Chapter 0 - Boiling Point
"The most magnificent sparks can come from the most unexpected places. Given enough persistence, dedication, and (above all) friendship, I believe that anypony can move mountains. Metaphorically speaking, of course,"
- Princess Twilight Sparkle
It was a tranquil Sunday afternoon in Ponyville. The town was alive with ponies. Some were sitting for a bite to eat. Others were walking and talking throughout the marketplace. It seemed everypony in town was out and about. Everypony, it seemed, except a young unicorn by the name of Aquarius Splash, who had holed himself up in his home to study.
"I think I've got it," he mumbled to himself, poring over his notes. Various diagrams were plastered on the wall of his room, surrounded by numerous complicated magic spells, written in an illegible language with sharp, jagged lines.
"That… might be how to cast the initiator?" He flipped back between two pages, cross-referencing his work with his notes. "I mean, it seems to line up with all the research I can find."
Pausing, he took a step back to think. This was the last piece of the puzzle. Nopony believed it was possible when he was little. They'd all assumed he just had a lively imagination. Even at this new school, the other students wouldn’t give his idea any respect. The very thought of proving them all wrong manifested into a smug smile on his face. "Just wait until I show everyone! Then they'll see that it's not Luster Dawn who's the school's best spellcaster - it's me!"
Suddenly there was a knock at his front door, interrupting his maniacal ramblings. "Who is it?" Aquarius called from his study, not even bothering to turn his head.
"It's Forest," the voice came through the closed door. "I made plans with Gully today - we're gonna meet up and play some buckball! You wanna come be our unicorn, Aqua?"
"It's Aquarius," called the shut-in, with a hint of tired annoyance. This had been the norm between the two friends for years; Forest pretended to forget about Aquarius's disdain for that nickname, and in return Aquarius would pretend that Forest listened to his correction. "I think I'm gonna pass, I'm in the middle of something," Aquarius continued. "Besides, buckball's not really my thing."
"Whatever, if you say so," Forest replied. "See you at school tomorrow."
"Yeah, see ya," Aquarius shouted back. "Now where was I.…"
Taking a second to regain his focus, the unicorn remembered, "Right, the moment of truth! It's finally time to cast my masterpiece!" His horn began illuminating a grayish blue. This would be the first time he'd ever cast the monster of a spell he'd been trying to mimic for nearly 2 years. His heart pounded in his chest as he recited incantations in his head, eyes gliding across his notes as the words seemed to fly off of the page. His horn gleamed brighter and brighter, filling the room with a heavenly glow. The papers on the walls began to stir, and the papers on his desk and lectern began to rise and swirl in a vortex around him. Before long, the bright light overpowered everything; all was white within his study. Maintaining concentration, he pressed onward, until suddenly…
Crack-bang!
An unusually vibrant green light exploded from his horn, booming like a lightning bolt and sending Aquarius hurtling backwards. Papers were fired like projectiles in every direction, many of them singed and charred. The colt's horn extinguished as the unimaginable force of the explosion slammed him helplessly into the wall of his study, leaving him unconscious among a sea of disorganized and torched papers.
Chapter 1 - Time to Reflect
"The formulation of magic, in and of itself, is an act of self-reflection. In my countless years studying magic, I thought I had been studying something fundamental about the world. Looking back, however, it is quite apparent that my research had illuminated far more about myself than it did about the world,"
- Starswirl the Bearded
For what seemed like hours, Aquarius found himself without the will to move, fading in and out of consciousness. Casting that spell was the most difficult thing he'd ever done, and for the result to be such a catastrophic failure… he was too miserable to open his eyes. Every time he would regain consciousness, it was all he could think about.
I spent years on that spell, all for it to just blow up in my face, he thought. I'm… worthless.
Feeling dejected and depressed, all that he could manage was to pass out again. For once, he almost would have preferred to remain unconscious forever.
Then, through the void of darkness, the blurred form of a pony flickered into existence. It moved as if it were approaching him, but never seemed to get any closer. Any features of the mysterious pony blob were imperceptible, and Aquarius began to doubt it was even there. The shape started to shout and wave what appeared to be forelegs in the air, but only the sound of muffled nonsense survived the journey. Aquarius yearned to approach the figure. The itch of curiosity nagged at the back of his mind. But his limbs were so weak from exhaustion, he couldn’t feel them at all. His mind began to gum up. Coherent thoughts couldn’t form anymore, and the blur in the distance only became more and more muddy, until it totally fizzled out of view, leaving only darkness. Calm, silent, lonely darkness.
