Chapters Eris and Kronos had been asked by Celestia, their mother, to do a very dreaded task.
They had to rearrange her old spells.
This job took a very long time, and was, understandably, not enjoyed by either child.
"Drat," grumbled Kronos as yet another weathered paper tumbled out of its box. "I can't believe that mom is making us do this! It's not like she's Miss Sparkle or anything." He used his magic to pick up the parchment and place it back where it belonged.
"Ugh," Eris groaned. "I don't know why these old things are so special to her anyway! She already knows most of them, and they're so old. She should just throw them out...oof!" She yelped as she stumbled over another box. The papers inside fluttered to the ground.
"Darn it...stupid," she muttered as she went to pick them up. Kronos came over to help her.
"The Banishment Spell...Gold Spell...hey! Eris, look at this!" Kronos said.
He pulled out an old paper that had many strange symbols on it.
"What kind of language is this? Çşöğə...çöpü..." he read. "Huh." he stratched his head.
Slowly, Kronos stumbled over the rest of the parchment.
When he was finished, Eris shook her head. "I have absolutely no idea what that language is. Weird." She glanced at the paper. "Well, it's probably not important. Let's just finish up here, and be done."
Kronos looked at the weathered paper one more time before placing it back in the box.
Eris woke up the next morning, not exactly remembering the events from the day before. She glanced in the mirror quickly.
Alright , she thought to herself. Better go make sure Kronos had a good night...
She opened her door and walked to her brother's room. Then...
BANG!
She crashed straight into Kronos.
"Oops, sorry..." she stopped, started at her own voice.
"KRONOS?!"
"ERIS!"
"WHY ARE YOU THE OPPOSITE GENDER?!" they yelled in sync.
"No, no, nooooo. You tell me. Since when did you become a colt?!" Kronos asked, startled.
"Why are you asking me?! And why are you a girl?!" Eris yelled.
They paused, and looked into each others eyes.
"THE SPELL!" they yelped at the same time.
"Oh gosh, Kronos! That thing was a gender swapping spell!" Eris wailed. "Why did you read it?!"
"How was I supposed to know that? It was in some mumbo-jumbo language!"
"BUT STILL! UGH!" Eris paced around the room. "What will mom and dad say?"
"Dad will probably be happy...you know, being the lord of chaos and all..." Eris shot him a dirty look. "What?! It's true!"
"Darn, darn, darn...what to do..." mumbled Eris.
"WAIT! I just realized!" Kronos yelped suddenly.
"What?!"
"Now that I'm a girl...I CAN'T DATE AMETHYST!!!"
"UGH!" Eris yelled.
The Adventure Actually Begins
Everyone had been gathered to Canterlot Castle. They were making their way down to the spell chamber.
"Gosh, can you believe how crazy this is? I mean, seriously!" The now male Confetti Cake exclaimed. "I just woke up, and suddenly, I'm a colt!"
"Can't sat my mom was all too happy about this," Lightning Strike grumbled. "she thought I was coming out."
"Lighten up, buzzhead. We're gonna figure this out." Smite, now a colt, said to him (her).
"That's the spirit! Hey Eris, what's wrong?" Kronos asked.
"It's just...well...what if..."
"There's no counter spell like what happened with Miss Twilight, and we have to be sad and misirable until someone can write one, and then someone turns into an alicorn? That would be cray-cray!" Confetti exclaimed.
"Well, you're right about the no counter spell thing, Confetti. I'm kind of worried..." Eris gazed ahead. "But I'm sure it'll be fine."
"Hey, don't worry. We'll figure it out." Kronos patted her (him) on the back.
"I wanted to tell you...I recognized a word or two on the scroll. It looked like they were in Saddle Arabian...
There was "Smokey"...then a word I didn't recognize...and then "crystal". I don't know what it meant though..." Eris said.
"The Smokey Mountains, maybe?" Smite suggested.
"Possibly. That's what I thought too, but the Smokey Mountains aren't exactly known for any type of crystal."
"Well, we'll know soon. Because we're here."
Translations and Findings
The group of ponies stepped into the spell room.
