Ponyville Forest
2 hours later

Slowly, Stardust regained after the strange dream she had. What had happened? She looked down to her leg, which had seemed to repair itself in the time she was asleep. Did she just imagine it all? No, she was sure of what she had seen then, her leg was hollow on the inside. Everyday that past brought more and more questions, and very little answers to them, and this wasn’t helping that at all.

Remembering that Phoenix was there as well, she looked to her right to see Phoenix asleep on the ground… in her own body. Laying next to her was Rainbow Dash’s body, who she had beforehand been controlling. Did a similar thing happen to Phoenix? It sure seemed like it. The body she saw Phoenix in now reminded her of what it was like all those years ago, a orange pegasus with a red mane and tale. Despite that something about the body was different, she didn’t have her cutie mark. Stardust remembered her having a glowing feather as her cutie mark, but she didn’t have it anymore.

Curious, she looked at her flank to see if something had changed, and indeed it had. She to, had no cutie mark, and considering she had one before falling asleep, she realized what she had seen was not a dream, but rather some sort of vision. Why did it take away her cutie mark? Was it stolen? No, that was a scary thought to think of, considering a cutie mark is attached to a pony's body. So, was her destiny or talent changed?

Stardust looked behind her as she heard Phoenix groaning as she woke up. Phoenix shook the sleep from her head as she looked to see Stardust still in front of her. She didn’t realizing that she was in a separate body, which was yet another thing that puzzled Stardust. She had remembered Phoenix dieing, not how, but she remembered it. How was she alive now?

“Stardust,” Phoenix said sleepily “Are you okay?”

Stardust looked herself over before turning back to her friend. “Yep,” She answered. “How about you?”

“I’ve been better,” Phoenix replied, tears starting to roll down her face. She quickly rushed over to her friend and gave them a big hug. “I was so worried though. You started disappearing, and fell from the tree unconscious. Next thing I know, I’m glowing and end up unconscious as well. I thought you were dieing or something because of that-” She was cut off as Stardust’s body turned transparent and Phoenix came tumbling through her. As she exited her friends transparent body, Stardust once again became solid. That wasn’t all, as Phoenix came skidding to a halt, her hooves somehow gave off sparks and she left a trail of burnt grass behind her. “Wound you had,”

Both ponies stood for a few second stunned at what just happened. Was what they had just witnessed real? Phoenix finally looked at herself, realizing that she had her old body back, but with one slight difference. Instead of her coat being made of normal pony hair, it was instead covered by feathers. Usually a pegasi only has feathers on their wings, but she had at all across her body. In other words, not only did she get her old body back, but she was now literally a phoenix in a pony’s body.

“Stardust,” She said turning to her friend. “By any chance did you put something in those pancakes this morning,”

“I don’t think so,” Stardust said not sure of what was going on. “And I don’t think this was a hallucination,”

“So we really-”

“Just fell through each other?” Stardust said finishing her friends question. “Yep,”

Phoenix took time to think about it for a few second before getting up and turning to Stardust. “At least I’m still a pony,” She said, “But something tells me this isn’t the same body I saved you in,”

Stardust did turned to her friend. “And how did you figure that out,”

“Well for one this body is softer and not super bulky,” She said happily. “But mainly because I see Rainbows body laying down behind you,”

Stardust and Phoenix walked over to Rainbow’s body. Stardust figured out how Phoenix had managed to take over the body, remembering Phoenix’s talent. That being said, Rainbow wasn’t currently in her body, meaning that it was just laying there flat on the ground probably somewhat decayed at this point. Phoenix tried to unhook herself from her current body, only to find that she couldn’t. She had just been given a new body, she had been brought back to life, meaning she couldn’t leave her body. Not that she really cared, she prefered her old body over Rainbow’s anyway. Besides, this new flame thing she had was really cool.

“What should we do with it?” Stardust asked Phoenix. “Should we bring it back?”

Phoenix looked at her friend and smiled. Stardust knew that expression, it was the expression that could mean one of two things: “Phoenix doesn’t care”, or “Phoenix is going to mess with somepony”. “Nah,” She replied, taking the second option “She’s been sleeping all day like a log, this will make her regret that. Besides, I don’t like her very much,”

Phoenix had alway been a troublemaker, ever since Stardust first brought her to life all those years ago. It seemed like no matter what the consequences would be, Phoenix would alway be there to mess things up. There was one particular incident Stardust’s remembers dealing with Celestia, a bucket of blue and black paint, and a crescent moon tattoo. Stardust remember waking up that day not knowing where Celestia was, and thinking Luna had gained a few inches in height overnight. That being said, there was nothing she could do. when Phoenix made up her mind, there was no changing it.

