”

“What in the hay just happened?” Sweetie Belle asked. “And why does my voice sound so squeaky like Sweetie Belle?”

“My voice isn't squeaky!” Scootaloo shouted, and then covered her mouth in surprise.

“I wasn't talking to you, Scoo—” Sweetie Belle cuts herself off after she saw Applebloom staring in shock at her. “...what...in tarnation?”

Applebloom suddenly started laughing, falling on her back. “Ahahahah! Oh! Sweetie Belle! You sound weird with that Apple accent!”

Sweetie Belle glared daggers at...her former self. Her glare softened a bit. “...I look weird if I laugh like that.”

“Weird?” Scootaloo asked shakily. “Weird? Applebloom laughing like Scootaloo is weird? W-we've switched bodies! Shouldn't that be even weirder?”

“I guess so,” Sweetie Belle snickered. “But a worrywart Scootaloo is even weirder.”

“I know, right?!” Applebloom laughed even more. “It's totally not me! Ponies can immediately tell the difference!”

Something clicked inside Sweetie Belle's and Scootaloo's minds about what Applebloom just said. Sweetie Belle's eyes shrunk. “Whoa, nelly...”

Scootaloo covered her muzzle with both hooves. “R-Rarity's gonna kill me!”

“Geez, you two,” Applebloom sat back with rolling eyes. “Chillax! We can—Sweetie, why are your eyes blue?”

“Huh?” Scootaloo blinked.

Applebloom turned to her. “Not you, me. I—hey! You have blue eyes, too!”

“And you, too.”

Applebloom blinked. “Wow. Really?”

“Lemme see that,” Sweetie Belle grabbed Applebloom's face and turned it to face her. “...huh. Blue eyes look lovely on me.”

Applebloom slapped her hooves away. “The way you grabbed my face, it was like you were going to kiss me, like those magazines Rainbow Dash has under her bed.”

Scootaloo blushed.

Sweetie Belle arched an eyebrow. “For your information, that body's mine, so I can do whatever I want with it. Also, what magazines are you talking about?”

Applebloom blinked. “You really don't know?”

Sweetie Belle shook her head. Scootaloo blushed further.

Applebloom sighed. “You really need to explore the world more, Swe—er, Applebloom...”

“The way Scoot—I mean, Sweetie Belle blushed, I think I'm good to not knowing anything about it. Thank you very much.”

“Can we change the subject to a more important matter, please?” Scootaloo begged.

Sweetie Belle nodded. “Right. But before anything else,” she glared at the egg. “I was right that this thing is trouble. Anyway,” she turned back to her friends. “We're gonna be in a lot of trouble if we're going to be stuck like this forever.”

“Forever?!” Scootaloo shrieked, voice broken.

Applebloom winced, “ow, Sweetie... My voice can't squeal like you, so stop doing that.”

“S-sorry,” Scootaloo frowned, her ears drooping. “But, we're gonna be stuck like this forever?”

Sweetie Belle shook her head. “That was a figure of speech, Scoots. Anyway,” she turned to Applebloom. “...still feels kinda weird looking at myself not on a mirror, but, you were saying something?”

“Huh? I was? Oh! Right!” Applebloom nodded excitingly. “Anyway, instead of freaking out like what impostor me is doing, we should take advantage of this!”

“...what?”

“This is a perfect opportunity for us to try and get an impostor cutie mark!” Applebloom grinned wide.

“...that's your plan?”

“Well, no. But when opportunity opens itself up, we should grab it, right?”

Sweetie Belle thought over it, and then nodded, albeit a bit reluctantly. “Um...alright, I guess.” She turned and looked outside the window. “We still have plenty of daylight to burn, but,” she looked back at Applebloom. “After that, then what?”

Applebloom grinned. “And then we freak out. Ouch!”

Sweetie Belle glared as she pulled her hoof back after hitting Applebloom on the head.

Scootaloo sighed, ears drooping. “This won't end well...”

Author's Note

Applebloom is now Sweetie Belle.
Sweetie Belle is now Scootaloo.
And Scootaloo is now Applebloom.

Dun dun dun?

Trivia: Take the CMC's first letter from their names, and you can form the word ass.
That is all~

05 - The Eggstraterrestrial Creature

Applebloom's hooves slid on the crystal-like floor, skidding to a stop. As soon as she did, she turned, panted, and stared at the ponies by the door. They were stuck for trying to enter in a large group at the same time.

“Quick!” Applebloom turned to the table, where the two fillies watched in horror and a dragon trying to calm his nerves. “Help me close the doors!”

How she expected three small fillies to close two giant doors, we will never know.

Outside, the Mane Six were trying to talk and calm everypony down. They may have persuaded some, but the enraged and confused ponies were getting angrier by the second.

Spike was taking deep and fast breaths to calm himself down. The loud and angry noises that echoed around the castle was getting on his nerves, which was growing harder and harder to tame.

Finally, the ponies broke through, and charged after the shocked and horrified Applebloom.

“QUIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The blue creature was crying. The poor thing was tied on a log, raised on top of burning logs, as ponies around the burning scene angrily chanted for it to die.

“No!” Spike shouted. “We will not perform such a thing here in Ponyville! Equestria as a whole forbids that!”

Filthy Rich sighed, his ears drooping. “A common practice back home it is, for witches and spirits we want to dismiss. If the ponyfolk find it extreme, they I won't suggest this kind of theme.”

A few ponies chuckled. Zecora facehoofed.

“Wow, Tiara,” Diamond Tiara said, smiling at her friend. “I didn't know your dad can rhyme!”

Silver Spoon glared at her. “That's be cause he can't, you dope! Zecora's inside his body!”

Diamond Tiara blinked at that revelation. “Oh... Well, that makes much more sense now.”

The Mane Six carried the table and chairs to the side to accommodate the ponies who now sat on the crystal-like floor. Spike, the six ponies, the three fillies, and one blue creature were on the flight of the stairs so ponies can see them.

Spike was trying his best to fight the urge to study and examine the curious creature, who was laughing with the three weirded fillies. He took a breath to calm himself, before addressing the ponies before them.

“Okay, so aside from burning the strange and magical creature, any other ponies want to voice their suggestion?” ‘When did my castle became a courthouse?’ Spike mentally sighed. ‘I miss my libratree...’

The ponies looked at each other and talked quietly among themselves. After a while, a hoof was raised, and Spike asked the pony to step in front and share their thoughts.

“Um...” Spike scratched his head. “I...know how you are, but uh, I don't know who is currently you, so for the sake of everypony around, please introduce yourself first.” He doesn't want to get surprised like Filthy Rich being Zecora again.

The pegasus stallion cleared his throat. “I'm Mayor Mare, princess.”

A few ponies in the crowd chuckled, while others looked around, trying to search for the ‘mayor’.

“And may I suggest to leave this on your hooves? I don't think the rest of us can do anything about...what happened.”

A few ponies voiced their disagreement, but the majority thought that it was a good idea to leave everything to the Mane Six. After all, they fixed quite a number of problems in the past years. This won't be any different.

The ‘trial’ went to vote of who was in favor, and seeing as the majority agreed, the Mane Six dismissed the audience and helped them out. The common question now was where they were going to sleep.

“Their problem, not ours,” Applejack snickered.

The ponies were inside a large empty room on the second floor. Twilight has yet to decide what she'll be using this room for.

“Uh huh,” Fluttershy glared at her. “I bet you'd like that, being me and sleeping with my bro.”

“You sleep with your brother?” Twilight innocently asked.

Fluttershy blushed, stammered, and struggled to save herself. “T-t-that's not what I meant!”

Applejack blushed earlier, but now she was laughing.

“Ahem,” Spike cleared his throat, and then turned to the fillies. “Okay. So... That thing calls you its mother.”

“Actually,” Scootaloo said as she shook her hoof to set it free from the long blue ear that wrapped around it. “It keeps on saying ‘mana’, as in the magical aura.”

Spike blinked.

“If that's true,” Pinkie said, rubbing her chin with a hoof. “Then it's quite easy to mishear it with ‘momma’, I suppose.”

The rest of the Mane Six nodded in agreement.

“Mana!” the blue creature giggled. “Mana! Manafeeee!”

“Point taken,” Spike said.

Fluttershy nodded. “Well, it's nice to know that you love your parents very much.”

Nine sets of eyes blinked at her.

Fluttershy looked at them. “What? Why are y'all lookin' at me like that?”

“Eep!” Twilight gasped, earning her friends' attention. She pinned her ears with both hooves. “I-I didn't hear it! My special talent! I didn't understand the poor animal!”

“Calm down, Flutters,” Applejack said as she and Pinkie Pie tried to calm her down.

“Huh,” Spike eyed the creature, then back to Fluttershy, who was talking to Rainbow Dash and Rarity. “Fluttershy?”

“Mrmmrmmm...” Twilight mumbled with a shaky voice.

Spike rolled his eyes. “Who's inside Fluttershy's body again?”

“That'd be me, sugarcube.” Fluttershy blinked. “Er... Applejack.”

Spike nodded. “And you said that you understood what the creature just said, right?”

“I...guess so?”

Spike gestured with a claw for the pony to approach the fillies and the creature. “Do you mind if you'll act as our bridge of communication?”

“Mana!” the creature jumped and approached a yelping Spike.

“Uh...hi?”

“Mana!” it said happily. “Manafeee!”

Spike blinked, and then turned to Fluttershy with a ‘what the hay did it just say?’ look on his face.

Fluttershy approached them. “The little fella said that it can understand us.”

“Mana!” the creature nodded.

“Wow, really?” Applebloom said as she and her friends approached. “Lemme try! Um... So, what's your name?”

The creature blinked. It tilted its head to the side. “Mana... Mana-manafee-mana?”

“Er...”

Fluttershy was already arching an eyebrow. “It said that it doesn't have one, because you three didn't give it a name yet. Oh, and it said that the three fillies are its parents...”