"My mom would die if she saw this," Stellar Star murmured.
"I can imagine," said Eris. "but jokes aside. We need to find that spell."
The ponies started rummaging through boxes of papers. Lightning accidentally tipped over a box, but Eris caught it with her (his) magic before it could fall.
"Hey, be careful! We just cleaned this place!" she (he) exclaimed.
Soon, Confetti triumphantly waved a paper in the air. "I found it!" she (he) exclaimed.
Eris carefully took the parchment from her (him). She looked it over carefully. "Well, I'm not completely sure, but I believe this part that's separated from the rest of the spell is most likely the counter spell. "
"Ya think?" Lightning said sarcastically. "Read it already!"
Eris shook her head. "It's not as simple as that. First of all, I don't really understand this writing, and second of all, some spells don't have just counter spells. For some, you have to collect certain items and make a counter changing potion. It's quite possible that this spell requires a potion, not just a spell."
"Well, we really need to translate it then, don't we?" Dusk Gleam asked.
"Yes, of course. But I have no idea who would understand this language!" Eris exclaimed.
"I might have an idea," said a voice from the back.
Everyone turned to look at Hestia, a white unicorn with a light pink mane. She (right now, a he) was the adopted daughter of Fluttershy, and had a lot of magical talent.
"Maybe it's not an actual language ," Hestia said. "It could be a secret code!"
"Or it might be one of those lemon juice things, where you use a certain magic on it and it changes," Amethyst suggested.
"Hey, I didn't think of that!" Eris exclaimed. "Let me try the secret message magic first." Her (his) horn lit up, and she (he) held it to the paper. Nothing happened.
"That must mean it's a code," she (he) said. "Let's search around and see if there's some sort of translator."
Everyone set to work, looking for some sort of key code that could help them. They had searched for about an hour when Golden Aster jumped up.
"I think a found something, guys!" he (she) exclaimed.
Eris grabbed the parchment he (she) gave to her (him). She glanced at it. "This is it, guys! Now we can translate the spell!"
Kronos gave her (him) the paper with the spell on it. Piece by piece, they translated it into something they could understand.
The group crowded around, trying to read the parchment, but Eris turned to them.
"Well, I was right," she (he) sighed. "We need to make a potion."
The Adventure Begins (Maybe?)
Eris paced around the room, trying to figure out what to do. This entire "gender-swap" was new to her...
I hope I don't have to get used to being a colt... she thought. Gosh, this is weird, and I've been through some pretty weird things...
"UGH! KRONOS! STOP SITTING THERE AND HELP ME FIGURE THIS OUT!" Eris yelled.
"Gosh, sis- or should I say, bro- calm down. It's really simple. All we have to do is go down, see if there's a counter spell, read it, and ta-da! We're back to normal in no time. It's a no-brainer-"
He- or now she- was interrupted by the sound of Eris's phone.
"That's Crystal. Let's see what she has to say-" Eris picked up the phone and looked at it.
"Oh no." She (he, whatever) gulped.
"What?"
Eris turned to Kronos. "Crystal was gender swapped too!"
"What?! She wasn't even here!"
"I know! But...what if EVERYONE was gender swapped by the spell?!" Eris quickly picked up her phone again and started texting all of her friends.
After a few minutes, she said, "Well, I was partially right...all of our friends and relatives were affected."
"Even the parents?" Kronos sat up.
"No, but so far...Stellar Star, Dusk Gleam, Confetti Cake, Apple Spice, Hestia, Lightning Strike, Windstorm, Amethyst Jewel, Jasper, Ginger Gold, Zelda, Misty Blitz, Jonagold, May Flower...they've all reported in that they've been swapped."
"All of them? That's a lot." Kronos exclaimed.
"Actually, I just got more reports...there's also Fraisier Parfait, Houdini, Smite, Comet Tail, Golden Aster, Rock Candy, Bubble Gum, Frostbite, Artemis, Ombre, and Crystal Song...sheesh!" Eris listed.
"Gosh! They weren't here, but yet they were affected. We need to see if there's a counter spell!" Kronos leaped up.
Eris nodded grimly. "But first, we need to get everyone here."