“So,” Stardust said, “You're a bird pony now, if the feathers are anything to go off of,”

Bird pony? Is that really what Stardust was going with? Phoenix lifted a hoof to her face in disbelief. “Please don’t start calling me that,” Phoenix requested “Besides, if I’m a bird pony, doesn’t that make you a planeswalker?”

“No,” Stardust said “But I guess I can see your point, you had to admit that was kind of cool though. My body turned into gas, I didn’t become a ghost if you think about it, but how many ponies do you know can turn there body into an entirely different state?”

“Guess that’s true,” Phoenix said, “And I agree with the cool thing, I can literally create sparks with my body now. I wonder if I could survive a fire,”

Stardust watched as Phoenix rubbed one of her hoofs against her new feathers, giving off sparks as she did. This gave Stardust an idea. “Hey Phoenix, try rubbing your wings against your body really fast,”

Seeing what Stardust was saying, Phoenix did as she said. She started off kind of slow to get the feel for it, rubbing her wings against her feathery body as it easily created sparks. After getting use to it, she started speeding up, giving off more and more sparks as she did. Eventually, she sped up enough where she actually managed to set the tips of her wings on fire. It didn’t hurt at all, confirming that her body was now fire resistant. She watched as it quickly spread across her body, not even feeling the heat she was giving off doing it. Not long after, she to spread the flames across her entire body. She let her wings rest as the two friends watched her body with amazement as it continued to burn bright.

“This is amazing,” Phoenix shouted excitedly.

After a couple seconds, the fire around her died out, showing that it hadn’t damaged her body at all. How did this happen? They honestly didn’t care, they were somehow able to do normally impossible things for pegasi, or even unicorns, and somehow not get killed by it at all. Phoenix thought of something, maybe Stardust’s body wasn’t empty like they had thought.

“Hey Stardust,” Phoenix turned her attention to her friend. “What I’m about to do may seem really stupid, but I want to see if I’m correct. Can you figure out how you managed to turn your body into gas?”

Stardust thought about it, before shrugging. “I don’t really know, it just happened. I don’t know how to replicate it,”

Phoenix sighed in disappointment, sad that it wasn’t as simple for Stardust as it was for her. “Guess we need to figure that out then,” Phoenix said “But we should probably be getting back to Ponyville. Everyone must be worried sick about us,”

“Everyone?” Stardust said, not knowing that there was others staying at the castle. Twilight had left for Canterlot afterwards and considering that she hadn’t really seen Starlight that much, the word “Everyone” seemed a bit odd.

“Oh, right,” Phoenix said in realization “I’ll explain on the way there,”

Ponyville, half an hour earlier

Everyone looked at the strange pony walking through the streets, they hadn’t seen anything like her before. Not that the mare honestly cared, it was a response she was expecting considering this was the first time any of these ponies had seen an Estrail before, and probably one of the few times in history that they would show themselves. She was on direct order from the head of the aquatic research department back at home to be their representative in Ponyville. They didn’t need as many as they did in Canterlot sense it was a much town, which was something quite new to her. This trip was the time she had ever set a hoof outside the Estrail city, at least from what memory she had.

She knew why she was getting all those looks of course. While most of her body was normal - being a earth pony body structure with a blue coat with a messy, curly green mane - her more unnatural features showed like an alicorn in a horde of earth ponies. Her coat wasn’t made of scales instead of normal hair, had visible gills, and a shark-like tail instead of a normal one. She was just as much a fish as she was a pony, just a bit more carnivores.

The Estrails that had found her swimming in the ocean a day after she somehow mysteriously changed from a shark to her current form. When she ended up having to make a name for herself, she was completely stumped. At the time, she didn’t know the language, and honestly had no idea of what was going on to begin with. To many Estrails, life is good, but Aqua Marine sometimes felt like becoming who she is now ruined everything.

That doesn’t mean she doesn’t enjoy being part-pony, being one had it’s advantages. She felt smarter, that was one thing, but the biggest thing was that she was able to so many incredible things she had never even thought of before. Every new thing she learn excited her, and every new game she played she enjoyed. Even if it was harder for her to speak the language, she still enjoyed life like it was now.

