Just one Mistake

by sunlightcloud715

Rating: everyone
Tags: Drama, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Spike, Comedy, Slice of Life, Main 6
Length: 4385

Twilight tries out a new spell, but nothing goes as planned.

Twilight learns a new spell from a book she found in the castle library. Excited to show her friends, she invites them over to try it out. But everything changes completely when Twilight finds out she did the spell all wrong, and none of the ponies were who they used to be. The six friends have to enlist in the help of a pony Princess Celestia entrusted to them, from a land they've never heard of, to set everything back on track.

PS: I added a Slice of Life tag to this story, but I wasn't sure. U guys can tell me whether or not it is. Many thanks to my friend StarDancer1123 for making this amazing cover art! It's really cool!! :pinkiehappy:

Published 2016-07-22 03:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-09-04 18:18:57 UTC

One Mistake

"So, what's this new excitin' spell Twilight has gotten so worked up about?" Applejack asked nopony in particular as the five ponies walked down the dirt road of Ponyville towards Twilight's castle, the sun setting behind them. Rainbow Dash, hovering above all of them with her blue Pegasus wings, answered her.

"I don't know. She's been acting like more of an egghead than usual, if that's even possible, about this weird spell thing that she found in her mysterious library. She said a bunch more egghead stuff about how it's 'going to change science forever.'" She made air quotes with her hooves, looking bored. "But I wasn't listening. I had much more important things to do." Rainbow crossed her hooves in a heroic position in front of her chest, tilting her head up.

Applejack chuckled. "Like what RD? Making up some new tricks for the Wonderbolts?" She smirked, looking up at Rainbow Dash as the blue coated mare glared back at her.

Rarity, walking on the left side of Applejack, scoffed in a lady-like fashion. "Honestly. Can you two go a day without getting on each other's nerves for once?" Pinkie Pie, bouncing in front of them, suddenly gasped.

"Ooh ooh can they?! It's all up to these two mares, folks! Step right in, who can go the longest without ticking the other pony off? Do they even dare try? Who will win? Who will lose?" Pinkie announced to nopony, jumping from Applejack, then Rainbow Dash, staring at them intently, smiling wide with excitement. A soft voice of a certain quiet natured, yellow coated pegasus suddenly spoke up from behind Pinkie Pie's ramblings.

"Um, Pinkie? Who are you talking to? There's nopony here but us." Fluttershy looked at Pinkie with confused turquoise eyes. The pink mare landed next to Fluttershy and patted her light pink mane with a smile.

"Oh, Fluttershy. Sometimes you can have the most fun when nopony is watching! It makes it more exciting!" Humming to herself, Pinkie bounced back up to the front of the little group of friends. Fluttershy looked up at the darkening sky, the shadows lengthening all around them, a worried expression on her face.

"Girls? Celestia's already lowering the sun. Shouldn't we hurry up if we want to get there before dark?"

Rainbow Dash scowled. "What are you afraid of Fluttershy? It's just the dark. What? Are you scared of the Pony of Shadoooows to come haunt us? It's said that it comes around only at night, when the sky is at its pitchest black." With Rarity's horn lighting up with a blue aura to provide the ponies with some light as the night grew darker, Rainbow Dash flew slowly and creepily until the light hit her face with an angle that made her look like a ghost, waving her hooves around the sides of her face, grinning when Fluttershy squeaked and hid behind Rarity, where the light was brightest.

Rarity shot an evil glare at Rainbow before turning to the mare cowering behind her. "Don't worry darling. We'll all be in this together. No 'Pony of Shadows' is coming to get you, no matter what ridiculous stories Rainbow Dash gets into your head," she cooed softly to Fluttershy before turning to the attention at hoof, hoping to get to the castle on time. She made some high pitched humming sound at the discovery of finding mud on her hooves. Hoping to get the mud off quicker, she started trotting.

Pinkie turned around. "Hey! Who wants to have a race?! Last one there is a rotten hayburger! One two three go!" With that, Pinkie dashed off, leaving a pink trail behind her as the only indication of where she had gone. Applejack, with a "Yee haw!", bucked up to her hind legs before galloping away after Pinkie, Rainbow Dash quickly following, a rainbow streak in her wake behind her. Furious at being left behind, Rarity started running after them, breathlessly panting as she went. Fluttershy followed as best she could, running while flapping her wings in the air hoping to help her gain some speed, to no avail. All that was left of the five best friends was a lingering sound of laughter on the cool night breeze.

