"Watch it!" An oddly familiar voice scolded her.
Fluttershy shook her head, and watched as herself ran off.
"U- uh..." Her voice came out deeper.
Her hands were different looking too, and her skin tone, and hair, and clothes, and she's Sunset Shimmer.
...
"Oh dear." Fluttershy squeaked.
She saw no sign of herself anymore, and that was troubling, and- oh dear, Sunset had the animals, she hoped Angel was okay. She rubbed her shoulders and then shivered as she felt black leather. Should she tell someone? She should probably tell someone. It would cause a bit of drama but this felt a little important, someone would understand, hopefully. She wasn't very sure-
"Oh my." Fluttershy picked up the Fall Formal Crown.
Now what was this doing out here? Fluttershy wasn't very sure, but Principal Celestia and the other students would be very upset if the crown was lost. Fluttershy didn't like to upset people, upset people felt more okay yelling at others, Fluttershy tried to avoid upset people, or things that made people upset.
In hindsight, her friendship with Rainbow Dash when they were kids was probably a bad idea.
No, it was bad to think of Rainbow Dash that way, and it's bad to let the crown sit on the ground here. She was really worried about her animals, and her body. She should really try to do something about that, Sunset might be worried too, but it's bad to leave the crown here. That's something that she should take care of too-
"You okay?" A voice asked very cautiously.
Fluttershy looked up to see Flash Sentry stare at her. Oh dear. It's not that she was Sunset or Flash was Flash, it's just that Flash was a boy, and he liked Sunset, and that's a little scary right now. She guessed it was because she was Sunset right now, but she didn't want to blame the other girl for that. It's her own business she had a relationship with Flash, and that's fine. Personally, Fluttershy already knew she would be single to the grave, it's what she wanted; Maybe also a nice house right outside a forest, with a little stream and a giant bear that carried heavy things for her. She also wanted an eagle, and an owl, probably every cat and dog in the animal shelter, maaaaybe a penpal, and-
"Sunset." Flash said a little more sternly.
Fluttershy flinched and looked up at him.
"No, no no no, not the kicked puppy face." Flash covered his eyes. "Please stop making the kicked puppy face."
"I'm sorry..." Fluttershy whispered.
She lowered her head in shame. Her first conversation and she already made him upset, that's really bad. She heard Sunset and Flash were on bad terms, she didn't want to make it worse.
"Are you okay?" Flash said with more sincerity this time. "You don't ever apologize, or at least, not to me."
"Oh." Fluttershy frowned. "I'm sorry about that."
"It's alright. Well, actually, it's not, but, well, I mean... yeah." Flash petered off.
Fluttershy didn't want to apologize again. Not because she wasn't sorry, but because that annoys some people, and that can be scary.
"Hey, look, I'm not here to pick a fight, just... you okay?" Flash asked.
"Oh, yes, I'm fine." Fluttershy murmured, "Well, I'm having just one small problem..."
"What?"
""Have you seen my body?"
"What?"
"Have you seen my body?"
"Sunset, we used to date, I've seen your body multiple times."
Fluttershy's face- well, Sunset's face turned red. "U- uh, oh no, oh, oh dear, um, no, no no no..."
Flash raised an eyebrow.
"Do... do you know where Fluttershy is?" Fluttershy asked.
Flash narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Why?"
"N- no reason!" Fluttershy scooped up the crown and rushed into Canterlot High.
That was close, he could've lost his temper and yelled at her. She'll just have to find out what happened to herself on her own.
She unconsciously rubbed the collar of her leather jacket as the some students stared at her in poorly concealed fear.
"Oh dear." Fluttershy squeaked in Sunset's deeper tone.
Fluttershy wanted to go home, crawl into the makeshift bed under her actual bed, and pretend that none of this ever happened. Unfortunately, her brother was home right now, and being Sunset Shimmer is only slightly less worse than being around her brother as of late. A student bumped into her roughly, jolting Fluttershy out of her thoughts.
"Sorry-"
"Whatever." The student rolled his eyes.
"I really... Oh, um, okay..." Fluttershy watched the student walk away, ignoring her.
