"Twilight..." Spike moaned. "Are you done yet?"
"Not just yet, Spike." Twilight lifted a flask full of bubbling liquid. "I still have some work to do."
"It's three in the morning, what sort of work would keep you up that late?" The dragon ambled down the stairs. "You know Rainbow Dash's coming over tomorrow, right?"
"I am." Twilight set the flask down. "That's why I'm doing this now."
Spike looked over the science set-up. "What are you doing, anyway?"
"I'm finding the perfect formula for making a holographic image." She went into muttering something about multiplying the something ratio with Starswirl's Constant.
Spike stood silent for a brief moment. "Why?"
"She said something about a real-sized three-dimensional image of Daring Do or herself or something I missed. I started brainstorming as soon as I heard three-dimensional image."
"That's an odd request."
Twilight continued working silently, leaving Spike's remark unheard.
"So I'll see you in the morning, then?"
"Uh huh." Twilight replied, obviously distracted with scribbling something on a roll of parchment.
"Ooo... kay then." Spike sped off, before returning briefly. "Oh, don't forget to sleep for once."
"Uh huh."
Spike faceclawed.
The sun rose slowly over the mountains near Ponyville, illuminating the quiet town. Early-rising ponies were trotting or flying around, preparing for the day.
A rainbow-maned pegasus sped into the town, imagining a wicked rock anthem in her head as she neared the massive oak tree that housed her egghead friend.
Ok, so she did introduce her to Daring Do. No need to call her an egghead when she was, in part, one herself.
She skidded to a halt in front of the door, kicking up a cloud of dust. She rapped her hooves on the door.
It flung open, a very-dishevelled lavender pony standing behind it.
"Woah!" Dash leapt back instinctively, before realising it was safe. "Oh, uh, hey Twilight!"
"Hello Rainbow Dash." Twilight replied, gesturing her inside. "Come on in."
Rainbow took a step forwards. The entire area was covered in charts, science and books, most of what she could see she couldn't understand. "Wow, you've been busy."
"I've been working on a hologram spell." Twilight said proudly as she brushed her mane. "It took me all night, but I finally got it."
"Cool, so when do we start?"
"Just a second." She paused. "Eeeeexcept I just remembered I forgot what you wanted me to make a hologram of. Sorry."
"Nah, it's cool." Rainbow smiled. "I could tell by your goofy smile that you were thinking."
"So, what did you want me to make?"
"Me!" Rainbow leapt into the library air.
"You?"
"Totally."
Twilight thought. "Why?"
"Because I look in a mirror and see only one side of me. I want to see me in all my awesomeness!" Rainbow looked at her expectantly.
"I'll try my best." Twilight started conjuring up magic. The air started churning, rings of dust picking up from the floor.
"That's a lot of magic, Twi. Are you sure you can handle this?"
"No idea." She replied. "At worst, we won't be thrown half-way across Equestria."
Rainbow started sweating nervously, backing into one of the shelves. She could barely hear the patter of clawed feet coming down the stairs.
Twilight's magic suddenly stopped. She looked extremely nervous.
"Um, what just happened?" Rainbow asked.
"I dunno." Twilight poked her horn, and walked up to one of the charts. "I think I must've missed something."
Rainbow walked to her side. "Probably."
Spike leant on Twilight casually. "That's what you get for staying up to five in the morning." He slapped Twilight on her back jokingly.
What happened next was completely unexpected.
A brilliant beam of light shot from Twilight's horn directly into Rainbow Dash's forehead. The two ponies were sent flying into opposing sides of the library with a crash.
After some time, Rainbow opened her eyes. Her head was throbbing like mad.
"Ow, that hurt..." She opened her eyes, spotting something entirely strange.
Herself.
"Did it work?" Something felt different, but she couldn't place her hoof on it.
She dashed over to the pegasus lying on the ground. Man, she looked awesome.
"Hey Twilight, the hologram thing worked!" She called out.
The hologram opened her eyes and looked right at Rainbow. "Then why is there a hologram of me?"
The two looked at each other.
Then at themselves.
Then screamed.
"AAAAH! What's happened?!" Rainbow-in-Twilight screamed. "I'm you! I even have your voice!"
"Likewise..." Twilight-in-Rainbow replied. "Something happened, something very very bad."
"Fix it! FIX IT!" Rainbow practically screamed.
"It'll take me a while to make a counter spell, and without my magic-" She froze. "I lost my magic."
"Uh oh."
Twilight's rainbow mane started becoming more dishevelled. "Ohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohno!" She screamed.
"Twilight, relax!" Rainbow said. "I'll cast the spell."
"But you've never even learnt magic!" Twilight slammed her muzzle into the unicorn's, magenta eyes full of panic.