***

Pinkie Pie waited impatiently at the doorstep of Twilight's castle, waiting for her other friends to show up. She couldn't understand why they were so slow. It was only a mile away from where they were walking before. Finally, Pinkie caught a glimpse of a rainbow maned pegasus racing over to where Pinkie was standing landing with a dramatic entrance as she always tends to do even without realizing it. Pinkie stared at her for a while, then giggled to herself. Soon that giggle turned into an out right laugh, Pinkie falling on the ground with a snort. To Rainbow it seemed that the party pony would never stop laughing. Rolling her eyes, dismissing this outrageous behavior as 'Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie'. The brawny pegasus peered into the blackening night for a certain orange coated farm pony, ready to gloat to her on how faster she was then her. Finally, the other three ponies trotted up, panting hard, with sweat rolling off their cheeks, with Rarity disgusted by this extra liquid on her body called 'sweat'. Applejack carried an exhausted Fluttershy on her back, the yellow mare too tired to go on, she had to enlist the help of the bigger-bodied southern pony. Applejack, her head drooping with exhaustion, gently sliding Fluttershy off her back, then turned to Rainbow Dash.

"Rainbow Dash! What was that all about? You could've at least waited for us. Not everypony is as fast as you with them fancy wings you just love showin' off to everypony around!"

Rainbow Dash looked indignant. "Hey! It's not my fault that-" She was interrupted with a sshh! in the direction of the white coated unicorn, pointing at the door of the castle. The two arguing ponies turned their heads to find Spike was standing there with wide green eyes, having opened the door upon hearing voices outside. Rarity cleared her throat significantly in the direction of Applejack and Rainbow Dash, then turned to Spike with innocence upon her face, and fluttering her eyelashes.

"Oh Spike, darling. Will you please open the door for us? Our dear friend Twilight has called us all over for an important," she put her hoof to her chin, looking lost in thought, "umm meeting! And we mustn't be late!"

Spike snapped out of his shocked state at Rarity's voice, and then he looked as if he just remembered something important. "Oh right! Twilight has been pacing the floor all day, reading this book I've never seen before intently. I haven't seen her do this ever since that 'time' incident with future Twilight." He opened the door wide enough for them all to fit through, pointing in the direction of the throne room. "She's in there." Pinkie launched through the door, bouncing excitedly towards the grand door.

"Oh Twilight! Yoo hoo! You in there?" *GASP!* "Is it a surprise? Oooh I love surprises! Is it, a present? I love presents, especially the big ones!" Pinkie's voice trailed off as she got farther and farther away from the group. With rollings of eyes from both Rainbow Dash and Applejack and a shudder from Fluttershy, they all continued down the large entrance hall towards Pinkie's voice, their hoofsteps echoing softly on the cool floor as the only sound coming from the four ponies and the dragon until the reached the door, where Pinkie was, once again, waiting for them.

Fluttershy spoke up. "So, who's going to open the door?" With a moment of hesitation, even from Rainbow Dash, Rarity quietly lit her horn and used her magic to turn the doorknob and open the door into the large throne room. They all saw Twilight excitedly moving around the room, organizing and re-organizing the room's décor, even though it looked spotless already to the untrained eye. Rarity cleared her throat, loud enough for the purple alicorn to notice them, but not as loud as to break her concentration on whatever she was doing. When Twilight looked up from reading a book intensely on a table in the corner of the circular room and taking notes on a piece of parchment, Applejack stepped up and asked her a question:

"Uh, sugarcube, are you alright? You don't look too good. You look like you've been up all night." At this concerned remark, Twilight put down her ears tiredly and sighed while rubbing her eyes.

"I'm sorry girls. I'm just really excited about this spell and what it could mean in the future of science and friendships all over Equestria!" She pulled out an open purple and black book laying open beside the other book she was just reading. Witch a smile on her face similar to the smile she was wearing before the five ponies standing in front of her interrupted the purple mare's research, she trotted over to where they were standing, confused, the spell book levitating so the the other ponies could see it. Except for Pinkie Pie, who was excitingly bouncing between all the equipment spread out across the room where Twilight was using them. Ignoring her usual crazy antics, the four ponies left crept in close so they could all see the "title" of the spell the page was flipped open to, if they could call it a title:

Versuche immer anders zu sein

The rest of the page was filled with lines of the same, strange language that none of the other ponies had seen before. While five of the ponies were looking on confusion (Pinkie had just joined them, wondering why it was so silent), Twilight explained her thoughts on the matter.

