A Different Perspective

by Shadow of Death

Rating: everyone
Tags: Comedy, Main 6, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 2175

Twilight discovers a spell and tries it, as it's supposed to help her understand her friends better

Twilight tries out a spell she found in a long-lost book that is supposed to help her understand her friends better only to find out it literally puts her and her friends in each others hooves.

While Twilight tries to figure out how to get the counter spell working, she and her friends have to adapt to their new bodies and the challenges and rewards that come with them.

This is a story of body switching...

Aside: It's not really a comedy or slice of life, but (hopefully) more along the lines of something you might see in the TV show. It's also my first fanfic ever, so try to be nice and if you don't like it, some constructive criticism would be good.

Published 2012-07-23 12:14:02 UTC
Last updated 2012-07-23 12:14:02 UTC

Chapter 2: What She Found

"Say, what's that book," inquires Rarity, pointing out a rather ancient looking tome with faded stars and swirles embossed on the cover along with some ancient language she couldn't make out.

"Oh yes!" exclaims a now excited Twilight, "If it is what I think it is, it's very rare. So rare nopony was even sure it existed!"

"Well, get on with it!" demands Rainbow Dash who normally doesn't find books very interesting unless they're the adventure sort, but was curious as to why this book made Twilight's eyes gleam with excitement like that.

"Well, I've still not verified it, but I just know that this book was written by none other than Starswirl the Bearded!" shouts Twilight, unable to keep it to herself as she planned until she could verify it.

"Who?" said the room at large.

"Starswirl the Beared, only the most famous unicorn of all time?" huffed Twilight in a slightly annoyed tone, "I dressed up as him on Nighmare Night?"

"That guy with the funny beard you mean?" asked Pinkie Pie. "He looked silly."

"Yes yes, 'that guy with the funny beard'," sighed Twilight. "Legend has it that he collected all the spells he personally invented, and put them into a single tome that was only copied a few times for use in various libraries across Equestria, including one in the ancient Canterlot Arch-library."

"What's an arch-library anyway?" asks Rainbow Dash, thinking of Daring Do. "Is it like a dungeon for books?"

"Surprisingly enough, it was a bit like that," responds Twilight, a slightly surprised look on her face. "Well, the library itself wasn't all that big, as it only had a couple of cases of books. The Library was built into the mountain that Canterlot is situated on. The library is in the center, but there were some magical traps set up along the route to it. Fortunately the map that told me where this long forgotten library was also detailed the traps."

"I guess them books were special then?" inquires a curious Applejack.

"Definitely!" exclaims Twilight, "The Arch-Library only housed the rarest of tomes. Aside from Starswirl's own collected spells, there was a book on the origin of Equestria which covers some details that Canterlot historians have been wondering about, plus records on the origins of Nightmare Night, a few books in a language that I believe is Changeling in origin, among others."

"Well, that's mighty interesting." replied Applejack, who was primarily interested in the record about Nightmare Night.

Twilight suddenly came out of her reverie, becaming more subdued, sighing and muttering to herself. Pinkie Pie was now dancing along with a slightly unwilling looking Fluttershy in the background, but that went largely unnoticed.

"Something the matter dear?" asked a concerned Rarity.

"Well..." paused Twilight, "These are amazing finds of course, but unfortunately a good portion of the library was destroyed by the roof collapsing who knows how many years ago."

"I'm sorry to hear that,"

"Yes, these were the only books that managed to escape complete destruction," sighs Twilight. "As it is, most of these books are damaged either by the fallen ceiling, or else by water that dripped down from the hole."

"Well look on the bright side," said Applejack in a soft voice, "At least you were able to recover these books. That is what's important."

"Yeah, that's right!" interjected Rainbow Dash. "Plus you got to go on that adventure! I would have come too, it sounded fun!"

"Yes, yes you're right Applejack. Rainbow Dash," replied Twilight, perking up a little bit. "I really am excited by the Starswirl book in particular. Who knows what amazing magic he discovered but has been lost to the ages?"

"That's the spirit!" chuckled Applejack.

