Trading Places

Chapter 2

        "All right, Spike. Are you ready?"

        "Ready!"

        "All right. Spell number 152: Invisibility."

        The day so far had just been spell after spell. I had to practice. I may be in Ponyville studying friendship, but I still had to keep studying magic like I did back in Canterlot. After all, Celestia was coming in a week for an exam. I focussed as hard as I could on nothing but the spell. Soon enough, Spike began to fade out of existence. Before long, he was completely invisible.

        "Aww, yeah. That was awesome, Twilight! You're sure to ace that exam!" the air in front of me said.

        "Thanks, Spike," I said, blushing. "Now hold still, I have to make you visible again."

        Spike began to fade into existence, and I couldn't help but feel a little boastful. When he was completely visible though, he didn't give me time to boast. "All right, what's the next spell?" he said.

         I looked at the study guide. "Uhh... Ah. Spell number 153: Long Distance Teleportation."

        "Teleportation?" he asked. "But don't you already do that on a regular basis?"

        "Short distances, yes," I answered. "But long distance teleportation is much more complicated and requires much more concentration."

        "Oh," he said, sounding half convinced. "Well, let's do it."

        "Okay," I said. I took a deep breath and began. After what could have been two seconds or two hours, Spike started to make a noise. The noise grew into a great sneeze. There was a flash of green light and my concentration broke. Unfortunately, the spell didn't. I began to heat up. Hotter and hotter until it felt like I was one enormous fire. I tried to move, but I couldn't. Then I felt like I was falling. Not in any direction, just falling through space. Then it ended.

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        Ow. My fucking head. That must have been some party. I felt hungover as fuck. But when I put my hand to my head, I realized that being hungover was the least of my worries. Because when my hand made contact, I realized I didn't have any fingers. At this shocking discovery, I sat up as quick as lightning. Something was wrong with my body. Not only was I fingerless, but I couldn't sit upright. I had to put my hands to the floor. When I opened my eyes to discover what was wrong, I almost passed out again. The world looked crazy. It was way too colorful. And not only that, but everything was a lot more defined, and lacked explicit detail. The final thing was that there were outlines. OUTLINES EVERYWHERE. In short, I was in a cartoon. Then there was the matter of myself. I looked at my arms. They were BLUE! And at the ends, there was nothing. No hands, no fingers. Nothing. My clothes were really baggy and were just lying on me. Whatever I was, I was not human.

        "Twilight?" a voice asked. "Are you okay?"

        I almost fell back over when I heard the other voice.

        "Twilight?" it said again.

        I tried to take off my baggy shirt so I could see the source better. It was... a lizard? Sitting before me was an overgrown purple lizard.

        Then it screamed. "Aaahhhhh! Who are you?" it asked angrily. "Where's Twilight?"

        "I don't know where this 'Twilight' you speak of is. And my name is Carl. Carl Jenkins."

        "Well 'Carl,'" it continued even more angrily. "How did you get here?" it demanded.

        I was beginning to get very angry now. "Well, I have no fucking idea. And how can you talk? You're just an overgrown lizard."

        "Woah, woah. Hold up. I'm a dragon. DRA-GON. I'm not a lizard. I don't do that tongue thing." It then did the tongue thing.

        "Well, whatever you are, can you tell me where I am?"

        "You're in the Ponyville public library," it said flatly.

        Ponyville? Oh. My. God. I don't know how he did it, but he did it. Austin, you sadistic, clever bastard, you. "Ha ha ha ha ha! Great prank, Austin!" I yelled. "I have no idea how you made the world look like this, but you did a good job. Now let me out." I said the last sentence very flatly.

        "Austin?" the dragon asked. "What are you talking about? No one's pranking you. There was just a flash of light, Twilight vanished, and now you're in her place."

        Okay, I guess I'll play along. Looking over myself, I realized that I must be a pony. Austin spared no expense. After realizing this, I figured that my clothes would be more of a hindrance than a help, so I stripped. It was hard to walk with my new body. I'm not used to four legs, and and no fingers or toes, but I got the hang of it pretty quick.

        "Well, you obviously are just as clueless as I am about this," the dragon said. "So I won't press."

        Then, a voice echoed through my head. It was Austin's. "You will get into this show one way or another." Oh, ha ha. Austin, you're so funny.