Spike yawned.
Twilight had given him very specific instructions. She was going to be trying out some new spells today, one very powerful one in particular, and her studies would require the utmost concentration. Under (almost) no circumstance was she to be bothered this afternoon. If anyone dropped in to say hi, he was to politely inform them that she was busy. Unless they were one of the Princesses or herself from the future or somepony important like that, of course. Even her friends had to be turned away.
So here he was, sitting in front of the front door, reclining comfortably on a bean bag chair with a stack of comic books and a nice little bag of gemstones. Watching the front door in case guests arrived wasn't his favorite responsibility, but it certainly wasn't the worst. At least it was relaxing.
Spiked yawned again.
Meanwhile, across town from the library, Fluttershy and Rarity had just concluded their weekly spa visit.
"Another delightful afternoon at the spa!" Rarity chimed cheerfully as she left the parlor. "I feel like a new mare! Don't you agree, Fluttershy?"
The quiet yellow pegasus idly stretched her wings. "My wings certainly feel a lot more loose and relaxed," Fluttershy observed softly. "It's quite nice..."
Rarity looked up at the sky. A few clouds were gently drifting overhead, slightly obstructing the sun. There were still several hours of daylight left, if her guess was accurate. "Do you have any other plans for today?" the unicorn asked.
Fluttershy pondered for a moment, before giving a small shrug. "No, I don't think so. Why? Was there something-"
Rarity interrupted her with a sing-songy exclamation of "Ideeeeeeeaaaa!"
Fluttershy rubbed her ears gingerly. "What's your idea, Rarity?"
The fashionista smirked. "Why don't we drop in and say hi to Twilight? She's been quite busy studying lately, and I haven't seen her in days. I'm sure she would appreciate a bit of company."
Fluttershy shifted uncomfortably. "Oh, I don't know about that..." she quietly replied. "What if she's busy? What if we interrupt her? I don't think-"
Once again, the demure little pegasus was interrupted by her more socially dominant friend. "Nonsense!" Rarity waved a hoof dismissively. Smiling confidently, she began to trot in the direction of the library. "I'm quite certain she'll be absolutely delighted to see us! And if she is busy, we'll take our leave and avoid distracting her from her scholarly affairs. If you'd rather not accompany me, that's perfectly fine. I'm not going to force you to tag long," the unicorn politely said.
Fluttershy pondered for a moment, before giving a small smile. "You're right, it'd be nice to see Twilight. I'm sure she'll be happy to see her friends after all that hard work... Let's go!"
The white mare smiled cheerfully. "Excellent! I wonder what she's been studying, anyway...?"
Fluttershy gave another small shrug as she trotted after her friend. "Some sort of new spells, probably. I wonder if she'll be willing to show us? Maybe if we ask nicely?"
"Oh, I don't know..." Rarity sighed. "You know how she feels about 'showing off,' as she calls it. But you're right. Perhaps if we ask nicely, she'll show us something new and interesting..."
"Spike? Spiiiiiike?" Rarity called out softly.
"Aw, don't wake him up. He looks so peaceful and so adorable..." Fluttershy whispered with a smile.
It hadn't taken the two friends long to arrive at the library. They'd found the door unlocked, and Twilight was usually alright with her friends coming on in. If she didn't want to be disturbed, Spike would usually inform the guests the moment they got inside. Upon entering, though, Fluttershy and Rarity had discovered the baby dragon curled up asleep on a beanbag chair near the door. An open comic book and a half-eaten bag of gemstones were grasped in his tiny little claws. Apparently he'd dozed off while reading...
"Oh, I don't want to wake him up, but I'd also like to know if Twilight is okay with us being here..." Rarity frowned. "What if he was supposed to tell us-"
"Merph..." Spike muttered in his sleep. "Twilight... said..."
"Hm?" Fluttershy and Rarity both looked down at the slumbering reptile.
"Twilight... wants... interrupted..." Spike grumbled groggily, his eyes fluttering slightly. "Said... need... send... friends... up..." Of course, what Spike was supposed to say was that Twilight said not to be interrupted, and that he needed to send her friends away if they showed up. But being semi-asleep meant that his cognitive and communication abilities were, for the moment, sub-par.
"Huh. I guess we should go on upstairs, then," Fluttershy mused. "Apparently she really does want to see us."
"She must be more busy and lonely than I thought!" Rarity gasped. "Oh, we simply must cheer her up! Perhaps take her out to dinner?"
Fluttershy nodded. "Sounds like a good idea."
"Come along, Fluttershy," Rarity stated, quickly trotting up the stairs. "Let's go say hi to our friend!"
Twilight Sparkle was focused. As focused as equinely possible. Every possible ounce of her concentration was focused on the ball of violet energy hovering in front of her horn. Her entire bedroom was covered in parchment - books on the desks, scrolls on the floor, even little post-it notes stuck to all the walls and furniture. She'd apparently been doing a lot of reading and writing over the last few days.