After that exchange, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity drifted off to have some more desserts and dance with Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy was finally given a break from dancing thanks to that. Twilight settled down with the book, not really paying attention to the party. This was not out of deliberate rudeness as she usually did enjoy Pinkie's parties, but because she was so consumed with poring over the ancient tome that she had wanted to see ever since she heard about it as a filly. Although parts of it were a bit water damaged, and the cover was scuffed in places it was still remarkably intact and most of the spells and their descriptions were legible. It was slow going to read the ancient writing, since it required translation and Twilight was out of practice, not having translated ancient runes since she was still at magic school.

"I wonder what this spell does," mutters Twilight distractedly, "It says that it is a spell 'To gain more insight into others, and yourself'. Interesting..."

Thinking that this spell might help her learn something new about friendship to report to the Princess, which she hadn't done in nearly a month she considered trying it out. She knew she could take her time with the Friendship Reports now, but it still made her nervous, not making regular reports. Since the spell seemed harmless enough. Concentrating hard on the elements of magic the spell required, she invoked her considerable magic power and used it to channel the elements, bringing them into being in the form of pure magical forces.

A loud 'Poof!' accompanied by a cloud of thick blue smoke and countless golden swirls of sparks filled the entire room, along with general shouts of surprise from her friends.

Chapter 3: Twilight, What Have You Done?

"Twilight! Twi-light!" pants Spike as he ran in from upstairs where he had been napping until this point since it was rather late by the time Twilight got back from her travels, "Princess Celestia got your message about that book you said you were looking for! She said that if you managed to find it, to not to use any of the spells in...it."

He looked around the room which still had blue smoke with golden sparkles swirling around.

"I'm too late...Aren't I?"

"What...What..happened," coughs a voice near Spike. it sounded like Twilight.

"You-tell-us," a voice a bit further back demands haltingly, "You cast the spell after all!"

"I'm not Twilight, I'm Rarity," she retorts indigantly, her voice regaining some of its strength. "I wouldn't foolishly cast a spell if I didn't know what it did!"

"Hey!" exclaims a voice further back in the room, "I resent that!"

"S-s-sugar, what did you do?" stutters a voice that sounded oddly like Fluttershy's, but it could only be Applejack.

"What's going on?" shouts somepony else. "Ahhh! Where did they go?!?"

"Where did what go sugar?" asks a worried Applejack, still sounding strange.

"My wings, that's what!" uttered the now panicky voice, "I can't fly and I don't even feel them there!"

"I got them!" exclaims a rather excited voice, "I can fly! Zoom zoom!"

There is a crashing sound, and several thuds are heard which could only mean that the pony crashed into a bookshelf, knocking some of the books down.

"Who has got my wings!" demands the voice in a way that made it certain to the rest that it could only be Rainbow Dash, even though it sounded different,"Give them back!"

"I'm Pinkie Pie...Silly," says the voice woozily, "How do you work these things anyway? Ohhh, my head..."

The sparkles had died out entirely at this point, and the smoke finally started clearing up a bit, but all that could be made out were shadowy forms shuffling around confusedly.

"That just leaves...Fluttershy," mutters a voice, "Where are you?"

"O...Over here," replies a meek voice off to the side of the room.

Suddenly there is a gust of air as the front door was opened. The wind quickly cleared away the remaining smoke in the room leaving behind six befuddles looking ponies, plus one dragon. A quiet fell upon the room until...

"Whaaaaat?!?"

"What the hay is going on here?"

"Twilight, what have you done!?!"

Everypony kept making exclamations and demanding answers, ending only when Rarity's horn suddenly glowed bright white and a bang went off, shocking everyone into silence. Once quiet descended upon the room Rarity spoke.

"I...I don't know what exactly happened, but it seems that the spell I used has caused a bit of an...Accident," states the pony that appeared to be Rarity, looking worried.

"Twi....Is that you Twilight?" asks Fluttershy, or so it seemed.

"Yes, yes I'm Twilight," she replied distractedly. Looking up she asked "OK, who is everypony?"

