Switched

“Deep breaths.  Deep breaths,”  I tell myself.  Surprisingly, I’m not freaked out at all.  If anything, I’m overly excited.  After all, it’s not every day a brony gets to be their second favorite pony.  And yes, RD isn’t my favorite pony; Fluttershy is.  Which is where I’m confused, why am I not Fluttershy?   I prefer Fluttershy over RD because she’s the most similar to me: quiet and reserved, while RD is who I want to be: energetic, leadership, and confident.  Then I suddenly whack myself in the head.

“Not now, don’t go fangirling,” I say, speaking to myself, “Figure out what’s going on.”  Getting to my feet, no, hooves, slowly, I try walking to the door that I opened earlier.  Peering through the doorway, I see a hallway and some stairs.  Exploring this house that appears to be Rainbow Dash’s, I finally find the front door.  Again using my mouth, I open it to see the sky.

As a pegasister, I know the basic layout of Ponyville.  But actually seeing it in real life is an amazing experience.  Every detail is there, every building, every pony… every pony!  I need to find somepony to help me figure out what’s going on.  When I think about it, I figure Twilight Sparkle would know what’s going on, and I just need to find her in her castle.

Spotting her castle at the edge of the town, I forget one major detail.  Rainbow Dash lives in a cloud.  Above the ground.  Stepping over the edge of the cloud was probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.

“Ahhhhh!” I scream silently in my head.  Really, who screams out loud these days?  Falling to a possible death, I try to work my back muscles and spread my wings out.  I’ve never skydived before, but I understand the concept.  Now floating softly downward, I experimentally flap the wings once, then twice.  Pretty soon, I get the idea of flying, and I love it.  Now I know why Rainbow Dash loves her wings so much.  The wind in my mane and the freedom of the sky overwhelms me, and I know that I would never trade this feeling for anything else.

Finally, my challenge came up: to land.  I slow my flapping down, until I feel my hooves on solid ground.  Silently congratulating myself for passing Flying 101, I lift my head to stare at the crystal castle in front of me.  Several guards were milling around, none giving me a second glance.  Surprised, I step past the front gates and trot to the double doors.

Knocking, I wait patiently for somepony to open the doors.  One of the royal guards comes up to me and with a confused expression, opens his mouth.

“Excuse me, miss Rainbow Dash, but why are you knocking?  Usually you fly right in,” he states.  I look at him for a second before catching my mistake.

Summoning my inner Rainbow Dash, I stutter, “O-of course!  I know, like, flying is 20 percent cooler than knocking, uhh, I was uhh just about to go, uhh, fly in!”  Smiling like an idiot, I use my mouth to turn the doorknob, walk in, and quickly shut the door behind me.

“Good going there,” I scold myself.  Really, I should be good at winging it by now, and especially now, since I’ve got wings.  Yeah, I’m bad at puns.

“Rainbow!  What are you doing here?” I hear a very, very familiar voice behind me.  Twisting around, I see Twilight Sparkle standing there, her head cocked in confusion.

“Oh, um, Twilight!  I have a question for you!” I mumble.  Twilight brightens up at the word “question” and beckons with her tail to the throne room.  Once inside, I see the six thrones just like in the Cutie Map and the tree roots from Castle Sweet Castle.  I stop for a minute and try to process the fact that I’m living practically every brony’s dream.  But I give up after a while, and accept the awesomeness unfolding before my eyes.

“So?”  Twilight asks.  I blink and stare at her.  She sighs and rephrases her question, “What’s your question, Rainbow?”

“Oh!  Well, you see, I’m not from around here,” I blabber.  “Somehow, I ended up …”

“Calm down Rainbow,” she interrupts me.  “I know.”

Gaping like a stupid fish (again), I gaze in confusion, “You know?”

“Well, I don’t know all about it, but last night I was testing a spell with Princess Celestia, and it went berserk,” she laughed.  “And you’re not the only one either.”