Aquarius’s eyes struggled to open, and they forced themselves closed again almost immediately. He was still in his study lying flat on his belly, and he still felt aches and pains all over.
Groggy and uncoordinated, he stumbled atop his hooves. His knees were incredibly wobbly, and his eyes were still struggling to adjust to the light from the fixture on the ceiling, so they remained mostly closed. Nearly slipping on some papers littered about the floor, he began making his way to his desk. Before he could reach it, however, he tripped on his overturned lectern and crashed onto the floor, kicking papers and ash up into the air.
Getting back on his hooves once more, blowing his mane out of his face, and forcing his eyes open, he began to assess the damage. Looking around his study, it lay in a state of apocalypse. Not to mention - and this was incredibly subtle - it seemed a bit… larger. Did I cast the spell wrong? he wondered. Maybe I made my house grow, ever so slightly?
The near end of his desk showed some slight charring, and the papers strewn across it boasted burn marks. There were holes burned straight through many pages, almost resembling swiss cheese. Where the lectern had originally stood, small bits of paper rested in a clump of ash. One wall had a large dent, marking where his body had been flung. The anatomical diagrams that had once decorated the walls were now split into fragments, and scattered across the room.
Yikes, he thought, with damage like this, I'm lucky my house didn't catch fire.
Letting out a deep sigh, he began to collect what remained of his research off of the floor. With every tilt of his neck, his disheveled mane fell to obscure his view, adding to his list of annoyances. So much hard work… gone, he lamented, brushing his hair out of the way with a hoof. It wouldn't sting as much if the final draft of the spell wasn’t the closest to the blast… Pushing his hair out of his face again, he looked over at the pile of ash in the middle of the room. He was afraid to look at the charred fragments of paper that remained within. He almost didn't want to know what he had lost. He just wanted to forget about this whole thing.
Yet again, his hair blinded him, and he let out an aggravated groan. Ugh, that's getting really annoying; I have far more important things to worry about! I might as well brush my hair. It'll be hard me to focus otherwise.
He found it more difficult to push aside the door out of his study with his hooves. Everything's slightly bigger, and heavier? I don't know how, but maybe that spell really did change my house.
He headed down the hallway and into the restroom. Once inside, Aquarius used his magic to lift a hairbrush from the cabinet. When he turned to face the sink, however, he saw an incredibly cute mare staring back at him. She had the same deep blue coat as him, the same cyan mane, the same simple, dark eyeglasses. She and he were frozen, utterly fixated on one another's greyish blue eyes, neither saying a word. Finally, Aquarius took a step closer to the sink, and she moved just as he did. They both flinched, backing away in response.
"Who-" they both opened their mouths and began to speak. But Aquarius stopped himself and put a hoof to his muzzle. A look of horror overtook his face.
Was… that a mare's voice?
His attention returned to the girl, and her attention also returned to him. There was a look of concern and intrigue upon her face. The two both opened their mouths, "Is that… " he began walking toward her, their hooves meeting as they both placed a foreleg against the glass separating them. "This… is a mirror..."
"The truth is mighty powerful, but you can bet that it gets weaker with every lie. A true friend doesn't hide their true feelings, and they also have to appreciate the courage of others when they share a difficult or embarrassing truth."
- Applejack
Creatures of all kinds walked the halls of the School of Friendship. Hundreds of friendly faces were catching up with friends by their lockers on the way to the next period.
"Yo, Forest!" A silver griffon called through the crowd. An earth pony with a grassy green coat and sea green mane turned from his locker and looked around in the direction of the call, before his eyes locked onto the griffon approaching him.
"Heyyy, Gully, what's up?" Forest greeted.
"Not much," replied the griffon. "Have you seen Splash anywhere?"
Forest frowned, "No, he wasn't in homeroom today."
"The teachers didn't even know where he was when I asked. You saw him Sunday, right?" Asked Gully.
"Well, I didn't see him," the colt groaned back, "I talked to him from outside."