"I'm Applejack sugar," responded 'Fluttershy'

"Rainbow Dash!" exclaimed the pony that looked like Twilight.

"Rarity," stats the one that looks like Applejack, hat askew.

"I..I'm..Fluttershy," whispered 'Pinkie Pie'.

"Then the pony who is currently buried under a pile of books must be Pinkie Pie," mutters the Rarity-Twilight. "Speaking of which, we really should get her out of there."

The pony that looked like Rainbow Dash pulled a still woozy looking Pinkie Pie as Rainbow Dash from beneath the pile of books in front of one of the bookshelves.

"Now what," asks the real Rarity, rather curtly. "Certainly you can set things right?"

"I don't know, I don't know," responds Twilight, as she paces around the room. "I'm sure there is a counter-spell but I'll have to translate it. That is, assuming it hasn't been...."

Twilight suddenly rushes to the Starswirl book with a rather frightened look upon her face, causing the other ponies to stare at her with uneasy expressions on their faces. Their expressions grew more worried the longer Twilight spent perusing the book. When Twilight contorted Rarity's face into distraught expression normally reserved for the real Rarity when she wanted to be extra dramatic, the rest of the ponies started sweating profusely.

"You...You CAN set this right....Can't you sugar?" croaks Applejack, rustling her newfound pegasi wings in a way which made it all too clear she was as nervous as the body's original occupant normally was. "Right?...."

Twilight turned her stricken face towards Applejack and uttered in an anguished cry, "The spell...The counter-spell is completely illegible."

Authors note: From this point on the ponies will be written as they actually are, not as they appear to be though some references may be given (by the characters) in a hyphenated form. For example, Rarity-Twilight is Twilight in Rarity's body, in short the appearance followed by the actual character that is inhabiting said body.

Chapter 1: Surprise!

"Surprise!"

"Ahhh!" Twilight stumbles a bit, dropping a pile of recently acquired books for her library. Unfortunately, one of the heavier tomes that was floating above her head at the time fell with a solid 'thunk' on her head.

"So sorry Twilight," apologizes Rarity, "We didn't think you'd be that surprised. It is your anniversary after all."

"That's OK," replies a slightly cross-eyed Twilight. "Wait, what?"

"Your anniversary! Dear me, don't you realize that one year to the day, you arrived in Ponyville?" exclaims Rarity.

"That's right sugar." says Applejack, "I 'member the day you came to the farm to check on how things were going with the vittles for that big do. Now that I think about it, hardly anypony ate much on account of the ruckus later.

"I ate it all!" shouts out Pinkie Pie, who as usual was jumping around excitedly, "No sense wasting it just because of some silly party crasher!"

That 'party crasher' was Princess Luna, or rather her alter ego Nightmare Moon. She had been banashed to the Moon for a thousand years. The thousandth year, as it turned out, ended that very night. Only Twilight knew what was going to happen but it turned out alright in the end. It just took herself and her five friends wielding the Elements of Harmony to depower the dastardly Nightmare Moon. Fortunately, Princess Luna saw the error of her ways and re-united with her sister Celestia. Together they watch over Equestria, night and day.

"We kicked flank that night!" yells out an exuberant as usual Rainbow Dash, "She didn't stand a chance!"

"She..She was very scary though," whispers Fluttershy, ducking down as if to hide herself from the memory.

"Quite right," replies Rarity, "She certainly looked the part with that ensemble of hers. Fortunately Princess Luna is back to doing good."

"Hah, we'd just beat her again if she tried anything," states Rainbow Dash boldly.

"Yes well, I'd rather we never had to," sighs Rarity.

"Are we going to get this party started or what!" exclaims Pinkie Pie, letting off a blast from a horn to put a halt to all this non-partying and sidestepping towards the nearest cake as if to say 'Can we eat now?'.

Twilight looks about the room looking at all her friends. Her heart warms as she recalls the past year. Sure, sometimes they argued with one another, and were often irritated with one or another's personal tics, but all in all these are the greatest friends one could ever hope to have and she wouldn't change them for all the books in Equestria. She smiled broadly

"Let's eat!"