"I can learn now." Rainbow offered as Twilight sped to her schedule, and was surprised when she crashed into it.
"Wow, Rainbow, I didn't know you were that fast..." She said as she picked herself up. "Anyway, I've planned to see Rarity and Fluttershy at the Spa at midday."
"And I've got an appointment with Pinkie and AJ, after some Weather duties." Rainbow gulped. "So... that means..."
"You'll have to go to the Spa." Twilight chuckled in a laugh that was annoyingly familiar to Rainbow. "Relax, it's my body."
"W-why can't you go and tell them the truth?"
"Because they can't know." Twilight replied sternly. "They'll think we're joking."
"So why can't we prove it?"
"Because I can easily falter in my magic and you can easily fly poorly." She took a breath. "This means we could essentially fake it."
Spike pulled himself out of a pile of scattered books. "Ow..."
The two of them gulped.
"Hey, what just happened?" Spike stumbled over to them. "Are you two ok?"
"Um..." Rainbow started. "No, not really."
"What's wrong, Twilight?"
"Apparently, the spell I cast-"
"Hold on!" Spike yelled. "Rainbow, you can't use magic."
"Look, here's the short version." Rainbow started. "That big spell switched our minds into the other's body."
"Huh?"
"Basically, I'm Rainbow Dash." The unicorn pointed a hoof to the pegasus. "And that's Twilight."
"Um..."
Rainbow groaned.
Spike snapped his claw. "I know!" He pointed a claw to Twilight (the pegasus). "If you're Twilight, what's your favourite number?"
"Starswirl's Constant, obviously."
"And what is it?"
"Easy. The square root of the tangent of 50 multiplied by 7.6 repeating, which is 3.023"
"And what's it mean?"
"When you divide by Starswirl's Constant by the approximate units of magic energy required to cast it, you get the Cast time of the spell in seconds. Divide the Cast time by Magestaff's Ratio you-"
"Yep, you're Twilight."
Twilight sighed. "That wasn't too bad."
"Well, that's all well and good," Rainbow said, trying to start flying and realising she couldn't. "Um... But what if the girls don't ask that?"
"Good point." Twilight replied, trying to levitate her schedule over. "Er... Maybe we should practice with our new bodies first..."
"Ah..." Rarity sighed as she slipped into the pool. "This is the life..."
Fluttershy nodded. "I wonder when Twilight will get here."
"As callous as this sounds, I really don't care at the moment." She sank further back in the pool. "I am enjoying this too much to mind if she's late."
Just then, the doors flew open. A slightly-stressed Twilight trotted through, placing tickets on the counter and trotting up.
"Sorry I'm late." She gave a little hop, frowned at herself, then trotted up to the edge of the pool.
"Busy studying, dear?" Rarity invited her in with her hoof.
"You... could say that..." She slipped in the pool. "Wow, this is nice."
"I know exactly what you mean, darling. This spa is absolutely luxurious..."
"I'm surprised I don't come here more often."
"Um, Twilight, don't you go here regularly?"
Twilight looked around, panicked. "Uh... Maybe I should come here as often as you two?" She gave a nervous chuckle and sank into the pool more.
Rarity passed it off. "Only if you want to. I get a regular's discount, so I come here often enough."
The three ponies sat there in silence for a minute.
"So, what were you studying, Twilight?" The butter-coated pegasus asked.
"Um... I was making a hologram for m- Uh, Rainbow Dash."
"Wow, that's a complicated spell." Rarity commented. "What did she ask for?"
"Me." Rainbow replied without thinking.
"Why would Rainbow want a hologram of you?"
Twilight shrieked. "Ah, I meant to say her! She wanted a hologram of herself, that's what I meant. You know how awesome she is- Uh, I mean, thinks she is!" A bout of nervous laughter.
Rarity looked at her in confusion. "You must've been working hard for you of all ponies to make a mistake in that sentence..."
"She- Um, I stayed up to about five in the morning working on the spell."
"Um, maybe you should get some sleep soon..."
"Did anything happen?" Rarity inquired.
"There was... an accident. N-nothing major!" She laughed nervously. "Nope, nothing at all."
"What happened?" Rarity deadpanned.
Twilight looked at everywhere except the two ponies looking at her. "Um... Promise you'll believe me."
"Look, you were right about the Future Twilight thing, as ridiculous as it was. I promise I'll believe you this time."
Fluttershy nodded, confirming it.
"I'm... Twilight's in my body."
"So..."
"I'm Rainbow Dash."
Rarity gasped melodramatically, while Fluttershy gasped quietly.
"That explains everything." Rarity said, slamming one of her hooves into the other. "Where's Twilight?"
"She's supposed to be on weather duty, but I made her call in sick. She should be out with Pinkie and Applejack."
"Oh my..." Fluttershy squeaked.