"Steady... steady..." the purple unicorn whispered. Sweat was beading on her forehead. The spell she was currently focused upon was a transfiguration spell. She'd been practicing it for hours. At it's basest form, it could turn one item or substance into another form or material. A book into a plant. Lead into gold. A goldfish into a velociraptor. Once perfected, the possibilities were endless. But that was the problem. Perfecting a spell like this was no easy task.
And a spell like this required total perfection, and nothing less.
Even the slightest mistake or miscalculation could yield catastrophic results. A book might burst into flames. Lead might turn into molten metal. A goldfish might...... yeah, that was better just not to think about.
And Twilight was determined to learn this spell, and learn it perfectly. As the ball of purple energy roiled and writhed in front of her, a small smile spread across her face. Almost. She was almost there. Just a little bit more focus, a few more hours of study, and-
"Hiiiiiiii!" Fluttershy and Rarity both exclaimed, popping up on either side of Twilight. The purple pony let out a horrified yelp of surprise.
And then the room exploded.
Twilight coughed. Staggering to her hooves, the unicorn tried to open her eyes. All she could see, though, was smoke. Her whole body hurt. It felt like somebody had tried to break her down and tear her apart, all the way to the molecular level. And more than likely, that was exactly what had happened. Thank Celestia, everything seemed to feel right. She couldn't visually confirm it until the smoke cleared, but she wasn't too worried. About herself, at least.
Coughing again, Twilight tried to call out to her friends. "Hello? ~cough~ Fluttershy? Rarity? Are you girls okay? ~cough cough~ Anyone?"
"Ow. Ow. Ow," Fluttershy's voice whimpered from nearby. "Ponyfeathers, that smarts!"
"Fluttershy! Ow. Language!" Rarity chided from somewhere behind Twilight. "Oh buck it, nevermind. My head is killing me..." the aristocratic pony growled in a somewhat uncharacteristic manner.
"Oh, thank goodness!" Twilight grinned happily, despite her splitting headache. "I was so scared for a moment! I thought I'd... " her voice trailed off. She didn't want to think of the possibilities. The experiments with those goldfish had been traumatic enough. Imagining that with her friends... "Er, nevermind."
"What was that spell? Ow. I feel like I got hit by a truck driven by Applejack when she's had too much cider, or something stupidly extravagant like that..." Rarity grumbled. Her ladylike poise had been replaced by pained frustration.
"I can't feel my wings. Why can't I feel my wings?" Fluttershy whimpered.
"It's okay, Fluttershy! I can't feel my horn. I think we're both just in shock..." Rarity tried to comfort her friend, though there was audible worry in her voice.
Twilight felt her stomach drop. "Uh oh." No. No way. Rarity was right. They were both just in shock. There was no need to worry.
"I feel weird..." Fluttershy muttered. "Does shock make you feel heavier?"
"I don't know, I feel strangely lighter..." Rarity gave an unsure reply. "Maybe I'm just light-headed. Only worse. Light-bodied? Twilight, is this normal?"
"Uhhhhh..." Twilight frowned. The smoke was finally starting to clear. "Yes!" she lied. "I'm sure it's totally, perfectly..." her voice trailed off. The smoke was finally clear enough to see her friends. Fluttershy was sitting on the floor a few yards behind Twilight. Rarity was leaning against a bookshelf on the other side of the room. Both of them looked perfectly fine, despite messy manes and dazed expressions. Twilight let out a huge sighed of relief. "Normal..."
"Oh, thank goodness!" Fluttershy exclaimed happily.
With Rarity's voice.
"Oh yes, I was so worried..." Rarity nodded. "I thought one of you might be hurt."
She sounded like Fluttershy.
"Uhhhhhh..." Twilight's eyes went very wide. Sweat began to form on her forehead. Her heart began to pound. This was bad. This was very bad. Maybe she was just imagining things? Maybe this was all just a really bad dream?
"Hey, wait..." Fluttershy said from Rarity's body. "Why... why am I over there? On the floor? With Rarity's voice?"
"Twilight..." Rarity called out, her voice shakily coming out of Fluttershy's form. "Why... Why am I leaning against that bookshelf? All the way across the room? Is that me? Why does me sound like Fluttershy?"
"Um. Um. Um..." Twilight tried to find the right words. Her brain was about five seconds from total freakout mode.
Fluttershy, or at least the pony with the voice of Fluttershy, looked down at her hooves. "Why am I white?" she asked, panic audibly rising in her voice. "I'm yellow, not white. Why... what... why...?"
The yellow pegasus with the voice of Rarity looked down at her own form. "Oh dear. I'm yellow. I'm yellow. I'm not supposed to be yellow. Why am I yellow? Why am I all the way over there? Why am I yellow...?"
