Mystery Misadventure Miscalculated!

The sun shone over Ponyville lightly, basking the town in warm sunlight and waking up Equestria’s inhabitants one by one. It was the start of a new day, and the start of another new adventure for the CMC. Sweetie Belle, her hair curled up by Rarity overnight while she slept, was mumbling to herself a variety of random words.

“Peels I woh gnitirw er’uoy eveileb t’nac I…”

Her body was already halfway out of the bed, and slowly but surely the filly started sliding off the blanket and fell.

“Naarr…Oof! I really should stop doing that…”

She quickly untied the hair ribbons with disgust, and then walked down the stairs, yawning slowly.

“Rarity? Hhaauuwnn…Are you there?”

There was no response. She was honestly at least expecting a grumble, not from her stomach but from her sister.

“Rarity?”

She trotted into the front of the boutique and found no one. The same went for the kitchen, the bathroom, and the dressing room. Rarity was nowhere to be found. The trotting quickly became a gallop.

“Rarity! WHERE ARE YOU?” Sweetie Belle screamed.

“BE QUIET FILLY, I’M WORKING!”

“RARITY…Wait a minute, Diamond Tiara? Working?!”

She opened her door, only to find that the bully was indeed painting the neighbor’s house pink. More surprisingly she was using her own hooves, with her butler nowhere to be seen. She also had a paintbrush on her flank instead of the infamous tiara.

“Keep quiet nerd! Can’t you see I’m making this house beautiful?”

“Um…you only painted the bottom of the house.”

“Ah Ah Ah! You don’t understand modern art! By painting only the bottom of the house I have not only saved the cost of the paint but the effort as well!”

“Didn’t your…um…client tell you to do that?”

“No, but I’m sure he’ll love it! Now go away, peasant!”

She returned to splattering the bottom of the house, but not before sticking out her tongue at Sweetie Belle.

“At least her attitude is the same…” Sweetie Belle grumbled as she walked away from the boutique before stopping at the realization.

“Wait…why was her cutie mark a paintbrush?!”

She rushed over to the town center, hoping that her worst fears were just a thought. However one look at the town and her jaw dropped, the thought being confirmed to reality.

“………….”

It really was quite the spectacular sight. Lyra was controlling the weather clouds and causing lightning to crash down on the rooftops of the houses, Ms.Cake had collapsed on the ground holding twelve bottles of cider, and worst of all, Cheerilee, their beloved teacher, was wearing Diamond’s tiara and bossing everyone around her, Sliver Spoon behind her back holding her drinks.

“Um…er…aah…”

“Sweetie Belle, Come over here!”

“Wha…Applebloom and Scootaloo? You two are ok?!”

She rushed over to her two friends and hugged them tightly, extremely happy to see them unaffected.

“Can’t…breathe…”

“Oops…Sorry. I got a bit overexcited.” She removed her hoofs from their backs, resulting in two big gasps of relief.

“I can’t believe you’re all right! I thought you two would have also changed like the other townspeople around here!”

“Yeah, we thought that as well as we woke up. Applebloom here found Granny Smith up in the morning blasting discorded DJ beats while seeing her brother start picking up flowers with Berry Punch!”

“It was horrible! They wouldn’t listen to me at all!” Applebloom was close to tears, her strong bond with her family obvious.

“Wait…I thought Cheerliee was Big Mac’s very special somepony…Is Big Macintosh cheating?!” This caused Applebloom to curl up into a ball whimpering, with Scootaloo unamused.

“Now is not the time to make jokes, Sweetie Belle! Remember Zecora’s prediction yesterday? She was right! We have to get to here since she may be the only one who knows the answer behind this!”

“Sorry Scootaloo, but I also want to ask if you two have seen your sisters or mine anywhere, perhaps Twilight as well.”

“Our sisters were also missing when we woke up. That’s why I rushed to Applebloom’s farm to confirm the truth. We have to solve this mystery of the changed townspeople and our missing sisters, along with the rest of our friends!”

“I guess you’re right…Applebloom, can you lead us to Zecora’s place?”

