Forty Minute Fantasies

It was a beautiful morning as Twilight Sparkle stepped through the door to her castle.  She turned, trotting toward the market, ready to begin the day's tasks.  That didn't last long, though, as she soon stumbled across an unusual sight, and she froze in shock as she gazed upon it.

At the outer edge of the square, just by the edge of the stream, Rarity was on the ground, her normally-coiffured mane pulled into a simple ponytail and a sweatband around her forehead.  As Twilight watched, Rarity heaved herself upwards, then back down, then up again - only with the repetition did Twilight realize what she was seeing, and she stepped forward.  "Rarity?"  she called out.

Rarity paused mid-pushup, turned her head, and smiled.  "Hey, Twi," she called out, and Twilight received a fresh shock at the lack of her normal cultured tones.  "Something wrong?"

Twilight's mind froze as she tried to process her response.  "I- you- pushups?"

Rarity's smile didn't change, but the rest of her face scrunched in confusion around it.  "Well, yeah," she said, "I gotta be at my best when I face AJ, right?"

Twilight, after her brain restarted itself, tried again.  “You don’t find anything odd about you doing pushups?”

Before Rarity could answer, another voice, also familiar, came from behind Twilight, apparently having found the accent Rarity had misplaced.  “Whyever should there be anything odd about that, Darling?  Dear Rarity has always been one for that sort of rough behavior, after all.”  Then, as Twilight spun, Rainbow lowered herself slightly.  “Do forgive me for not coming to rest, Twilight, but it wouldn’t do to let the hems get dirty, after all.”  And, indeed, the trailing edge of her dress (her very fashionable dress, part of Twilight’s mind gibbered), was holding position about three inches off the ground.

Twilight’s head seemed to spin as she stared between her two worried-looking friends, and then she gulped and jumped back.  “I’m sorry,” she stammered out, “I must have been sleep-casting!  I’ll figure out how to turn you back to normal, I promise!”  Without another word, she spun on her hooves and ran back for the castle.

As she disappeared in the distance, Rainbow glanced down.  “You know,” she said, in a voice suddenly entirely hers, “we really oughta let Twi in on the gag before she tries to ‘reverse’ us into each other for real.”

“Quite,” Rarity replied, “but perhaps not just yet.”  She stood up, stretching out and shaking the mud from her hooves.  “Ecch,” she said, followed by “I do believe a visit to the spa is in order.”  She looked up towards Rainbow.  “Would you care to join me, darling?”

“Nah, no thanks.”  Dash flapped about four feet upward, then stared back down.  “Thanks for helping me prank Twilight, though.  I didn’t think you had it in you.”