The Switch Up

by Bro Dash

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Romance, Comedy, Tragedy
Length: 3003

A switch up of everyone's lives

Celestia and several hundred new archmages have brought over a thousand unicorns' worth of magic into a small, glowing gem after so many years of sapping little by little from millions. But thats not what this is about. What was supposed to be a tour of the new exhibit, and it's magical properties, becomes a disaster which switches the lives of everyone around Equestria.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-04-17 12:44:03 UTC

Grand Opening of the Magic Hall

Twilight finished stuffing the last two thick books in her saddle bag as Spike zoomed past her in a rush.

"Hold on Spike, I need to get these to the castle, gotta retur-hey!"

Spike swiped the saddle bag and blasted it with his green flames, leaving Twilight in her stunned pose.

"There! It's at the castle! Now can we go?"

Twilight stared at him, disappointed.

"Don't give me that look, we both know how my magic flames work."

"It doesn't transport leather, or cloth, only paper, ink, and quills. Thats it. Now I have to go get another new saddle bag. That one was a gift, so I don't think that I'll be getting another one like it soon."

"Oh...Sorry, I didn't know."

"Well, you can make it up to me by reorganizing the books in alphabetical order."

"But! I just reorganized them according to subject and then alphabetically!"

"And you can stay here and do it."

Spike's eyes drooped and his lip quivered. Tears welled up and just as he started sniffling, twilight spoke up.

"Fine...You can go."

Spike leaped up, "Woohoo!!!!!"

"But your still reorganizing the books when we get back."

"Awwww...."

The two left the building and immediately ran into a wall of friends. All the others were waiting outside, glowing with happiness to take the trip.

"Hey everyone!", Twilight started.

"Yay!", Fluttershy said.

"Uhm...Care to explain the sudden burst of joy?"

"She's trying to work up a little more enthusiasm, ya know, for the grand opening.", Rainbow Dash answered for her.

"Oh, yes, but I'm not sure if it's too loud. I mean, I don't want to scare the little animals."

"Don't worry Fluttershy. I'm sure that if you screamed at the top of your lungs right now, you'd not scare anyone."

"Ok. Where is Spike? Wasn't he here a second ago?"

"Hmm?", Twilight looked around. At first she was worried, but then saw the small trail of dragon foot prints in the dirt road ahead.

"He left to Canterlot without us.", Twilight, unamused.

"Well then, he's been a bad dragon lately hasn't he? I mean, this has gone on for a while. Disobedient, taking things that he doesn't own, not even bothering to ask, going wherever as he pleases."

"I guess you're right. Let's skip ahead of him to Canterlot. Our combined magic should be enough."

Rarity nodded and her horn glowed with it's light blue aura indicating the use of magic. Twilight pitched in, her own horn glowing in it's purple light as she activated the spell. With a loud clap they teleported from where they were, and all appeared in Canterlot in front of the castle.

Pinkie Pie jumped up, "Woohoo! First in line!"

"Not quite yet Pinkie Pie. We got here seven hours after the people were let in to actually make a line. There is about a hundred others in front of us.", Twilight informed.

"Awww..."

"But...Luckily, I am Princess Celestia's faithful student, and she invited me to be the first here to check it out as a test run."

"So, we can still go ahead?", Pinkie Pie smiled.

"Yes, we can. But we need to get there quick. And if you're wondering, it's all done with a powerful gem. It is in fact, concentrated magic."

"Well, that sounds lahk someone made it up, but never doubt magic. It works in mysterious ways. Ah reckon that it wouldn't be fun at all for us earth ponies or the pegasah, like Rainbow Dash and Fluttershah.", Applejack pointed out."

"Well, actually. Due to seven years of research, three unicorns and a pegasus and earth pony came up with the fact that everyone has a little control over magic, it's just generally unnoticed in earth ponies and pegasi. In here, you will be able to cast magic as freely as I will. And thats actually saying a lot because you can do things here that you could never do anywhere else as a unicorn."

"So it's basically an overpowered hot spot for everyone to use magic.", Rarity spoke.

"So, we can have all the cupcakes we want?!", Pinkie Pie burst out.

"Why yes and yes. We can do almost anything here."

"Wait, sugarcube. What ya mean bah 'almost' anythin?"

"Well, there are spell restrictions placed by Princess Celestia herself, in the room. There will be magic rings on the carpet, done in black ink. Don't worry about getting black hooves cause it's not only dry, but it won't come off the carpet. Above that, the crystal is free floating int he center. No one is a allowed to touch it, and those near it will be attacked by antigravity magic, sent away from it."

"Sounds a little complicated and high tech, don't you think, dear?", Rarity asked.

"Nah. If anything, this is really simple compared to the project where they cloned us.", Twilight walked through the door.

Rarity stared into space, dumbfounded for a few seconds, "Why was I not told that we were cloned?"

"Cause it failed. I was going to break the news to you, but then your clone literally exploded. Made a mess in the castle corridor just across the hall from Princess Celestia."

"That is...disgusting."

"Yes. Yes it is."