"When I found this book in the library, I quickly realized, with tons of research, that this strange new language is called German, and with that book I learned that this phrase on the top means 'Always try to be different'. Though why in Equestria the author would name a spell that exactly, I have no idea. That's what I was looking at when you girls came in. Also, I was thinking, I've never read this book before, and if I've never read this book before, that means Celestia has never sent it to me. She always sends me new books to read, whenever she finds out about them, and if she hasn't, that means I'm probably the first one to read it! And if I am, I'm the only one to cast its spells! Ooooh I'm so excited!" Through her excited rambling, she unknowingly flew herself the whole 20 feet to her ceiling and hit her head, stopping her tirade of words to rub her head. "Ouch!"

Rainbow Dash giggled not so silently and whispered in Applejack's ear, "Egghead." Then they both started chuckling together, their hooves in front of their mouths, trying to keep quiet. Fluttershy turned around and glared at them.

"Girls! She's your friend, don't make fun of her! She just has different interests than the both of you. Now sshh!" Once their laughter had finally died down enough, she turned her attention back on Twilight, who had started talking again. She had the spell book and the other book she was reading before, which turned out to be a translator book, in front of her face and writing on the same piece of parchment, concentrating as she tried her best at translating the spell. After a minute or two of Twilight checking and re-checking her handiwork, she finally slammed the book shut and put it on the table and sighed with satisfaction.

"Ok girls. Line up in a neat, orderly line please. And don't move. This has to go perfectly. No mistakes. Got that?" Twilight's friends nodded as they lined up side by side, with Spike waiting anxiously by the door. The purple alicorn breathed in and out, looking over the spell one more time before setting it down next to the translation book. She closed her eyes in determination and focused as a thin stream of purple magic sprouted from her horn and circled around each of the ponies standing, including the alicorn herself. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy could feel a tingling sensation in their backs, but were determined to keep their wings still. Pinkie Pie and Applejack could feel that same feeling on the foreheads. It was really hard for the pink party pony to keep still for so long, but she wasn't about to disappoint Twilight. Rarity, on the other hand, could feel the same tingling on both her forehead and her back, thus it was even harder for her to not move. She put her modeling skills to good use and scrunched up her nose tight. Twilight could barely feel the same feeling on her horn. She was sure that that was part of the spell, and so ignored it.

After what seemed like hours to the six friends, but was only a few minutes, the spell was over. Rainbow Dash cautiously opened her eyes, one after the other, and smugly smiled after she realized she was still alive.

"Ha! Is that all Twilight? That didn't seem so hard!" The rainbow haired pony got up from where she lying down on the floor, her muscles stiff as if she'd been electrocuted. She tried to use the familiar muscles in her back to flap her wings proudly, but soon found that she couldn't feel that weight on her back, or the air that usually rustled her fur on her back when she flapped her wings. She checked, puzzled, behind her and promptly screamed like a little filly. Her wings were gone.

"Aaaah! Where are my wings?? What did you do with my wings??" She frantically looked around her at her passed out friends on the floor. Applejack and Pinkie Pie have, HORNS? And Rarity and Twilight were pegasi? And she spotted Fluttershy next to her, also missing her yellow, feathery wings. Rainbow Dash started panicking. This was a dream. This HAD to be a dream! This couldn't happen!

The former blue pegasus fainted on the cold, castle floor.

Author's Note

Special thanks to my friend StarDancer1123, my German translator! You'll be seeing her again soon! :raritywink: Anyway, if you guys liked it, please please PLEASE tell me so in the comments! I worked really hard on this chapter, how it could transition smoothly, and all that other stuff. StarDancer also helped me with that. Just so you know, I can't speak ANY German, so if you have any questions on that, talk to her. See you next time! :heart:

A Little Help

Pinkie Pie groggily woke up from her seemingly long nap. Her half opened eyelids fluttered sleepily and she yawned while scratching the side of her head with her hind leg. She frowned slightly when she realized that something was wrong with her mane. It was being held back by something, the party pony couldn’t tell what though. Her mess of a mane was usually super bouncy and flowy, but this time, there was something on her forehead keeping it back. Determined to catch that evil villain who dare mess with Pinkie Pie, she threw both her forelegs up, and something pointy jabbed her hooves.