"Twilight...?" Fluttershy whimpered.
"Twilight...?" Rarity called out fearfully.
"What was that spell?" the two friends asked in unison.
Twilight grinned sheepishly, and let out a small, nervous chuckle. "Heh. Heh. Eheheh. Would... Um... Would you believe it was a transmutation spell?" she asked with a shrug.
Fluttershy and Rarity stared at Twilight for a few seconds. And then they started at each other for a few seconds. And then, in unison, they both let out a pair of horrified screams that lasted much, much longer than a few seconds.
An awkward silence had settled over the room.
Fluttershy was staring at Fluttershy. Rarity was staring at Rarity. Twilight was shifting her gaze back and forth, looking at one bodyswapped friend for a few seconds before looking back at the other. A thin haze of light, residual smoke was still hanging in the air. Nopony said a word. Nopony knew what to say.
"Twilight..." Fluttershy eventually whimpered, her soft voice sounding strange coming out of the mouth of a typically extroverted and charismatic white unicorn. "You can fix this... right?"
"Of course she can..." Rarity replied gently, lifting a yellow hoof to try and move her new pink mane out of her face. She was trying to sound confident, but the worry in her voice was audible. "Right, Twilight?"
Twilight shifted her gaze to the ceiling. She closed her eyes, and after a long moment of silence, she let out a sigh. "I... don't know."
Nopony said anything else for a few seconds. Finally, Rarity broke the silence. "What... happened, exactly?"
Twilight sighed again. "I was working on a transmutation spell. You've... switched bodies. Or rather, your bodies have been transmuted."
"Transmuted?" Rarity arched a pink eyebrow, confusion written on her new yellow features. "As in... changed?"
"Yes," Twilight nodded. "According to my calculations-"
"When did you do calculations?" Fluttershy interjected softly, sounding confused. "I didn't see you doing them... Did I miss it?"
"Mental calculations," Twilight replied factually.
"So you're guessing," Rarity quipped with a sly smirk that seemed very out of place on Fluttershy's face.
"An educated guess," Twilight answered with a roll of her eyes. "Anyway, according to my calculations, you haven't swapped bodies, so much as you've changed forms."
"Come again?" Rarity tilted her head. She promptly sputtered as her new pink mane flopped over her face. "Blek it's in my mouth blek!"
"In essence, you're minds, memories, souls, talents... everything that makes you you, didn't go anywhere. But the bodies those things reside inside were transmuted, remade in the shape of something else. It seems your bodies reshaped into the form of each other. Internally, you're still yourself. Externally... you're wearing a very convincing and fully functional Rarity or Fluttershy costume," Twilight tried to explain, rubbing her chin in contemplation. "Does that make sense?"
"So... we didn't switch bodies, so much as... our bodies... shape-shifted...?" Fluttershy quietly asked, poking at her new white fur.
"Exactly!" Twilight nodded.
After a short silence, Rarity flatly stated: "Let's just say we switched bodies."
"Yeah, much simpler," Fluttershy nodded with a smile.
"Ugh," Twilight facehooved. "Fine, whatever. The point is-"
"TWILIIIIIIGHT!!" Spike's voice suddenly screamed from downstairs. Frantic footsteps could be heard on the stairs leading up to the second floor, and within seconds, a frantic baby dragon charged into the room. "TWILIGHT!!" he screamed, wildly flailing his arms as he ran towards the purple unicorn. "I was asleep and I thought I was dreaming because I heard voices and explosions and screams and- OOF!!" Spike yelped, tripping over a book. He hopped back to his feet, casually dusted himself off, and then began running towards Twilight again. "And I heard people talking and yelling and then I finally woke up and smelled smoke and realized IT WASN'T A DREAM!! Are you okay?!" he screamed in horror, finally reaching his best friend.
"Yes Spike," Twilight smiled softly. She then frowned. "Unfortunately, Fluttershy and Rar-"
"RARITY?!" Spike howled, whirling around to look for his crush. He immediately spotted the familiar form of his beloved white unicorn, leaning against a nearby bookshelf. "Rarity! Rarity are you okay?!" he screamed, promptly running over to her. "Oh, thank goodness! You look okay! Better than okay! Enchanting!" he exclaimed with a goofy grin, eyes sparkling with love-smitten awe.
"Um... Thank you Spike," the white unicorn replied, but with Fluttershy's hesitant voice. The baby dragon's eyes went wide with horror and confusion, and he staggered back a step. "But... Rarity is over there," Fluttershy said, lifting a white hoof to point across the room at the winged equine sitting on the floor.
"R-R-Rarity?" Spike stammered.
