The moment had arrived. Twilight, Starlight, Spike, Sunburst and the others had reunited once again at the temple of Ponhenge. The Princess had Starswirl's journal, and her friends had gotten the items they needed for the summoning, each item belonging to one of the other Pillars of Equestria.
After each one of them left one item on each of the stone altars, Twilight and the two Unicorns shot their own beams of magic at Starswirl's journal. The magic sent another beam which connected the rest of the objects, and they provided a blinding glow as everyone awaited for the legendary ponies to appear...
But nopony came...
"Uuuuuh... Twilight? Was this supposed to happen?" Rainbow asked, feeling confused after the process.
"O-Of course not! Something must have failed!" Twilight answered, looking around frantically.
"But what? We already got the needed items for the summoning!" Sunburst replied.
"Well... Maybe something about the spell didn't exactly work as it should have worked?" Pinkie questioned.
"Sorry, Pinkie, but that actually wasn't any exact spell. We just had to imbue Starswirl's journal with some of our magic!" Twilight replied.
"I guess... it just failed, right?" Fluttershy said.
"It was worth the attempt, dear! We would not have known what could have happened!" Rarity replied.
"Well, that's right. At least we tried. Not anypony could say they almost got Starswirl the Bearded back along with his companions," Applejack explained, and the others nodded.
As Twilight looked worried, Starlight went to comfort her, "It's fine, Twilight. A lot of things could have happened, and this is one of them."
"A lot of things? Including the Pony of Shadows' return?" Pinkie asked, noticing then the looks from everyone else, "What?"
"Anyways, I think we should go back home," Twilight said.
Back at the Castle of Friendship, Twilight and Spike entered the library, the former looking around the different stacked books.
"Ok, Spike, I want you to reorganize the library while keeping in mind a few things: you'll have to get the diamonds book and put it beside the gold book, but not next to the Diamond Dogs book. You also need to get The Right Book, but just move it three places to the left. And finally, you may try to put the books related to dangerous things together, in alphabetical order. Any questions?" Twilight explained, leaving her assistant with a confused expression.
"Just one. Uuuuh... Could you tell me again?" Spike replied.
Twilight stared blankly at him, before answering, "Nevermind, I'll do it."
Right after that, she started levitating the mentioned books. For their surprise, she organized the books in just five seconds.
"Huh... I have never been that fast ever..." Twilight said, thinking about the situation.
Spike comforted the purple pony,"Forget about that, Twilight. Let's try to have a normal day without villains or other threats. What do you think?"
Twilight smiled, "Why not? I mean, what else could happen?"
And they went to make some royal chores inside the castle.
At night, Twilight was at her bedroom, getting ready to have a nice sleep. As she got comfy on her bed, she saw a curious thing. Looking closely, she realized what it was: her horn and hooves had grown a bit longer.
"Uuuuh... I know I'm an Alicorn now, but... I'm not exactly sure it works like this..." Twilight said as she inspected the rest of her body, not finding anything else, "Anyways... Tomorrow will be another day."
And then, she finally finished with everything before closing her eyes. Unbeknown to her, her body kept changing during the night.
Next morning, Twilight woke up feeling strange, so she went to the bathroom. After splashing her face with some water, she looked at the mirror...
...and there was Starswirl.
"GAAAH!!" Twilight yelled, her voice sounding completely different as she stepped back. The reflection on the mirror did the same, thus making her realize what was happening, "It can't be possible..."
"Twilight!? Is everything ok!?" Spike exclaimed from the other side of the door.
"Uuuh... Yes! Yes, everything is fine!" Twilight answered, despite knowing it wasn't true.
"Good to know it!" Spike walked a few steps away until something made him think, "Wait, what?"
Inside the Map Room, Spike was sitting on his chair as Twilight, now transformed into Starswirl and wearing his clothing, walked around trying to process everything. Starlight had also appeared, feeling the same surprise as the little dragon.
"I still can't believe you turned into Starswirl The Bearded! How did that happen?" Spike asked.
"I don't even know! I was perfectly fine last night, and this morning I woke up and I saw this!" Twilight said, pointing at her new body, "Ugh... Maybe some kind of magic infected me..."
"Ponhenge."
Twilight stopped walking as she and Spike turned to look at Starlight, "What do you mean?"
"Think about it: you and the others tried to summon the Pillars, but it failed. However, it may be possible that a little bit of magic from the temple, combined with the spell, attached some of Starswirl's traits to you, giving you his appearance and voice. It's a theory, but it may be what happened," Starlight explained.
Twilight thought about it, "Hmmm... I don't think there would be any other explanation," and then, she realized something, "This isn't going to be permanent, right!?"
"Not sure about that, but maybe we can find some way to undo everything and get you back to normal. Until then, you'll have to live as your idol," Starlight said, grinning as she said those last words.
"Uh... Fine. It's not like I got any other choice anyways," Twilight replied, still not accepting her transformation.
"Wait a minute! Does that mean I could also get my transformation?" Spike asked, a bit confused.