"Oh yeah! He doesn't let anyone in his house, I forgot!" Gully made no attempt to hold back his laughter.
"I hope it's nothing serious," worried the earth pony. "We should go check on him after school today."
Gully, however, just shrugged, "He's probably fine, but if you really want, I'll come along."
Aquarius posed in front of the mirror, marveling at the mare he had become.
"It… worked," he muttered. "I mean, this isn't exactly what I was going for, but… I really did perform self-transformation magic."
As Aquarius modeled for himself, he took note of what had changed, as well as some… irregularities. "What's really odd is that my cutie mark seems to be missing. Is it some sort of side effect?" He wondered as he inspected his flank. It was now bare where there had once been an image of a sparkling thought cloud, a symbol of his ingenuity and creative thinking. "A grown pony with a blank flank would certainly stand out like a sore thumb…"
He had finished brushing his mane and tail, which were both much longer than they were before. The brush that he had performed well enough, but it wasn't exactly ideal for the job, and left them a bit messy. The pony then moved to brush his coat. "It's so much... softer now," he remarked. Looking back to the mirror, a bubbly feeling of joy began to well up inside him. It was like nothing Aquarius had ever felt before. The cute mare in the reflection filled the pony with glee. That's… me, he thought to himself. This is pretty good…
Suddenly, several hard knocks at the door made Aquarius flinch and drop the brush. "Yo, Splash!" Gully called. "Forest and I came to check on you! You there?"
Aquarius swallowed an "eep!" of surprise before he could give himself away. Oh no. No no no no, the panic was settling in. My voice… I'd die of embarrassment if they found out about this!
Thinking fast, he dashed out of the bathroom, past the front door, knocked over a perilously constructed city of cider cans, and fumbled around in a drawer. Finally, he dug out a clothespin. Gully knocked harder, the door quaking with every pound. "I can hear you moving around in there! What's going on?"
Hurrying, Aquarius plugged his nose with the pin. In his haste, he failed to notice that his muzzle had changed shape to the gentler slope of a filly's, and ended up jabbing himself. "Oww!" The mare voice yelped, made more nasally by the pin plugging his nose.
"Was that you?" Forest asked, getting right up against the door. "You doing okay?"
"Yeah, I'm alright," Aquarius replied with the now nasally voice.
"Whoa, you sound awful," Gully remarked.
"Yeah, I got really sick," He fibbed.
"Is that why you didn't wanna play buckball on Sunday?" Forest asked.
"Yeah, I just didn't want you guys to - yowch! - worry about me." The clothespin was awfully uncomfortable.
"Worry about you? What are you talking about?" Gully asked. Forest jabbed him in the gut and gave him a death glare. "W-what I mean is, you say that as if missing two days of school without warning is somehow less worrying," Gully managed.
"Wha- two days?" The pony blurted out, adjusting the clothespin.
"Yeah. It's Tuesday," Aquarius could feel the deadpan delivery in Gully’s voice.
"I… slept through all of Monday?" Aquarius asked innocently.
At that, Forest burst into laughter. "Pffff-hahahaha! Wow! That's incredible!"
"Hahaa… yeah…" Aquarius feigned laughter.
"Dude, it's kinda weird always talking to you through a door," Gully reasoned, "do you think we could, like, come in for once?" The doorknob jiggled lightly as his talons clenched it.
"NO!" Aquarius squeaked, hurling his body into the door to secure it shut. The forcefulness and volume made Forest flinch, and Gully shot backwards into the air, held aloft by his wings. "Uh… it's just, really contagious. If I got you two sick, they'd probably think we were all ditching class again," Aquarius gave some genuine, but lackluster attempts at feigning a cough. Gully rolled his eyes.
"Alright, well… if you need anything, I picked up a set of those enchanted communication books. Just write to me if something comes to mind." Forest offered nervously.
"Whoa, wait, what?" Aquarius gasped. "Aren't those things expensive? Why the hay would you do that?"
Forest barked back instantly, as if to clear up any misconception, "We had no idea where you were for two days! If you're out sick, that's one less creature to be miserable with!" Then he paused, as if he was thinking of other reasons on the spot. "We'll also gain some brownie points with the teacher this way; keeping in touch is a friendship thing, right?" Forest's voice wavered a bit, but Aquarius was too concerned about his own situation to notice. "Anyway, I'll just leave it on the doorstep, if that's cool."