The pony that looked like 'Fluttershy' smiled softy, and gave a gentle wave of her hoof. "Hello my darling Spikey-Wikey," the yellow pegasus replied Rarity's elegant voice
Spike stared. His right eye gave a small twitch. Inside his head, the little hamster wheel of his mind was frantically turning, trying to comprehend the situation before him. Unfortunately, the little rodent running on the wheel was just not in good enough shape to handle the herculean task before it, and it promptly died of a heart attack.
That is to say, Spike snapped.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!" the little dragon let out a long scream. once that was done, he inhaled deeply, and let out another scream. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!" He then threw his hands in the air, spun around, and ran shrieking from the room. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!! AAAAAAAAAAAH!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!"
A moment later, the front door slammed, and Spike's screams could then be heard outside the library, fading into the distance.
The three ponies sat in stunned silence. "Ahem," Twilight eventually coughed, trying to regain her friends' focus. "So, as I was saying..."
"Right," Fluttershy nodded.
"Continue," Rarity waved a hoof.
"The spell I used was a very advanced one, which I have yet to master," Twilight sighed. "If I tried to reverse it right now, the results could be... bad."
"How bad?" Rarity asked.
"Bad," Twilight deadpanned.
"How bad?" Rarity repeated her inquiry, a little bit more forcefully this time.
"Well, I practiced on some potatoes, and tried to turn them into carrots," Twilight cheerfully replied. "Unfortunately, while I succeeded in turning them into carrots, they refused to properly turn back into potatoes. In four cases, they turned into bizarre carrot-potato hybrids. In two cases, they turned into apples. And in eight cases, they-"
"Turned inside out?" Rarity guessed.
"Exploded?" Fluttershy muttered.
Twilight sighed. "They turned inside out, and then they exploded," she stated. Her tone was one of exasperation.
Rarity wasted no time. "So... how high of a chance are we talking, in regards to the very-bad-inside-out-explosion result?" she ask cautiously.
"Rarity?!" Fluttershy gasped.
"Whaaaaaat?" Rarity whined. "I'm sorry Fluttershy, it's nothing person. But yellow reeeeally is not my color! Not for fur, at least!"
Twilight stomped her hooves. "No!" she barked sternly. "No, I am not going to try and change you back right now! You're lucky enough as it is. Give me some time, let me try to perfect the spell, or find somepony else who knows how to do it right. Then we'll try to change you back. Until then, I'm sorry, but you're just going to have to make due!"
Rarity gaped, flabbergasted. Finally, she closed her mouth, and sighed. "Yes, I suppose you are right, Twilight. I shouldn't let my vanity force me to make stupid decisions." She then looked over at Fluttershy. "I suppose we should try to make the best of it, yes?"
Fluttershy nodded. "Yes." She then looked up at the new horn on her forehead curiously. "You know... I have always wondered what being a unicorn would be like. Magic seems... fun..."
"That's the spirit!" Twilight beamed.
"And I've always wondered what it would be like to fly," Rarity mused. She looked back at the wings sprouting out of the middle of her back. Tentatively, she tried to stretch them out and flap them.
Graceful like a swan, she was not. It looked almost as if her wings were having a mild seizure or something, each one twitching and contracting at random and moving independently from the other. "Er... um... What... Gr... Stupid..." Rarity muttered. Frustration began to show on her face - again, an expression that looked very out of place on the face that used to be Fluttershy's. "How... How do these things work?" she finally growled.
"Oh, um," Fluttershy looked at the floor. "Well, it takes practice. Like how a foal learns to walk, or ride a bike. Or... more accurately... how a baby bird learns to fly..." she shrugged.
Rarity pouted. "But... but... I want to fly nooooowwwwwww!" she wailed.
"You'll get the hang of it eventually," Fluttershy smiled meekly. She tried to take a step forward - and promptly tripped to the floor. "Ow!" she yelped, winding up in a tangled heap.
"Fluttershy?!" Rarity and Twilight both called out to her.
"I'm okay," Fluttershy sat up gingerly. "I'm just not used to... being so.... heavy..." she half-whispered the last word.
Rarity recoiled in shock, an insulted look on her face. "Are you... calling me fat?" she asked indignantly.
"No no!" Fluttershy shook her head. "I would never-"
Twilight hopped between them. "Pegasi and unicorns have different body structures," she stated factually, flashing a sheepish grin. "Their bones are less dense, and their muscles are leaner. That way they can fly easily, with minimal effort and exertion. So if you have a pegasus and a unicorn who are the exact same size and shape, the pegasus will still be several pounds lighter. Don't you feel lighter, Rarity?"
Rarity took a few steps forward. A few very wobbly and unsteady steps. "Wow... Yes. You're right. I do feel light, but... My balance is... my balance... hwuah!" she yelped, suddenly flailing wildly in an attempt not to fall over. "Why can't I walk straight?!" she growled.
"Wings," Fluttershy squeaked. "You use your wings... for balance..."
"Urrrrrgh," Twilight groaned, lifting her eyes towards the ceiling. "This is going to take forever..."