“This must be the place,” She said, stopping in front of the giant crystal castle. “Really does stick out like a sore fin,” She took a deep breath before knocking on the door of the castle.

When the door opened, she was greeted Dandelion, who had been waiting for Sonnet to return. Aqua took one look at the pegasus, and realized that the pony in front of her was in disguise. Aqua took a note to keep an eye on the pegasus to make sure they didn’t do anything fishy (and no, that was not intentional) .

“Um, hello,” Dandelion greeted, not exactly sure about what to think of this pony. “I’m guessing you are the pony that we were messaged about?”

“So they have already arrived at Canterlot huh,” Aqua said to herself swinging her gigantic tail back and forth, Dandelion watching it in curiosity. “Well that should make things easier. I was hoping to speak with Twilight Sparkle or Stardust, whichever one is home at the moment,”

“Sorry,” Dandelion apologized “I should have probably mentioned that Twilight is the one who sent the letter. As for Stardust, she should have been here some time ago,”

“To be expected,” Aqua said to herself. “Mind if I come in?”

“Not at all,” Dandelion said, watching as the amphibious pony made her way inside.

When Dandelion saw the tail coming towards her face, she was forced to duck in order to avoid being hit. Compared to Dandelion, who was actually a year older than Aqua Marine, the shark-pony was giant. It was mostly do to how big she was before becoming a pony, but it still was amazing to see such a big pony among them.

“So why are you hiding yourself behind that form?” Aqua asked Dandelion, scaring the Changeling out of her disguises. Aqua turned around to see Dandelion be replaced by a Changeling and began snarling at her. She may not have ever been to Equestria, but she had learned from books about what Changelings were and what they did.

“Heh,” Dandelion laughed awkwardly “Hi?”

A few minutes later

Heart Anchor walked into the entrance hall hearing the sounds of what must of been fight. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw Dandelion cowering as a Changeling behind a coach, as Aqua flung a vase at her to try and scare her off. Even though he saw how strange Aqua looked, he seemed to handle it like it was nothing. It wasn’t the strangest thing that he had ever seen, and simply figured that she was the “Estrail” that Twilight had mentioned.

“I see you two are getting along well,” He said, drawing Aqua’s attention away from Dandelion. “Don’t worry about the fact she’s a Changeling, she doesn’t have the guts to hurt a fly,”

“Thanks a lot,” Dandelion said, angry at Heart Anchor. “But I never meant to hurt you, I simply wore the body because they wouldn’t accept me otherwise,”

Aqua looked at Dandelion before looking back at Heart Anchor. She walked away from Dandelion and over to Heart Anchor with a angry look in her eyes, yet he still remain unfazed. Aqua looked him over before smiling, happy at what she was seeing.

“You’ve obviously seen your fair share action,” Aqua said impressed. “Most ponies so far have been either afraid of me or unsure of what to think,” She raised her hoof to greet Heart Anchor. “Aqua Marine,”

“You can call me Anchor,” Heart said introduced himself “I’m a detective from Manehattan, I see you’ve already met Dandelion over there,” He pointed at the Changeling, who gave a nervous wave to the Estrail. “I’m here to help keep princess Stardust safe along with my assistant Sonnet, who is currently out searching for them,”

Aqua looked at the two before looking back confused “It’s only three of you right now?”

“Four actually,” Heart Anchor corrected “Solitaire, a cousin of Sonnet who has agreed to help us in our assignment is up in her room preparing for something later on,”

Deciding to not argue about what Heart Anchor meant by match, Aqua decided to ask something else. “Well if you guys are doing this I assume you have a plan, I would like to hear since I have been sent here to help out in anything needed,”

“Very well then,” Heart Anchor nodded his head “Dandelion, keep an eye on the door for Sonnet or Stardust. Miss Aqua, if you would follow me please,”

Aqua nodded in agreement and followed Heart Anchor down the hall.

Author's Note

I'm so happy right now with reaching over 200 views. It took a while sure but it feels absolutely fantastic about it. Seriously, you guys have no idea how excited I am to have reached this milestone. In the story. It may not seem like much to those of you who are use to reading stories with over a thousand view but seriously, on this site getting a hundred views for the first time is like getting a video on YouTube with a thousand views for the first time, and two hundred is no different. Keep up your work in supporting this story with comments, likes, and follow as well to stay updated. Let's go for the three hundred mark everyone!