“What?” Pinkie Pie and Applejack asked at the same time.

The three fillies gulped.

Spike sighed. “I knew it...” he mumbled to himself.

“Huh,” Rainbow Dash scratched her head, looking confused. “And here I thought it was already obvious...”

“But that's impossible!” Pinkie Pie cried. “How could it claim my sister and her friends as its parents?”

“Manafee!” the creature said cheerfully at Fluttershy. “Mana-mana-manafee!”

“Uh huh...” Fluttershy nodded. “Well, the thing said that it heard our sisters' voices when it was about to hatch.”

Sweetie Belle sighed. “He was still an egg when we found him on the pond outside the Everfree Forest.”

Applejack blinked, and then facehoofed.

“Mana!” the creature looked at the unicorn filly with an angry stare. “Manafee!”

“It said it's a female.”

Sweetie Belle blinked. She then turned to the creature. “How was I supposed to know that?”

The creature huffed. “Fee...” It suddenly yawned, and began to wobble. “...fee...”

Lavender aura suddenly enveloped the creature, and she was gently lifted up, and rocked in the air. Everypony turned and saw Twilight, her horn glowing. She was smiling and humming a lullaby as she approached the sleepy darling.

Applejack leaned to Fluttershy. “I guess taking care of animals is her ‘natural’ specialty,” she whispered, and Fluttershy just nodded, looking surprised.

Spike smiled, and looked up at Twilight. “Wow. I didn't know you co—”

“Shh,” Twilight said, then continued humming a lullaby.

“Manaaa...” she yawned again with a smile, before closing her eyes and began to sleep.

Fluttershy chuckled quietly. The little thing already has good manners, greeting them all ‘goodnight.’

...and then everypony glowed white.

“My dear sister,” Luna said after pulling her head from leaning on a telescope on her sister's balcony. She turned and entered the room. “Have you already raised the sun, perchance?”

A loud snore was her reply. Celestia opened and closed her mouth, and mumbled something, before turning and settled and snored again.

Luna rolled her eyes. “I suppose not.” She shook her head slightly before turning outside, curiously watching the glowing town of Ponyville.

“Manaphy, huh?” Applebloom said as she and her friends sat under the shade of a tree outside the school. It was recess, and the foals were either playing or sharing stories with one another about that one specific event that happened three days ago.

Sweetie Belle nodded. “Yup. Scoots and I paid her a visit yesterday.”

“Sorry that you couldn't come, Applebloom,” Scootaloo said.

Applebloom just shook her head. “It's alright, y'all. Ain't like it was your fault.” She smiled. She was mostly thankful that her sister was more focused on Rainbow Dash and Big Mac than with her. A two-day no-crusade was too merciful, even for Applejack. “I'm just glad that things are back to normal now. Who ever thought that the little guy j—”

“Girl,” Sweetie Belle corrected.

Applebloom rolled her eyes. “Girl, whatever. Whoever thought that she only needed to go to sleep to undo her magic.”

Scootaloo scratched her head. “I wonder what would happen if a pony dies before they switched back...”

They became quiet.

Scootaloo coughed. “Sorry. Bad topic choice to talk about.”

Sweetie Belle frowned. “Well, I just can't believe we didn't get our cutie marks after all that trouble.”

Applebloom shook her head. “I'm actually glad I didn't get a cutie mark from all of that.” She then smiled. “Anyway, I'm gonna visit the little gu—girl at Fluttershy's. Wanna come with?”

Her two friends nodded immediately.

“Of course!” Scootaloo said, wings buzzing. She placed a notebook before them and opened it to a page full of notes. “I already have a lot of ideas we can try to get our cutie marks with Manaphy!”

“...already?” Applebloom blinked, leaning forward to take a look.

Sweetie Belle frowned after reading a few of them. “I'm not sure if Fluttershy approves with some of those ideas...”

“I know!” Scootaloo said proudly. “That's why we're taking her back to the clubhouse, and then we can begin crusading!”

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle looked at each other with worried frowns on their faces.

“So what do you say?” their pegasus friend asked excitingly.

Sweetie Belle sighed. “Do we have a choice?”

Applebloom sighed. “I'm starting to rather go visit Twilight and see what she found out about the eggshells...”

“Aw, come on!” Scootaloo closed her notebook. “We're not the Cutie Mark Crusaders if there's only two of us!”

Applebloom rolled her eyes. “Ugh, fine... But I'll be the one to choose what we'll be doing.”

“Deal!”

Author's Note

And, the end~
I wish I could have written this some more, and explored the possibilities of the ponies in another body, but alas, the deadline was close, and I was informed about this contest a bit late.
Like I said, I'm not expecting to win, but I don't want to abandon this either, since this idea sprang into my head after I read about the contest in a blog. So, I guess the least I could have done was to give this a good ending~

Aw well~
Hoped you enjoyed a not-so-brilliantly-planned fic.
It was fun to write~

Thanks pipz~