Beautiful day. Absolutely magnificent. Everything was bound to be perfect on a day like today.
Twilight Sparkle rose out of bed early in the morning. She stretched out her wings before climbing out of bed, yawning once before reaching into Spike's usual slumber to shake him awake.
"Spike...! Spike! Come on, wake up!" she yelled sleepily, not caring enough to notice her failed attempts at waking her sleeping baby dragon up. Twilight coughed once, moving to her desk and taking a quill.
"Don't make me use the feather..." she drawled, her eyes drooping from lack of sleep. She and Spike had decided to spend the majority of the night studying new spells Princess Celestia had sent her to overlook. Most of them had ended in small disasters though, but nothing caused too big of a ruckus.
"Spike...?" Twilight eyed the blank spot next to her bed curiously, finally realizing that there was nopony in the small basket at all. She inwardly gasped, immediately retreating to the library a floor below her to investigate.
"Spike! Spike, where are you?!" she called throughout the castle. She checked every door, every nook and cranny, looking for the dragon. "If this is your idea of some practical joke, it isn't very funny!" she said, slumping down in her place and crossing her hooves.
"Oh is that what it is, then?" she said, "some silly prank played by you and Rainbow Dash? Come on guys, I think the joke factor ended precisely five minutes ago. You can come out now."
Still nothing. Twilight didn't have a clue at what was going on.
"Oh this is getting ridiculous..." she mumbled underneath her breath, deciding with finality she was going to get to the bottom of this.
Twilight sighed, moving quickly towards the front door of the castle. She grabbed the knob with her magic, pulling it open and gazing out into Ponyville.
What she saw shocked her.
"What the...?"
Creatures were walking through the town, completely at ease. Most were in the form of ponies, but none looked remotely close to one. Twilight's eyes widened as she saw giant alicorns and changelings flying through the air, talking with everypony as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on.
Twilight's breath hitched. She immediately took off, running through the town and yelling at the top of her lungs.
"ATTACK! ATTACK! PONYVILLE'S UNDER ATTACK!" she screamed, causing more than a few nifty glances her way. She stopped abruptly upon sighting a big hot-pink alicorn with a hoof out in front of her, signaling her to stop.
Twilight gulped, looking up into the gaze of this pony. She had a long flowing yellow-and-green mane and was wearing a giant orange crown behind her changeling-textured horn. Her hooves were of similar style- both webbed and slick. Her eyes were bright red, bearing dragon-like slits, and to top it all off, she wore a big diamond pendant around her long neck.
"Who are you? What are you doing in my kingdom?" the alicorn asked calmly. Twilight took a step back in shock.
"Your kingdom? Since when was Ponyville... or even Equestria, your kingdom?!" she asked. The alicorn raised her eyebrows as she continued.
"I know not what you are talking about. I have never heard of this Ponyville or Equestria, as you say. This is Charm Villé, and I asked you a question, did I not?" she asked. Twilight tilted her head in confusion.
"Charm Villé?" she started, "I've never even heard of a place like that! It isn't on any offical maps or-"
"You speak rubbish," the alicorn cut in abruptly. Twilight's eyes widened as she tried making due with this strange pony.
"Uh... okay? Can you just please tell me what's going on? Or are you just Princess Luna in some disguise?" she asked. "Come to think of it, that would make sense. Someone's playing a prank on me! I knew it!"
"What are you even talking about," the alicorn said. "You are making no sense. No sense at all."
"You're telling me," Twilight muttered. The alicorn ignored this.
"I am Princess Gemma. I rule all the land with my trusty sidekick Bob and his brother Joe," she explained, as if this took care of everything. "I know all of my subjects, and you are definitely not one of them. I believe you must need to be registered into the playbook of all the ponies."
"A... playbook? Of all ponies? But that doesn't make any sense! I-"
"Silence! How dare you speak in this tone in front of me! I am Princess Gemma! You must pay your respects," Princess Gemma said.
"And I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, and I demand to know what is going on," Twilight said, trying her ruler gaze on this mare. It definitely didn't seem to be working.
"You are just like all of them. I feel as if you will fit in here just swell," Princess Gemma said simply, "now come, we must get you registered with the files on Charm Villé."
Twilight decided not to argue with this mare further. It was obvious she had just a few screws loose. Somepony was just playing a majorly dumb and stupid prank on her, and she was bound to find out about it sooner or later.
Princess Gemma led her through the town, weaving in and out of strange-looking ponies. Twilight caught the eye of a tiny filly with dragon wings and a giant black-coated stallion who, like Gemma, looked absolutely atrocious and weird.
"We have arrived," Princess Gemma said as she stopped in front of the mayor's manor.
"Mayor Mare's house? Oh good, I'm sure this is when everypony jumps up and says something silly like, 'Get wrecked mate!', or, 'You just got burned!'," Twilight said. Princess Gemma gave her a look of confusion and led her inside.
"Once again, I know not what you are referring to, I will simply ignore you," she said. Twilight rolled her eyes, beginning to get more and more annoyed at the situation she was in.
"Whatever, just please take me to the mayor," she said hotly as Princess Gemma left her by a huge desk in the sitting room. "Uh... what are you doing?"