That was odd, she never had a student bump into her before, not at least without giving an apology. She supposed many students liked to respect Sunset's independence, she never really liked it when Fluttershy offered a helping hand. Especially after Sunset would spit on Fluttershy, or kick her, or blackmail her, or anything really. Not that Fluttershy really minded, but she was a little curious why Sunset was so determined to shut off from the rest of the world. If Fluttershy didn't have a bucket of pee poured on her yesterday, she would probably be concerned for Sunset right now. Sunset only gets one free animal shelter cookie instead of two on Fridays... Actually, she was still a little concerned for Sunset right now, only just a little. Just somewhat. She really hoped Sunset was okay. It'd be terrible if she got bullied or hurt because of how she looked.
Since Fluttershy was already late for class, she might as well return the crown. She knocked on the Principal's door.
"Come in," Celestia called out.
Keeping her head low, Fluttershy meekly walked in, gently sat into the chair on the opposite side of Celestia's desk, and waited.
And waited.
"Well," Celestia eventually said "This isn't how our meetings usually go Miss Shimmer, frequently you like to cut me off before I can get a word in."
"Oh, I'm sorry." Fluttershy whispered.
More silence.
"Are you alright Sunset?" Celestia frowned.
"I found this on the ground." Fluttershy murmured as she gently put the crown on Celestia's desk.
"I see," Celestia smiled. "After it got rather obviously stolen last night, it seems to rather convenient that you, of all people, would have it Shimmer."
"Oh." Fluttershy blinked.
Now that she thought about it, what was the crown doing there? Did Sunset take it? No, it's rude to assume bad things about people, Sunset was just probably turning in the crown to Celestia herself, and that's why she was in a rush. Poor thing, swapping bodies and dropping the crown... Sunset must be so scared right now.
"OH CELESTIA I'VE BECOME A FURRY FAGGOT-"
"Well, thank you for 'politely' returning the crown Sunset, this has been a very pleasant surprise."
Fluttershy slowly looked up to see a loving smile on Celestia's face.
"You wouldn't happen to have anything else on you you'd like to return?" Celestia said in a gentle, teasing tone.
"Oh, I don't know..." Fluttershy honestly.
Fluttershy proceeded to ruffle through belongings, and pulled out a miniature crowbar, multiple sets of lock picks, a little book full of all the student's embarrassing secrets, silly putty, a lighter, a small can of gasoline, and a switchblade.
Celestia blinked.
"These are all yours?" She asked in a flat tone.
"Um, yes, I think so?.." Fluttershy frowned.
A plastic bag full of cash with the words 'COLLECTED LUNCH MONEY' slipped out of Fluttershy's seemingly bottomless jacket.
Silence.
"Oh!" Fluttershy smiled. "That's why she never liked anyone touching her jacket!"
Oh dear, Celestia was upset. Fluttershy was trying not to be nervous that Celestia was upset with her. She wasn't really upset with her, she was upset with Sunset. Fluttershy understood why, some of those things weren't allowed in school, and Fluttershy personally agreed. She was sure once the two of them talked it out, everything would be just fine. Unfortunately, she was Sunset Shimmer at the moment. Which made things just a little bit harder to explain.
"Well, do you have anything to say for yourself?" Celestia narrowed her eyes.
"Um, no." Fluttershy whispered.
Celestia waited.
"Nothing?" Celestia sounded confused. "You just unloaded a crowbar, lock picks, blackmail material, a can of gasoline, a switchblade, and money you stole from other students, all from your jacket. You even labeled the blackmail book in blood red, 'It Prints Money, by Sunset Shimmer. All this, and you have nothing to say for yourself?"
"I don't really know how those got there," Fluttershy answered honestly.
Now would be the perfect time to tell Celestia what happened. All Fluttershy had to do was look her in the eye an- oh, Celestia was glaring at her, and it made it really hard to speak up. It didn't help that Celestia was really big. Oh no, not that Fluttershy meant to imply she was fat. She was a very pretty lady. She was just so tall, and her legs... her legs were really long. They weren't freaky, that would be rude to think, they were just a little longer than what should be possible. Fluttershy was sure this was just her but sometimes... sometimes that made Celestia just a little bit intimidating.
Just a little.
"Well, actually there is one thing." Fluttershy spoke up.
"Oh really?"
Fluttershy flinched at the tone in her voice. She kept repeating the mantra that she herself didn't do anything wrong, but she wasn't herself right now. She was Sunset, and Sunset might possibly perhaps just maybe be in just a little tiny itty bitty smidgen of trouble. That was kinda scary.
"Is Sunset getting detention?" Fluttershy whimpered.