“Ouch! What was that?” She cautiously brought her right hoof up and felt for the jabby, pointy thing and felt it all around. It was a...horn?? Not many things surprised the pink pony, but this one surprise really threw for a loop, and it left her puzzled for a moment. Not for long though. Soon enough, a sneaky smile spread on her face. Just imagine all the pranks she could throw on ponies now that she had a horn! With that same smile, she focused all her concentration on her newfound horn, hoping to do some magic.

BAM!

A gunshot like noise filled the air as confetti bursted from the magic she created in a bright pink blast of light. The loud ruckus startled all the other ponies on the floor awake. All except Rainbow Dash, who didn’t look like she was waking up anytime soon. Pinkie Pie sat down smugly as her four other friends turned to glare at the source of the noise. And that glare quickly turned into shock. Pinkie… had a horn?? There was a loud commotion as everypony else turned to look at their new additions, or lack thereof.

Rarity turned to look at an extra weight on her back that she hadn’t felt before- and squealed in excitement when she discovered her very own set of feathery wings. Spreading them out to their full length, she pet them delicately in admiration.

“Oooh! They’re gorgeous! Absolutely GORGEOUS!” But then she realized that with the addition of these beautiful wings, she couldn’t feel her horn anymore. The white pony quickly brought her hoof up her forehead where her horn usually sat, and realized that it was actually gone! Just a smooth surface.

“My horn! My beautiful, beautiful horn! Of all the worst things that could happen, this is. The. Worst. Possible. Thing!” Anxiously feeling the spot where her horn was once more, to make sure she wasn’t having a terrible nightmare, the now white pegasus fell to the ground in despair, sobbing dramatically.

***

Applejack woke up from her surprise nap with a bang that echoed throughout the long throne room, yelping as she leaped in the air with shock. She groaned sleepily and rubbed her eyes with a still shaking hoof, shutting her eyes tight against the lights flickering behind her eyelids.

“Pinkie Pie! What in the hay did you go and do that fer? And why-” As she was rubbing her face to try to remove the permanent lights, her hoof caught on something in her bangs. The southern pony's green eyes slowly widened as her hoofs investigated further. An extra bone-type thing had mysteriously grown on her forehead, making a part in her blonde mane. Racing over to a crystal wall, she looked in and saw a reflection of herself, with a horn! An orange horn was popping out of her head, a permanent feature now etched onto her. As she was gaping at her reflection, a pinkish glow suddenly burst out of nowhere right next to her, leaving Pinkie Pie in its place, smiling widely at Applejack through the crystal mirror.

"I KNOW! Doesn't it look FUN?! We have our own horns now! Wheee!" With that, Pinkie teleported away to another part of the room, startling Fluttershy, who was still in the midst of waking up and discovering her own addition-or lack of one.

Applejack, still staring at the spot where Pinkie was just a second ago, shook her head and looked again at herself.

"What happened here?"

***

Fluttershy shrieked and hid beneath her hooves when she heard the loud sound of Pinkie's explosion echoing throughout the throne room. When the yellow pony thought it was safe to come out, she cautiously lifted one hoof and then the other, peeking out anxiously and looking around the castle room, looking for her friends. There was Pinkie, teleporting around the room as usual, and..... wait. Teleporting? Fluttershy shut her eyes tight and rubbed them once, making sure she wasn't still dreaming. She opened her eyes once more cautiously and stood up slowly, observing her surroundings.

"Oh... my.."

Pinkie was once again joyously screaming and sending off pink flashes of light every time she teleported, blinding Fluttershy little by little. Squinting her eyes, she looked over at Rarity, who was sobbing into her hooves, a pair of white Pegasus wings sticking up from her heaving back. And Rainbow Dash was right beside her, the rainbow mare's face completely covered, and it seemed like she was fast asleep. The loud bang seemed to have done nothing to awaken her. But what really caught Fluttershy's eyes was the lack of blue, feathery wings on her back that the pony was always using for one thing or another.

Suddenly noticing the light air breezing through the fur on her back where her wings should have been, Fluttershy twisted her nect around until she could see the problem.

"Oh my goodness! What's happening?" Even though the shy pony barely ever used her wings, it was still a shock to find the same problem as Rainbow Dash's, leaving Fluttershy officially an earth pony.

***

"AAHH!"

