A Different Kind of Understanding

by Milky Way

Rating: everyone
Tags: Silver Spoon, Scootaloo, Diamond Tiara, Sweetie Belle, Drama, Apple Bloom, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy
Length: 2506

When Sweetie Belle tries out a new spell, something goes wrong, leaving Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara in each other's bodies!

Sweetie Belle has a new spell she wants to try out with her friends. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are bored and follow Filthy Rich to Sweet Apple Acres. When Sweetie Belle's spell goes awry, Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara pay the price. For them, it seems a fate worse than death.

They have switched bodies.

Now they have to navigate each other's world while working with their enemy to find a solution.

Published 2018-02-15 14:50:08 UTC
Last updated 2018-03-04 02:05:26 UTC

I: A New Spell

School was absolutely, finally, blessedly over. I chanced a glance back at the screaming fillies in my wagon as we raced through the streets of Ponyville. The weekend was ours. We had a mission. Sweetie Belle had been reading (nerd!) a spell book and found something she really wanted to show us.

After we stopped for hayburgers, of course. The sun was already going down by the time we left there. We were moving a lot slower than before. The girls walked beside me as we crept toward to Apple Bloom’s house. Milk shakes, fries, and burgers gave a pleasant weight to our full stomachs. We laughed and made all sorts of plans for the weekend we wanted to have together. It didn’t matter that we knew at least half of them wouldn’t happen – like finding a way to get rid of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon – what mattered was that we were together.

The clubhouse seemed to take forever to get to. We had to go into Apple Bloom’s house, talk to her family, get supplies, and pull the now overloaded wagon all the way there. The supplies were essential, though. How were we supposed to make it through the night without snacks and fizzy drinks? It was worth the time lost to get the stuff. Besides, Apple Bloom’s family was kinda cool. Granny Smith always made sure we had extra sugary stuff that AJ didn’t want us having.

After what felt like ages, we made it to the club house. We wrapped up in our sleeping bags and giggled and laughed, waiting until after AJ’s last check up to start what we were really excited about. Sweetie Belle pulled the book from under her pillow and Apple Bloom and I both fell silent. Sweetie had been talking about this all day, and it was finally going to happen.

She took her sweet time getting to the right page, but she finally did, and then she looked at us. “Okay girls. This is it.” Almost like we were the same pony, me and Apple Bloom leaned forward, eyes wide. “It’s a hard spell,” she said, “but I think I can do it.” She looked at the page again, biting her lip now. “I hope.”

Psh, Sweetie Belle was always worrying about these sorts of things. She was a lot more like Rarity than she wanted to admit. I mean, she was my very best friend, but sometimes she was a bit of a downer, too. “I just have to think really hard, and I can made this ball,” she held up a little rubber ball we use to play catch with, “and this wheel,” it was one I had broken off my scooter trying to do a trick, “switch places.”

Technically, Sweetie Belle wasn’t supposed to be doing unsupervised magic. Well, something that would be hard for her. She was allowed to like, try to levitate junk. But it was our sleep over weekend, and we always ended up in trouble for something anyway, so it might as well be something really cool. Especially since AJ was a lot more forgiving of magical mishaps than Rarity or my mom and dad. Actually, it’s kinda weird that we never stay at Sweetie Belle’s house. It’s always with Rarity.

But now Sweetie is doing her thing. Her horn is glowing that green color it does when she’s trying her magic. I think I see the wheel start to roll or something, but then a laugh distracts me. I look over at the doorway to see Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. My eye narrow. What are they even doing here this late?

Apple Bloom stood up and was almost nose to nose with Diamond Tiara. “What are you doing here?”

The snobby brat put her nose in the air. Like, can you even imagine someone being so full of themselves?

“My daddy had to talk to your sister. We just wanted to come along.” She smirked. She actually smirked. I always wanted to punch her. I even stood up to do it! But I knocked into Sweetie Belle, and her horn light got really bright, and then then next thing I knew, I hear Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom shouting my name.

I groaned and stood up and put my hoof on my forehead. “My head hurts,” I muttered. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom glare at me from across the room where they are…next to me? What? I look around and see a very concerned looking Silver Spoon looking at me. “What?” So I’m not a creative person. I usually say what I think. I look back at my friends – at myself! – and then I look down at my body.

