The Switch

A few days had gone by since Twilight's talk with Rainbow Dash and Rainbow had started to adjust to life as a unicorn. She had secured a job at a furniture store, using her magic to load and unload heavy furniture. It kept her busy and she didn't think as often about how much she missed her wings. Slowly, she went back to being the Rainbow Dash that they all knew and loved.

Twilight was in her library looking for an old book that she was going to study to learn about older magic. After Rainbow had left her house, she had poured herself into studying old secrets of ancient magic in the hopes that something, anything would help them out of their situation. She glanced over at a tower of old books and gave a frustrated sigh. Nothing she had found in any of the books gave her even a hint on how to change her and her friends back to normal.

She glanced up to one of the highest shelves in the library and spotted the book she was looking for. She smiled and flew up to the shelf to retrieve the book. She grabbed it and lovingly dusted it off. The dust went straight into her nose and Twilight fought the urge to sneeze, but it was no use. She turned her head and sneezed. "Well, it's a good thing that I don't breathe fire" she said to herself. She landed and walked over to her desk where she placed the book down and began scanning the pages to find anything she could use to change them back.

She had only gotten a few pages in when her assistant, Spike, ran up behind her holding a scroll in his outstretched claws. "Twilight!" said Spike, "The princess just sent you a letter."

"Ooh, this must be important!" said Twilight happily as she closed the book she had been reading. Taking the scroll from Spike, she unfurled it and began reading.

"Dear Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student, as I am sure that you are all aware, the Grand Galloping Gala is coming up in one month’s time. Considering that you and your friends have all gone and it was not quite what you expected, I would like all of you to organize it this year! I am putting all of you in charge of the food, decor, events, and any other little details that might pop up. I would like you and your friends to come to Canterlot as soon as you can to begin preparations. Yours truly, Princess Celestia."

Twilight looked up at Spike with excitement in her eyes. "Spike, the Princess wants us to organize the Grand Galloping Gala this year! Can you believe it?" said Twilight happily as she bounced around the room Pinkie Pie style. Spike just gave her an amused grin.

Over the course of the next few hours, Twilight gathered up her five friends and told them the exciting news that the Princess had given her. As each was given the news, the pony in question would jump up and down in pure excitement, ready to do their part to make the biggest part of the year better for the ponies attending than it had been for them. Rainbow Dash in particular was excited by the news as it meant that she would really have the opportunity to practice her magic.

Soon, the six friends were on their way, chatting excitedly about what they would do. "I imagine that the Princess will want me to do the food this year like I did for the Summer Sun Celebration!" said Applejack happily. "I can't wait for those fancy shmancy ponies to taste what real home cookin' tastes like instead of those pathetic little snacks. I want them to go home happy and full!"

"I can't wait to begin work on the decorations!" said Rarity. "Even though I don't have my magic, I am sure that I will still have plenty of helpers and I don't need my magic to know what is stylish and what is not!"

"Pinkie and I can help with the music!" said Fluttershy happily. "She can deal with stuff involving a band and I can arrange for birds to sing as well!" she said, excited at the prospect of getting another shot at being around Princess Celestia's garden with the animals.

"We're all excited about this," said Twilight. "I'm sure all of us will do a great job and make this a much better night than what we had to endure!" said Twilight. The six friends laughed, remembering the disastrous affair that had been the Gala the year before.

Before long, the train pulled into The Grand Canterlot Train Station and the six ponies disembarked to go to the castle. On the way they chattered excitedly some more about what the next few days held for them as they prepared for the Gala.

When they reached the castle, they were let in by a trio of very confused guards. They explained briefly what had happened to them which seemed to mollify them a tad but they still went to go collect the Princess, exchanging uneasy looks. The six friends waited around in a lavish ballroom. Rarity had immediately begun talking about her plans for how she would decorate the room once they had entered. "Oh yes I think this will do very nicely, I think that some gold streamers should go there...or maybe purple streamers? Oh I think gold would be much nicer actually and as for the table cloths we can do purple for them instead and we can have a lovely vase full of beautiful flowers in the middle of each table and..." she continued on this tirade for quite some time. The other five ponies grinned at this; she was lost in her own little world at the moment. She was still going when Princess Celestia entered the room.

"Ah, Twilight Sparkle, my star student. How are you this..." she stopped dead in her tracks and stared at the six ponies. Her jaw almost hit the floor when she saw that all six of them had changed races. Her left eye twitched as she looked at each pony, hardly able to believe what she was seeing. "I...I...I..." she stuttered. Rarity looked towards Twilight with a frown.

"Wait, didn't you tell the Princess about this?"

"I guess it completely slipped my mind. In hindsight, I can't believe that I didn't tell her!" Hearing this, Pinkie began counting the walls in the room. When she counted the fourth one, she trotted over to it and knocked on it with her hoof, causing a small crack to appear. When she saw this, she leaned in and said,

"Isn't that a bit unlikely? That makes absolutely no sense to me." She hit the crack with her hoof again and it widened. "I mean, Twilight tells the Princess everything, you think she would have told her this too! It seems like a hole to me." She shrugged and bounced back over to where the rest were. Princess Celestia was still standing in shock at what she was seeing.