“O…Ok.” She stood up, wiped her tears, and the trio rushed to the Everfree forest, quickly reaching the willow house.

“Zecora, are you in there?” Applebloom yelled, knocking on the door.

“Yes I am Applebloom. You three are unaffected I assume.”

The door opened and Zecora quickly dragged them inside.

“As the situation is now extremely grave, we need the Golden Lotus from the Sliverbark Woods.”

“Er…what do you mean Zecora?” Sweetie Belle was confused.

“Oh I am sorry for you do not know this situation. As you know, the ponies in your town have been altered of their characterization.”

“You mean that their cutie marks were switched? Yeah, I noticed that when Lyra and White Lightning had each other’s cutie marks.” Scootaloo added.

“Indeed, that part is true too. The “mark” is my prediction was the ponies’ cutie marks, including the fillies, who had a clue?”

“But what about the six heroes that would stop this crisis?” Applebloom questioned.

“Honestly Applebloom, I thought it was going to be our sisters and their friends, since they always save the day since Twilight came.” Sweetie Belle remarked.

“But our sisters are missing! Who will stop this crisis now?” Scootaloo exclaimed. “Zecora?”

The zebra was sitting down, deep in thought. A few seconds of waiting and she opened her eyelids, determined.

“We would have to ignore this part of the prediction. We must not let magic affect a part in our decision.”

“Huh?” Sweetie Belle was confused again.

“What I’m saying is that to stop this curse from lasting forever, we have to join forces and find the Golden Lotus together.” She said, her hoof picking up a filled leather bag and flinging it to her shoulder.

“Wait…really? So we’re ignoring your own prediction and going on an adventure to save Ponyville as a group of four?” Applebloom enquired.

“Five actually…if you don’t mind, of course.”

Zecora and the CMC turned around, expecting a hero to rise out of the darkness. Imagine their disappointment when they saw Pipsqueak, holding a rubber sword in his mouth stepping into the house and falling sideways on the wooden floor.

“Pipsqueak? Did you follow us?” Scootaloo said while helping the young male filly back up.

“Sure I did! I couldn’t stand being the only horse around who wasn’t affected by that weird spell, so when I saw you three acting normally I thought that following you would be the safest option!” He responded proudly.

“Pipsqueak, the Everfree forest is a bit too dangerous for you…”

“And now we get to go on an adventure! Oh I just love adventures! Can I come, please?” Pipsqueak asked excitedly, intercepting Sweetie Belle.

“Um...You’re too young Pipsqueak. I don’t think you should…”

“Pipqueak is it not? You were the pirate in Nightmare Night, I knew I recognized you from a thought.” Zecora came forward, curious.

“Yes I am! Hi Zecora! Can I please join your adventure? I don’t want to be the only one left in Ponyville who is unaffected…and I also want to save my parents!” Pipsqueak added.

“Hmm…” Zecora stared into Pipsqueak eyes, scanning him.

“Zecora no! He’s just too young to go on adventures! And he’s also a colt…” Sweetie Belle grumbled.

“Sweetie Belle! What’s wrong with Pipsqueak being male?” Scootaloo reprimanded, surprised at what her friend said.

“It’s just that he’ll be too overconfident and make decisions without thinking! Don’t all colts do that?” Sweetie Belle fired back.

“No, Big Mac never does that! He’s kind and considerate!” Applebloom followed, also angry.

“Well he’s a stallion, a grown up pony…And Pipsqueak is still small.”

“It’s ok Applebloom, Scootaloo. I guess I’ll just go back to Ponyville then.” Pipsqueak smiled sadly, then started to walk to the door.

“Wait…I didn’t mean…” Sweetie Belle tried to reach the sad colt, but Zecora reached him first.

“Young colt, although you are young I can see that you have the heart of a true stallion. You can join us if that is your ambition.”

Pipsqueak face took less than a second to turn from depression to happiness and excitement once again.

“Oh yes! I would love to! The adventure will sure be scary, but fun! Dangerous, but fun! Challenging, but fun…”

“Jeez…at this rate we’ll be slower than Rarity’s makeovers…” Sweetie Belle groaned as they watched him bounce around.