"Yeah, go for it, I guess. How much do I owe you?"
"Don't worry about that, just focus on getting better! I-it isn't fair that you're the only one that gets to stay out of class!" Forest stuttered, turning to walk away.
"Yeah, I'll try," replied the transformed colt, a sarcastic smile running across his face.
They sure were the same as always. He'd known Forest and Gully since orientation, and the only thing that really brought the three of them together was their total lack of interest in going to friendship school.
Well, there was at least one other reason; one that Aquarius swore to never admit. But he knew it was unlikely that the two of them felt the same way, so it wasn't worth dwelling on.
Waiting a moment, Aquarius snuck a peek out of the laundry room window to make sure they were gone. Finally, he could remove the clothespin.
"OWW! Sweet Celestia, that was way more painful than they make it look," he thought aloud, rubbing his rounded girl muzzle with a delicate hoof. "This... is going to be a problem."
As Forest and Gully made their way back to their dorm room at the school, the griffon chuckled lightly, "Jeez, Aquarius is such a terrible liar. He's totally been ditching class."
"Can't you just take his word for once in your life?" Forest requested. "I trust him."
Gully stared at Forest for a moment. "You know, you two are both terrible liars," he remarked.
Forest's face turned a deep red almost instantly, "Sh-shut up!"
"Aww, what's the matter?" Gully teased. "Do you care about him?"
Forest didn't say anything, he just kept walking.
"Face it! You bought those journals just so you could talk to your beloved little Aquarius, didn't you?"
"Just drop it already!" The colt demanded, "I didn't tell you so you could tease me all day!"
"Well then you should've known better than to tell me in the first place," the griffon smiled devilishly. "So, when did you say the wedding was?"
"I said drop it!"
Returning to his study with a muffin, Aquarius levitated the magically linked journal over to his desk and looked around the room. These scattered and burnt papers had once been his research. Hopefully I can find the reversal spell in this mess, he thought. That is, if it survived. Sighing, he took a bite of the muffin, put it aside, and began to collect and stack the pages.
"I kinda forgot about Forest and Gully for a second. I can't believe I let myself get carried away enjoying this… mistake… without considering how it'd affect the rest of my life."
He began to lift another page, but it crumbled to ash the very moment he disturbed it, prompting a dejected sigh.
"It's supposed to be a party trick. This isn't my goal or anything. I just want to show off how good I am at magic. I don't want this. I don't want this." He repeated to himself, as if it would become true if he said it enough times. "Besides, even if I did want this, it's not like I can go back to school and act like nothing happened. The other guys would laugh at me for sure, and I don't think I'd outperform Luster with a transformation spell that I can't even reverse!"
He stacked the remains of a Changeling diagram next to the stack of charred notes, before taking another bite of muffin.
"It's not like I can just assume a new identity and start from scratch. Hay, even if I could, I'm not really sure I'd want to."
He'd now reached the large pile of ash that had been his final breakthrough. Reluctantly, he lifted a dustpan and brush, and began to sweep it away.
His eyes drifted over to the desk, where the magic journal sat waiting.
"I mean, no matter how we act on the outside, Forest and Gully are still my friends, right?" He reasoned. "I don't think I could admit it, but I really do care about them. I'd hate to ditch them if they secretly felt the same way."
He jumped at the sound of a piece of paper crumpling under the brush. Refocusing his gaze back at the floor, he saw a sole piece of parchment beneath the ash. At the top it read, in his hornwriting, "How Changelings Change Back".
Aquarius dropped the dustpan and brush and lifted the page without delay. Skimming over it, he began to look around the room. "There… were more notes to this section," he lamented. "A lot more. But… it looks like this is the only page of it that survived." He paused for a moment, then placed it on his desk next to the journal. "Well, it's a start, at least. I'll see what I can do."
Author's Note
Ah, introducing Aquarius's friends! Well, 'friends.'
I was going to publish this yesterday, but I held off once I remembered it was April Fool's day. Anywhozits, I hope you enjoy!
EDIT 04/03/2021: Made a couple wording adjustments; it got a bit repetitive in a couple spots, so I varied up the language.