It’s all wrong. I’m not orange anymore. I’m like, a light pink color. Probably Sweetie could tell you exactly what it was, but I can’t. I try to move my wings, only it’s like they aren’t there. Maybe I couldn’t use them a lot, but I still liked having them. I never once even wished them away.

Well, maybe before I found Sweetie Belle, because everyone always made fun of me. But that’s besides the point. I kinda wanted to just pass out again or like, go back in time like in a comic book. Make everything right.

Eventually ‘I’ stood up and the first thing ‘I’ did was look at me and scream. “Why is my body over there?” ‘I’ yelled. ‘I’ jumped away from my friends and scurried over to Silver Spoon. “Silvy, what’s happening?”

Silver Spoon’s mouth dropped open, and when I looked at my friends, theirs had, too. ‘I’ was breathing quickly, so Silver Spoon put a hesitant hoof on ‘my’ back. “Di? Is that you?”

All ‘I’ did was nod, probably because ‘I’ was about to cry. Don’t get me wrong, this was terrifying and I wanted to cry, too, but if I had learned anything from Rainbow Dash, it’s that sometimes you have to put on a brave face and cry later.

“Scoots?” Apple Bloom said and I looked over at her.

Sweetie Belle slumped down. “We’re in so much trouble.”

“What?” I asked again. It’s not that I couldn’t put two and two together, you know. I had pretty much figured out what had happened. I’m a smart pony. I just didn’t want to believe it. I wanted them to just say that…I don’t know. Something else had happened.

“I think my spell messed up,” Sweetie Belle said. “You uh, you traded bodies.”

I didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t believe it. But after Sweetie said it, I couldn’t deny it anymore. There isn’t much else that would make sense with what I saw. We all sat there in silence for a minute, until something even scarier happened. Hoofsteps coming up the ramp. One quick look at each other and we all knew we weren’t going to say anything.

Diamond grabbed me by the hoof and pulled me close to her. “Go to my house. Don’t say or do anything stupid. Just do what they tell you, okay? We’ll fix this later.” She let go of my hoof and pushed me away.

I didn’t have time to reply to that because Mr. Rich walked through the door.

“Come along, girls.”

After one more glance around the room and purposefully ignoring Diamond’s silent urging to do what she asked, I looked over at him.

“Can’t we just stay here tonight Mr.—Daddy?” I blinked really fast like I’ve seen Rarity to, hoping it would help. All it got was a weird look from Mr. Rich and Silver Spoon bumping my shoulder.

After a second, Mr. Rich turned and walked away. “You should already know the answer to that, Diamond Tiara.”

“Come on,” Silver Spoon hissed through clenched teeth. I followed her out of the safety of the clubhouse, and into the unknown.

Author's Note

I wrote this in...an hour? So let me know if you see anything that needs fixing. Or if you like this story. Or if you hate it. I really just want to hear your thoughts! I'm really excited about writing this. I've been wanting to for ages and I'm finally able to start.

II: The Apple Family

We were doomed. I knew it; I could feel it in the pit of my stomach. Watching my own body walk out the ramshackle building the blank flanks called a clubhouse and my best friend shot me worried looks, my world crumbled around me. The other two fillies were completely silent, watching the departure, just as I was. As soon as my father was out of sight, I turned to Sweetie Belle, my eyes narrowed at her. “Fix this. Now.”

“Or what, you’ll run to daddy?” She rolled her eyes. Then she bit her lip, her ears falling. “I don’t know how. You messed up the spell I was trying.”

She didn’t know how? How could she not have known how? “Fine then. We’ll figure this out. I’m sure your spellbook has a reversal spell. We just need to have you cast it.”

“Or we could tell an adult. Princess Twilight will know how to fix this.” Apple Bloom’s drawl was as grating on my ears as it ever was.

“No! No adults need to be involved. We can clean up our own messes.” As much as I didn’t want it to, a yawn escaped my mouth. My body was sore in places I didn’t think existed in my own and the wings – my dreams of being a Pegasus were over. These were the most uncomfortable appendages I’ve ever experienced. “At least it’s the weekend.”