The six made it past the crowd of ponies ahead and through the door to the entrance chamber where Celestia sat, waiting.

"Ah, if it isn't my most faithful student and her friends!", Celestia smiled.

"Whats up Princess Celestia!", Rainbow Dash flew up to the princess. Once spying her younger sister, Dash looked to luna, "And whats up to you too Luna!"

"I beg thou forgiveness, but I dost not understand."

"She's just giving us a greeting, Luna."

"Oh, well then what is up to thou, Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow Dash frowned, slowly flapping away, "She killed it..."

Twilight chuckled, "Well, you asked me to come?"

"Yes. And as it states in the letter, you are to test it, if you want to. If not, it'd have to be done by Luna. I mean, she hasn't had much fun for years. She still needs a little bit of Grammatical correction, though. And that is a boring process for her. you think you could bring her for a girls night out some time?"

"I'd be glad to. Now, lets get to business, shall we?"

"Ah, yes."

With a flurry of magic, Celestia opened the large, thick, wooden doors to the giant room inside. All around the walls were detailed with various artistic magic symbols. Most were for show, flickering on and off slowly, dimming and increasing in light. The carpet below their feet was soft, newer than anything else, even the walls. In the center stood the afore mentioned gem. It was easily the size of Spike, very big and glowing indefinitely in the seemingly dark room. Once Twilight took a step forward, the room itself lit up, and a tiny beam of light connected her horn to the gem. Once it dissipated, Twilight felt the magic flow through her like she were holding on to a live wire.

"Whoa! Feels like I have over a million volts of electricity coursing through me!", Twilight spoke.

She used her magic to start creating things, ranging from apples of different colors, to transforming them to bananas, to making them all tiny dragons that would fly around Twilight's head. Then she returned them back to the nothing from which they were created.

"I think it's ready, Princess."

As she finished the sentence, the doors to the entrance chamber blew open and hundreds of other ponies flowed into the room. Though, due to it's vast size, on account of the fact that the gem made the room bigger every time someone entered, there was not even enough ponies to fill half the room. The ceiling far above looked like it was easily a ceiling a mile above.

"Wow. I thought this place would be crowded.", Twilight said to Celestia as she watched her friends.

"Well. I am the one that thought of it. So far, not a single pony has had a problem that the Archmages who made it, stole magic from everyone all over Equestria."

"Now that you put it that way."

"Well. I know. I'm not the one who came up with the idea anyway. Though, I made the room quite nicely within the ten minutes I had."

"You did all this in ten minutes?"

"Well, more like three, but it was within ten minutes."

"Celestia, you amaze me in how well you can handle things."

"I have to, I do rule this kingdom after all."

"That brings up a very interesting thought. How can you rule the kingdom...when you have no king to share the thrown with?"

"Well thats a good question. And I have my answer. I already did have my king. He was just not eternal as I. We even ran a good life time together."

"Did you...have children?"

"We...never brought ourselves to the act. But later on, I grew lonely and made a young filly. She was not born from me, but still made, nonetheless. In definition, I am Scootiloo's mother."

Twilight was dumbfounded, but then again, the properties of magic registered in her head as making it plausible and very much made sense.

"Well...Then why did you not give her the ability to fly?"

"A little sacrifice for later on in life. Her wings will grow to be bigger than mine one day."

Luna nudged Celestia's side, breaking the two from conversation."

"Yes, Luna?"

"May I leave thine presence to lie in the royal bedroom of mine?"

"Why, yes. You don't really have to ask Luna."

Luna nodded and trotted off out of the magic hall.

"Well, I have business to tend to. Your friends seem to be having fun with the effect of the gem's zero gravity effect on those around it. Why don't you join them, make the whole room without gravity if you want."

"I will. I guess I'll see you another time?"

"Always.", Celestia chuckled.

Twilight ran out into the center, taking nearly a minute to get there, and once she entered the first ring, she rose off the ground, propelled upwards to where her friends were.

"Twilight, dear, you think you could do this to the whole room?"

"Why, yes. I was just about to, Princess Celestia gave me the idea."

Twilight's horn glowed with her magic again, but this time, it spread around to everyone in the room and then the walls, expanding the zero gravity through out the room. People began flying around, wings or not. Even a few pegasi began flying off the walls with a simple kick.

"Yay! Zero gravity Partay!!!!!!!", Pinkie yelled out.

After a few more minutes, Spike arrived at the magic hall, immediately floating upwards from the force which was used to walk on the ground. He cut a few flips and then righted himself, spotting the six ponies which he left back at the library in Ponyville.

"Hey, how'd you all get here before me?"

"Magic, Spike. If you would've been patient, we would have brought you too."

"Well, uh, yeah...So what can I exactly do here?"

"Well, use magic as freely as I, and also float around weightlessly."

"Seems fair enough."

With a flurry of magic, Twilight pushed spike to the ground where he kicked off and flew all the way to the ceiling, then kicked off to one of the walls. He did so just to float around for a while, till he noticed the gem in the center of the floor.