"I am leaving you here. Now you will be able to get registered and start living a life in Charm Villé. I don't know what kind of sick place you were in before coming here, but you're safe now. In Cha-"
"Charm Villé. Yes yes, I get it," Twilight said, crossing her hooves in annoyance. Princess Gemma gave her an amused look, before shrugging and making her way out of the building.
"Name."
Twilight jumped in surprise at the small mare sitting behind the desk she was standing in front of. The mare had a pale blue coat and a mane made entirely out of water crystals. Her bored green eyes searched Twilight for enjoyment.
"Uh... Princess Twilight Sparkle," Twilight said slowly. She noticed the blue mare's eyes immediately brighten at the mention of her name.
"Ooh... so we have a so-called princess here, don't we," she said happily, moving to her piece of parchment and a quill. She dipped it into the large bottle of navy ink and wrote Twilight's name down. "Oh and I'm Clear Crystal; I saved the world a few times and stuff, nothing compared to what other's have done here though," Clear said. Twilight eyed her curiously.
"Uh... pleased to meet you?" she said uncertainly. Clear nodded firmly.
"Alright, what is your special talent? I see you're an alicorn?" she said. Twilight nodded.
"Yeah... I am. My special talent's magic, and I'm the Princess of Friendship in Equestria," she said, her annoyance rising by the second. Clear grinned from ear to ear.
"Ooooo, so you're an alicorn, the princess of friendship, and your special talent is magic itself?!" she said excitedly. Twilight raised an eyebrow, but nodded.
"Yes, that's what I said." Twilight's ears began to turn red.
"Well?" Clear asked, as if she was waiting for something.
"Well what?" Twilight asked.
"Aren't you going to tell me about your dark and tragic past?" she asked, her expression turning back to one of boredom. Twilight mentally groaned. That was it.
"But I don't have a dark and tragic past!" she exclaimed. Clear's eyes twinkled.
"Ah... amnesia, I see."
"I don't have amnesia, what?!" Twilight yelled, her annoyance finally getting the best of her.
"What, what?" Clear asked.
"ARGHHHH!" Twilight screamed in frustration. Clear was instantly by her side, stroking her hair.
"This is all part of the process," she said, "denial of facts-"
"This has nothing to do with facts!" Twilight whined. Clear shrugged.
"Whatever, soon you'll just accept the fact that we're all mad here," she said. Twilight took a deep breath, before screaming at the top of her lungs and running out the door.
"I'M GOING CRAZY!" she chanted, still yelling, "I'M GOING CRAZY! I'M GOING CRAZY!"
Twilight stopped, suddenly remembering something. There was a spell she used last night during her study session with Spike. A spell that could transport anypony to another place, no matter if it existed or not. She had tried it out right before going to bed, but it didn't seem like it had done anything.
That spell had probably made Twilight end up in this horrid place. And if she remembered correctly, there was no counter spell.
"I'm doomed... doomed I tell you," she mumbled hoarsely to herself. "If only there was some amazing wizard who could create a spell for anything... but pshh like that could ever happen."
Twilight pondered over what to do, looking at a changeling dressed in a frilly dress walk down the street. Another pony following it while immersed in a book about unicorns. One look at the pony and Twilight was shocked to see it have a rabbit's head sitting on two horns at the top of his forehead.
Anything, it seemed, could happen in this town.
"That's it!" Twilight said, a lightbulb going off inside her brain. She quickly started running through everypony.
"I NEED AN EXPERT ON SPELLS! I NEED AN EXPERT ON SPELLS!" she kept yelling, desperate to find someone who could help her. "ANYPONY? PLEASE?"
"Uh... I could maybe help you," a small brown colt said. He looked... completely normal, not at all like the other ponies in this town. Twilight stopped and silently thanked Celestia for the miracle.
"Brilliant! I need a spell that will take me back home!" she exclaimed. The colt nodded, signaling her to follow him. Twilight quirked an eyebrow at his behavior, but followed him nevertheless, stopping in front of an old house.
"Come in," the colt said, climbing inside through the attic window. Twilight took a deep breath, readying herself for an ambush that was most definitely about to come once she went inside.
She slowly climbed through the door, gasping at once upon seeing what was inside. Her own personal paradise.
Books.
"There's got to be a spell like that somewhere around here," the brown colt said, rummaging through his library.
"Woah that's a lot of books," Twilight breathed out.
"AHA!" the colt suddenly yelled, holding up a random page out of a light green copy.
"What? Did you find something?" Twilight asked. The colt nodded, quickly lighting up his horn in preparation to perform the spell. "You're sure it'll work, right?"
"Uh... sure," the colt said, giving her a nervous smile.
"Say... how old are you anyway?"
"Five," the colt said as he started saying the incantation for the spell. Twilight's eyes widened as she tried to say something, but instead coughed once, before breaking into a fit of throat pushes. The air left her lungs as she silently was wisked away in the matter of seconds.
Twilight landed back in her bed inside the Castle of Friendship. She gasped, feeling around and quickly jumping to her hooves and running towards the front door to the castle.
She pulled the gates open, preparing to see a perfectly normal Ponyville completely intact.
She got no such surprise.
Standing in front of her was none other than Princess Gemma. Her red slits for eyes bore into her skull.
"Ah. I see you have made yourself some living arrangements. Are you enjoying your stay so far?"
...
Twilight screamed.