The other two nodded their heads. Apple Bloom started pacing. “Yeah. We’ll just lay low here for the weekend. We’ll need to get into some minor trouble once, or AJ’ll get suspicious.” With a sigh, she walked to a corner and pulled out a sleeping bag. “This is Scoots, so I guess you can use it.”

“Sleeping is a good idea,” mumbled Sweetie Belle, already snuggling into her own sleeping bag. “We’ll deal with this in the morning.”

Slowly, I got into the purple sleeping back Apple Bloom had laid out. Apple Bloom blew out the flame in the lantern that had been lighting the clubhouse, and everything was draped in darkness. The girls were asleep in minutes. I just laid there, staring into the black.

I felt tears sting my eyes. I don’t know how I was supposed to deal with something like this. I was just a kid! The awful thing was that it was dawning on me that this was a normal thing for them.

Not the magical mishap. Well. Maybe not. There have been a few other instances of magic issues involving them I could pull from my memory. No, I was focused on the sleepover. Casually being at each other’s houses. No worries except what the next great escapade should be. I took in a slow, deep breath. The tears were not allowed to flow. If they did, at least one of them were bound to wake up and I didn’t want to deal with that.

I didn’t need their sympathy.

I closed my eyes tight and push everything away. Maybe there is a timer on the spell and once we get a good night’s sleep, everything will be back to normal.

Naturally, things couldn’t have gone my way. Quiet whispers woke me up in the morning. I stirred slowly. No disorientation here, I knew exactly where I was. Sometimes ponies in books make it sound like you always think it’s a dream or you forget, but you don’t. I didn’t.

I knew exactly what was going on. Instead of getting up instantly, I laid still, straining to hear what the blank flanks were saying.

“Maybe we could have waffles,” squeaked Sweetie Belle.

I heard some shuffling. “With strawberries and juice.” A small grunt and then Apple Bloom spoke again. “A little help?”

“Hm? Oh, sure!”

I chose that moment to rise. After all, they weren’t talking about anything important.

“’Mornin’, Scoots. We’re just talking about breakfast. AJ should have it ready soon. You hungry?” Apple Bloom gave me a questioning look.

I glance at Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. “You know I’m not really Scootaloo, right? You remember what happened?”

They nodded. “It’s just, you know, we can’t very well call you Diamond Tiara in front of Apple Bloom’s family.”

That…made sense. I don’t know that I would have thought of it, as much as I hated to admit it. “Fine, fine. Let’s go.” I follow them down to the little farmhouse. The three adults who live here are already around the table, and there are three large stacks of waffles waiting for us.

“’Bout time ye showed up,” Granny Smith said. I don’t do anything other than offer a tight smile. How does Scootaloo act around these ponies? I decide the safest thing to do is remain silent. I can always just claim I’m not feeling well if questions are raised.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle scarf down the syrup laden waffles. Honestly, with as much whipped cream and other toppings as they have added, it’s almost like the waffle is a pretense for how much sugar they can eat for breakfast. I apply a modest amount of syrup to my own and take a few bites.

I’m not so hungry. The whole table is chattering while we’re eating, so I allow myself to zone out. It must have been an un-Scootaloo like thing to do, because pretty soon Applejack put her hoof on my back. I look up and see nothing but concern in those sparkling green eyes. “Hey there, sugarcube. You okay? You love waffles. Normally eat more ‘n Mac does.”

I swallow, fear constricting my throat. “I-I don’t feel so good,” I said. I put my hoof on my belly, hoping to make it more convincing. “I might just go home. Sleep it off.”

“You, uh, can’t go home, Scoots, remember? Your parents are gone until tomorrow evening.” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle both stared at me, as if I couldn’t take a hint.

I nodded. “Oh, it must have slipped my mind.”

Applejack’s hoof moved from my back to my head. “You don’t feel warm. I don’t want y’all crusading today.” Applejack smiled at me and tousled my mane. “Don’t want you getting any sicker.”

Well, at least I discovered one thing in common. Scootaloo and I both had absent parents.

Author's Note

My finger is sorta healed -- obviously enough to type some of this story out! I wanna try to get out a chapter a week from now on. Not that this is planned to be long, but just as a heads up.

As always, let me know your thoughts! I look forward to seeing you guys next time, where we see how Scootaloo is handling the situation.