"Uh, Princess, are you okay?" said Twilight nervously.

"I...I...HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!?" said Princess Celestia, shock still etched across her face.

"Well Princess, we should sit down, it's quite a story," said Twilight. The seven of them sat down at the larges table in the room and Twilight began recounting the tale to Princess Celestia. She began with their trip into the forest to meet Zecora's cousin and how they had helped him with his experiment. Occasionally, one of the other five would chime in with a detail that was forgotten and maybe Celestia would ask a question, but on the whole, Twilight did most of the talking. When she had gotten up to the present time, the group sat in silence, waiting for the Princess to react. After a few moments, the Princess looked at Twilight.

"Why didn't you tell me about this before?" she asked.

"I don't know, I guess it just slipped my mind," said Twilight.

"Isn't that a bit unlikely?" asked Celestia "You tell me everything that goes on in Ponyville!" Pinkie glanced at the crack in the wall again and giggled.

"Well, I don't suppose it matters now really," said Twilight. Pinkie looked at the crack again and rolled her eyes.

"I suppose not, but the big question is what to do now? I imagine that all of you would like to be changed back to the way you used to be," said Celestia.

"Of course we do!" said Rainbow Dash. "More than anything right now!" The Princess frowned as she thought to herself if she knew any way to turn the six back to normal. She finally nodded to herself and addressed the six.

"Well, I have a spell that I think could help. It is an ancient spell, older than Princess Luna actually."

"Wow, that is super-duper old!" said Pinkie.

"Indeed, I think it could help us now," said Celestia. "Okay, I would like all of you to stand next to the pony who received your attribute. I think I can get it so that you will switch back to your original selves!"

"What happens if it goes wrong?" said Applejack nervously as she walked over to Rarity.

"I think I can handle it...if I can't then I have no idea what will happen."

"Oh um, well, maybe we shouldn't do this then if you don't know what you are doing," said Fluttershy, hiding behind Pinkie.

"I do know what I am doing my child. I know I can cast the spell and change you back," said Celestia confidently.

"Okay," said Fluttershy in a barely audible voice and she hid behind Pinkie even more.

"Now, stand still, I think this will do the trick," said Celestia. Celestia concentrated as hard as she could and gold sparks started appearing around her horn. Within seconds, the sparks fused together to create a golden beam which was shot straight towards the six friends. The six of them braced for impact but when the golden beam hit them, they felt no pain. In fact, they felt as if all of the stress from their transformation had been washed away by the Princess's spell. As the spell went on longer, the golden beam became larger and brighter until the whole room was filled with a bright gold light.

As soon as the light was too bright and the six had to close their eyes lest they be blinded, the light stopped. The six opened their eyes and saw Princess Celestia lying on the floor in a state of total exhaustion. She was breathing heavily and she looked far too weak to stand up. "Well, Twilight Sparkle, did it work?" she said between labored breaths. She looked up to see what her spell had accomplished with a small, expectant smile. When she saw them, the smile slid from her face and the Princess looked uncomfortable. The six friends saw the look and each looked straight at the floor, too scared to look around to see what damage Celestia's spell had caused. Fluttershy curled up in a ball on the floor, shivering madly while mumbling to herself,

"I don't want to know, I don't want to know, I don't want to know."

One by one, the other five ponies examined themselves and gave horrified yells at what they discovered Celestia's spell had done. Finally, Twilight herself had the courage to look up. What she saw made her give a startled yell. Rainbow was alternating horrified glances between her purple and pink streaked mane and tail. Applejack ran her hoof through her perfectly styled curly dark purple mane, while Rarity was weeping in the corner, trying to get her blonde mane and tail styled as it once had been.

However, the biggest surprise was the new manes of Pinkie and Fluttershy. They too had switched manes and tails as the rest had, but that wasn't the surprise. Pinkie was looking at her light pink mane and tail, done up like Fluttershy's normally was when suddenly, they both bounced back to Pinkie Pie's normal style. Fluttershy had Pinkie Pie's mane, or at least, the colors were the same...sort of. They were darker in color than what Pinkie's mane and tail normally were, and instead of being fluffed up like Pinkie's mane and tail still were, they hung like curtains instead, almost as if they had been deflated. Twilight remembered it as the mane that Pinkie had when she had thought her friends had abandoned her when really they were just throwing her a surprise party. Of all of the switches, it was Fluttershy's new mane and tail that unnerved Twilight the most. Twilight turned around to Princess Celestia who was staring embarrassed at what she had just done.

Without looking at her friends, or making further attempts to make eye contact with Princess Celestia, Twilight looked around and saw a mirror in the room. She trotted over to it, already knowing what she was going to see but hoping she was wrong anyway. When she reached it, she stared straight into it. On each of her sides, she saw a cyan blue wing folded like it always was when she wasn't flying. Fearing the worst, she shifted her attention to her tail and mane. Sure enough, instead of her normal style and color she saw an unkempt, rainbow colored mane and tail. She closed her eyes in frustration and facehooved. With a frustrated grunt she yelled. "OH COME ON!!!!"