Twilight woke up screaming to a loud bang and a bright pink flash in the room. But her scream went unnoticed to the already loud room, filled with the same pink flashes that had woken her up. Groaning, Twilight stretched, first her hind legs, then her forelegs, and then finally her wings on her back. It seemed that she had been sleeping for way longer than she imagined and her joints felt cramped for being on the cold floor of her castle all that time. She opened her eyes to pure and complete chaos in the room. She glanced over Rarity and Rainbow Dash on the floor, not processing either of their changes, saw Fluttershy staring widely at everything in the room, Applejack looking at the wall and Pinkie running around the room. The pink flashes didn't faze her at the time, it was just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.

"What is wrong with everypony today?" Twilight tried to use her magic to stop her friends in their tracks like she did when they were all in the Castle of the Two Sisters, and for the Hooffields and the McColts, but nothing was happening.

"My magic! Something's wrong with my magic!" Her eyes darting everywhere, Twilight tried to levitate the spell she used on the parchment, a simple task, but it seemed to not work either. In fact, she couldn't feel the familiar vibration on her horn that signified that she was doing magic. Twilight hyperventilated. Why couldn't she do magic? Is something wrong? What did she do wrong? She galloped over to the nearest mirror, a handheld mirror that Rarity left last time she was here. Her heart racing, she looked into her reflection- and promptly screamed.

Every pony's head turned at the sound of screaming coming from the direction of the 5 throne chairs. Everypony, but Rainbow Dash, who was still asleep. Twilight was rocking herself back and forth on the floor, clearly breathing hard and panicking. Walking closer, they could hear her muttering,

"How could this happen? I checked, and re checked. This couldn't be my fault. It couldn't!! How could I have failed like this?" Twilight crumpled up her translation of the spell with her hooves and shoved it away from her. She covered her face and started sobbing. Applejack walked closer.

"Aww sugarcube, it ain't your fault. You just made a simple mistake. I'm sure I can try living with this here, uh, horn thingy." Rarity looked at the the former earth pony, shocked.

"Well, I never! You are lucky to have such a beautiful, beautiful, horn! You should be grateful!" The white Pegasus huffed and turned her head away pointedly. Applejack elbowed her and shot her a glare. She muttered, "Not helping."

While the two ponies were arguing, Fluttershy stepped up and said quietly to Twilight,

"Maybe we can ask Princess Celestia for help. She knows all about magic spells, doesn't she? She'll help us!"

Twilight brought her head, wiping the tears from her eyes. "You know, you're right! Spike, please come here!" Spike peered out from the doorway of the throne room, looking around with a scared expression at everypony's new additions. He ran quickly to Twilight's side.

"Yes Twilight? What do you need?"

"Can you take a note please? To Princess Celestia." Spike grabbed a piece of parchment and quill from a nearby table and held them up, ready.

Twilight paced the room, speaking as she walked. "Dear Celestia. I found a new spell in my library and tried it out with my friends. But something awful has happened. We need your help immediately. I will be sending the book I found with the spell that I used in it."

Spike rolled up the scroll, sent it with his fiery breath, took the book Twilight was holding for him with her mouth, and sent that as well. Twilight sighed with relief, glad to finally get that off her shoulders. At least, for now.

"Way to take charge Twilight! Although, I wouldn't mind having this horn for the rest of my life! It's so super fun!!" Pinkie bounced around Twilight, sending sparks from her horn with every bounce. Just then, Spike burped out a letter with a little green explosion. Along with the letter came the same book Twilight had sent. Confused, Twilight picked up the scroll with her mouth and put it on the main table.

"Why would she send the book back? Doesn't she need it to find out what went wrong?"

Her four other friends crowded in around her as she unfurled it and read the letter out loud:

"Dear Twilight,
I understand what you have gone through, and so I believe you should write to Kaiserin Vogelweide, the leader of a far out land called Germany. The Kaiserin can speak our language, and maybe she can help you in your predicament. I believe that you can solve this, with their help.

Princess Celestia "
Twilight stared at the parchment a bit longer, turning it this way and that.

"Is that it? I thought she'd actually give us come advice on how to fix this!"

"Then what do we do now Twilight?" Fluttershy asked her, looking up with worry.
Twilight sighed and turned around to face her friends.

"We go write to this, Kaiserin, of Germany."

"But how Twilight? We don't even know where this Germany is." Applejack asked her.

"I have no idea!"

Author's Note

Finally! I finished this chapter! Thank u so much to those who decided to stay to see this to the end! :yay:
School only started a month ago, and it's already TORTURE! I have had tons to homework to do, so I haven't been able to work on my story:pinkiesad2: Hope u like it!