"Detention," Celestia said in a flat tone, "I should call the police."
"O- oh..." Fluttershy stared at Sunset's boots.
Fluttershy felt that having a panic attack would be very unbecoming, and probably make Sunset look worse, and that was contributing to her panic attack. Fluttershy tried to think positive thoughts, like how she probably be excused from school after the whole thing blew over and would go home and be alone with her sleazy brother in Sunset's sexy, seductive body. She opened her mouth to scream.
"Haaah..." Fluttershy's vocal cords gently brushed against each other.
"Sunset, I'm very worried about you."
Tears started welling up in Fluttershy's eyes. Today has been, just, awful! Sunset was going to get in trouble with the police, both her and Fluttershy lost their bodies, and worst of all, she made Principal Celestia worried about her. Fluttershy scolded herself, Principal Celestia had been nothing but patient, and yet here she was crying her eyes out. More than anything, she wished she could just run away right now.
"I'm going to take you to the Nurse's Office." Celestia continued.
"What?" Fluttershy looked up, confused.
"Can you walk?" She stood up and offered Fluttershy a hand.
"O- oh. Um, yes, I can stand on my own, thank you." Fluttershy stumbled getting up.
"Here, give me your hand," Celestia said in a far more gentle tone.
Fluttershy quietly followed Celestia down the halls. She stared at the floor, keeping Celestia's feet in the edge of her vision for direction. She felt so embarrassed right now. All of the student body must staring at her as she held Celestia's hand. She dared to look up for a second and- oh there was Tree Hugger staring at her, she really didn't want Tree Hugger to see her right now. There's Flash, looking like his brain just got overloaded. He seems to get overwhelmed a lot unfortunately, not that Fluttershy thought anything bad about him...
"Here we are Sunset," Celestia kept her tone professional, despite looking concerned. "Do try to get better."
"Thank you very much Principal Celestia," Fluttershy responded.
"As for your belongings..." Celestia stopped and rubbed her temples. "If you're feeling better, come back later today alright? Otherwise we'll have a talk about it tomorrow."
"I understand."
"Good." Celestia nodded.
Fluttershy stared at the nurse's door, waiting for Celestia to leave.
Celestia coughed into her palm.
Fluttershy started to panic again, what was-
"You can go run now Sunset."
"What?!" Fluttershy gasped.
"I said, you can go in now Sunset."
"Oh. Oh right, I-"
Fluttershy slammed her face into the door, then backed up and stared at it.
She was very used to slamming into things and it hurting a lot more. She guessed Sunset had thicker skin, or stronger bones, or both, maybe. She reached up and felt her perfectly fine nose, and stared at the door in front of her again. It felt a little nice to run into things and not get a cut or bruise every time.
Fluttershy jumped when Celestia opened up the door for her and gently pushed her in. Fortunately for her, the only one inside the principal's office currently was the Nurse herself. Redheart rolled her eyes upon seeing Fluttershy, or rather, Sunset Shimmer, and looked at Celestia.
"Nurse Redheart, I'm having a few concerns over Miss Shimmer here.
"This wouldn't be the first time, what is it now Celestia?"
"What shows symptoms of memory problems, extreme paranoia, and a change in personality?"
"Puberty you dumbass," Redheart replied without hesitation.
"Haaah..."
Celestia shoved her palms into her face and sighed.
"I'm being serious Redheart."
"Okay." Redheart blinked. "Depression, Schizophrenia, Bipolar, Vitamin Deficiency, Dementia-"
"How about you give Sunset a multi vitamin and let her lay down for a bit?" Celestia cut her off.
"Sure, whatever." She reached into a cabinet for a bottle.
Fluttershy's mind was on autopilot at this point. She numbly washed down a pill with a glass of water as Celestia led her to a bed. She didn't think she was going to be able to rest with everything that happened. How could she sleep in a body that wasn't her own? How was she going to live in a body that wasn't her own? And- oh.
"Thank you very much for taking care of me." Fluttershy said to Celestia as she was leaving.
"You're welcome Sunset."
Fluttershy peeked up to see Celestia give her a gentle smile before closing the door. Oh, that made her feel so much better. An act of kindness from others always both humbled her and put her in a state of peace. She knew she should be worried right now, but she felt so tired, and the bed really was comfy...
Author's Note
*When you know you’re going to see a typo or obvious mistake right after you upload it.*