Starlight chuckled, "Spike, there are only six Pillars of Equestria and six Elements of Harmony. I don't think you would turn into-" her expression changed as she realized something, "Uh-oh..."
"What is it, Starlight?" Twilight asked.
"You turned into one of the Pillars. That same thing may also happen to the others," Starlight answered, making Twilight gasp.
"We have to look for them!"
"Maybe we can reunite back at Ponhenge!" Spike said.
"I'm gonna tell Sunburst about it! Come on!" Starlight added.
And the three of them ran outside, unaware that certain draconequus was enjoying the show.
After Twilight's failed attempt to summon Starswirl and his companions, Rainbow just tried to forget about everything, and flew towards the Wonderbolt Academy. It was far away from the temple, but nopony called her "the fastest pony in Equestria" for nothing.
So, with not a single help, the Pegasus flew fast, facing her new destination. However, when she got half of the way, she started feeling strange, until realizing she was flying significantly slower than before.
"What the hay? Did Twilight do something to me or what?" Rainbow asked for herself.
As she wasn't going to receive any answer at that moment, she decided to just keep flying.
At the academy, Spitfire was watching the Pegasi as they tried to make some stunts they were practicing. Some time later, Rainbow arrived, landing next to Spitfire with a tired expression.
"What happened, Dash? You usually don't get too tired before coming here," the Wonderbolt leader asked.
"I don't know! I was flying fast, and the next minute I wasn't doing that! It has taken me even longer to come here!" Rainbow answered.
Spitfire doubted about what she heard, but Rainbow was clearly exhausted, "Well, I guess you could get some recovery inside the changing rooms."
"That would be so awesome," and the cyan Pegasus walked away.
"Well, here I am: the fastest pony in all of Equestria, unable to fly faster. Could this get any worse?"
Just as Rainbow pronounced those last words, she noticed something different: her wings wore another color. It wasn't cyan, and it wasn't blue either. Instead, both wings looked more... yellow.
"Ok, this is the craziest thing I have ever seen," Rainbow said, her voice sounding in a lower tone "Uuuuh... And this may be the... second craziest thing?"
Rainbow's athletic body went through a list of changes, the most considerable one being that she turned into a stallion. As for the colors, the amber on her wings extended to cover all of the fur, and her eyes turned blue. The colors on her mane and tail changed to just a moderate amaranth and then, the final details appeared.
A few bruises emerged on the wings, and some kind of armor, complete with a helmet and a red cape, covered her body, along with some piece of the armor getting put on one of her hooves.
In a matter of seconds, there was no other sign of Rainbow Dash than just her mind. And of course, she was freaking out.
"What!?"
"Sir? May I ask who you are?"
Rainbow turned to the door, spotting Spitfire as she stared at what she thought to be a different pony.
"Huh... It's a long story..."
Applejack arrived at Sweet Apple Acres, spending the rest of the day there, like nothing else happened. She still tried to process things, as everything they did at Ponhenge came with no results. The only difference was that, now, the six items from the Pillars didn't exist anymore, as they vanished after the spell.
The farmpony tried to think about what else could have occurred until it was dark outside, so she went upstairs to her room and got on her bed.
Applejack woke up early on the morning, in order to do some work at the farm. She had a good breakfast, but also noticed something.
"Uh... Ah'm not supposed to be this tall..." she said, confused, before her confidence returned, "Well, whatever it is, Ah shouldn't have any problem with the apple buckin'."
She went to the barn for gathering some baskets in the cart, like always. However, after getting them, she had a strange feeling as she started to move the cart: it wasn't as heavy as always.
"Huh... Maybe Ah have eaten vitamins and Ah don't remember anythin'..." she thought, before chuckling, "Nah, that can't be. Bulk Biceps is the only one that uses vitamins."
Arriving at the orchard, Applejack put a couple of baskets below every single one of the trees, as always. When she made sure everything was ready, she smiled as she stood in front of one tree, raised her back hooves and bucked the tree...
...which fell down in one second.
She felt surprised about the incident, but decided not to stop working, "Well... Guess Ah'll have to be more careful..."
A while later, Applejack had finished bucking trees. Even if she was currently being careful with her new "strenght" and a bigger body, along with an odd feeling on her muzzle, a few other trees had fallen. At least she had a nice number of baskets full with apples.
"Phew... Finally! Now, to get the baskets and-what in tarnation!?" she exclaimed as she saw her hooves, which were turning... blue?
Ignoring the apples, AJ ran away, towards the barn, as some kind of brown clothes started materializing over her changing body. Getting inside, she looked around for something she could use for seeing whatever was happening. Finding a bucket with some water, she looked at her reflection.
"GAH!!" Applejack yelled, discovering her voice had also changed. Her reflection finally showed her what she turned into: her yellow mane had turned orange, still keeping some yellow strands, and her new Cutie Mark had three triangles put together. Those, in addition to the other changes on her body, made Applejack realize who she was now.
"Wait, I am... Rockhoof?" she thought, still looking at herself, "I have to tell Twilight."
And, after making sure nopony else saw her, she went towards the Castle of Friendship.