He ran into another pony in his daze and was pushed back into the gem. After gaining his thought back, he looked at the gem hungrily. Never had he seen such a big gem before. It shine with a luster which felt like the shine itself had power. There was no other light int he room either, and it just seemed to glow even more deliciously as he stared at it. He began to drool from hunger, then finally, grabbed the gem, placing his strong teeth over the apex of the top and bit into it. The tast of magically charge minerals burst into his mouth as he chewed the bite.

Though, around him, as he sat atop the gem, the room rumbled, crumbling even. Everyone began hastily out, even helped escorted by Twilight herself, with her expertise in the basic magic. Rarity even copied her. Twilight began counting who had entered, as they left and came one head short. She looked into the room, and spotted Spike atop the gem, still chewing his first bite of the gem. Twilight's eyes widened in shock. Out of all the misbehavior, the disobedience, and just plain selfishness, this was the most unbelievable thing ever.

As Twilight rushed to get spike, just as she was about to grabbed him, a blast of magic erupted from the gem, send Spike flying into Twilight, and Twilight and Spike into the other five fo the crew. In both shape and sound, a magic ring burst forth, flying through walls like a ghost, leaving them unharmed, passing all directions from where it started and affecting everyone above and below it.

Everyone blacked out.

Upon awakening, Twilight could see only in a hazy sight, unable to make out her hand at all. She picked herself up, rubbing her head, then she noticed something different. She had a hand. Two to be exact. She looked at her hands, finally able to see and saw the tiny claws which adorned each scaly finger. She looked herself over, even looking at her tail. Then she just stared into space, dumbfounded. A twitch adorned her right eye as she could not understand what happened.

"Spiiiiiiiike!!!!!!!!!!!", she called out.

"Ah! Uh, wuh? Where am I? Whoa, whoa! What happened to my hands?!"

Twilight looked to it's source and found Spike rising wobbly to his legs. He had changed as much as she did. No longer did he have hands, or a scaly body, he had purple fur, a flowing green mane, and he had the distinct shape of a stallion.

Twilight was completely confused, and once more, her eye twitched mercilessly. She looked at the Gem which was still floating in the center of the magic hall. It was cracked al up and down, though it still floated. Every few seconds, the dim, yellow light which came from it flickered, and after a minute, it stopped floating, hitting the ground with a loud clank which echoed in the permanently enlarged room.

As others began awaking, screams of fear and confusion rang through the halls. As Twilight looked around, she spotted that, not only she, but others had changed as well. Scratch and Octavia, the couple, were switched. Octavia had nearly all of Scratch's body, but retain her kept mane, except for color and the horn protruding from her head. Scratch on the other hand also had a color scheme change, matching Octavia's grey fur and black mane, though she didn't have a horn like Octavia now did.

It was the same all around. Ponies looks were switched, horns transferred to non-naturally born unicorns, pegasus wings being transferred the same, and even a few ended up being turned into alicorns. The resulting mess was of ponies all trying to freak out and/or use magic/fly away to fix the mess. The result was even more confusion, until loud voice rang through the crowd.

"STOP!!!", it was Celestia.

Immediately all activity ceased to exist and it went silent.

Twilight could not see above everyone and jumped up, trying to see Celestia, and to try and give her a sign of where she was. As if she knew exactly where Twilight was, Celestia appeared in front of her as the other ponies parted. Twilight was about to speak, but went silent herself at the newer sight. What used to be Celestia's white coat of fur, and beautifully bright colored mane, everything, was replaced with Luna's color scheme. And the worst part of all this, as Twilight just noticed, was that even the cutie marks had been switched.

"Twilight.", Celestia began.

"Y-yes princess?"

"Do you know what happened, or who cause this?"

Twilight looked over to the sorry sight of Spike as he tried repeatedly to get up and stay standing on his four legs.

"Y-yes, I...I do. While we were floating around int he Zero gravity, I lost sight of Spike, so I expected him to be having enough fun without me...pestering him. So I ignored the fact that he left my sights. I should not have though, because in less than a minute after, he had bitten into the concentrated magic gem. It was only one bite, but it caused all this chaos."

"So, Spike is to blame. Well, can't blame him for his dragon heritage and habits. They do eat gems, and I can tell you that, should this be fixed and the gem restored, he will not be allowed back in the room, should he turn back into a dragon."

"I understand. Are their any other side effects to look out for? I mean, he did eat concentrated magic."

"Well, with the amount of magic he consumed, he is onsidered as powerful as an archmage. And should he find out how to use the magic, we will deal with it. For now, watch him closely."

"Yes, Princess. Uhm...if you don't mind me asking, will you or Luna be rising the sun every morning?"

"It's still the same. You should meet with your friends to help them cope with this mess."

"Yes, Princess. I understand everything. Anything else?"

Celestia Sighed, "Well, Twilight, the only real damage here is mental. No one is hurt...or atleast not yet anyways. But nonetheless, Spike did not harm anyone in any way other than mentally. He may be hated, but he is still safely free."

"Ok. I'll keep watch over him and makes sure he stays out of trouble."