Meanwhile, 'Rainbow' was flying awkwardly to Sugar Cube Corner. She pushed the door open, just after Pinkie had stopped moving uncontrollably.
"Applejack!" Pinkie cried out. "Earflop, Backitch, Random vibrations!"
"Um... What's that mean, Sugarcube?" Applejack asked.
"It means there's some high-level magic going on nearby!" She skidded to Rainbow. "Oh, hi Rainbow Dash! I didn't see you enter."
"I just got here."
"Ready to taste our newest treat?" She pushed her into a nearby chair, and slammed a massive cupcake in front of her. "It's a Zapapple Apple Mega-Cupcake For Dashie!" She leant in. "Or ZAMCFD for short."
"Za-ma-ca-flid?"
"ZAMCFD."
"What?"
She pulled a random label, the acronym listed vertically with the rest of each word to its side. "ZA... MC.. FD."
"I think I got that, thanks."
Applejack walked up. "Go ahead and eat up. Y'all must be tired, after workin' so hard last night."
Rainbow took a bite. It was absolutely delicious. "Mm... This is darn good."
Pinkie squealed. "Dashie likes it! Dashie likes it!"
Applejack looked at Rainbow. "Y'all right, Sugarcube?"
"Not really. I... Um, I went to Twilight's, where I- She did some high-level magic, and there was an accident."
Applejack took a seat next to her. "What sorta accident?"
"I really don't want to talk about it..."
"Did... Did Twilight turn into a stallion?"
Rainbow spluttered. "What? No, I didn- I-I mean she didn't!"
"You seem to be gettin' a might confused, Rainbow."
"Yeah!" Pinkie leapt from somewhere next to them. "Like that time when Future Twilight turned up and she was all like 'what the hay' and she was all like 'I bring you a warning' and she was then like 'this is impossible and I'm going to ask why it's suddenly possible' and-"
"Pinkie?"
"Yes, Dashie?"
"Be quiet."
Applejack looked at her funny. "Don't ya normally say somethin' a little less couth?"
Rainbow's eyes widened. "Uh, um, uh..."
The farmer narrowed her eyes. "In fact, ya seem to be actin' real funny today..."
"Maybe she's a spy?" Pinkie asked.
"You've been playin' that game too much, Pinkie." Applejack deadpanned.
"Actually," Rainbow started. "I'm Twilight Sparkle."
Silence.
"What?" Applejack looked at her in absolute confusion.
"There was an accident this morning, and apparently Rainbow and I swapped our bodied."
"Ah can accept that." Applejack replied.
"You can?"
"But Ah need proof. Who's that wizard that Twilight's been bangin' on about for some time?"
"Which one, Starswirl, Magestaff or Ponythagoras?"
"Yep, y'all Twilight in there."
Pinkie shrieked.
"What is it-?"
"The ZAMCFD! It's supposed to be for Rainbow Dash and not you, Twilight!"
"Gee, thanks." Twilight muttered.
Pinkie returned to her happy demeanour. "Don't worry, I've got a ZAMCFT in the works, then a ZAMCFAJ, ZAMCFP, ZACMFR and finally a ZACMFF-"
"We get it, Sugarcube."
"But I wasn't finished."
"And you don't need to." She turned back to Twilight. "So, where's Rainbow."
"With Rarity and Fluttershy at the spa."
"Oh, that's better than wonderin' around town."
Just then, a sodden lavender unicorn pushed the door open. "Twi, you here?"
Pinkie grabbed her temples. "Now I'm confused..."
"I am." Twilight replied. "What's wrong?"
"Do they know?"
"Sure do." Applejack replied.
Rainbow sighed. "Whew." She turned out the door. "False alarm, girls!"
Rainbow trotted in, but not before trying to leap forwards to fly and failing. A white unicorn and a yellow pegasus walked in behind them.
"Do they know?" Applejack asked.
"Of course," Rainbow replied. "It's not like I can learn to act like Twilight in the space of an hour or something."
Twilight giggled. "I am very much the same, Rai-" She froze. "Oh dear."
"Eh?"
"The counterspell." Twilight went into panic mode. "I forgot to work on the counterspell!"
"And... that's bad, right?"
Twilight gasped for air. "Of course it's bad!" She galloped to the door, pausing to turn. "If I don't work on a counterspell, we'll be stuck like this..."
She pressed her muzzle into the unicorn's. "Forever!"
Rainbow gulped. "Oookay, let's go finish it then."
"Ugh..." Twilight groaned. "Do you know how hard it is not to be able to use magic?"
"Do you know hard it is not to be able to fly?" Rainbow rebutted.
"Touche." Twilight turned back to the chalkboard.
"How do I even use magic?" Rainbow stared at her horn. "Do I just... Think about it?"
"I thought we went over the basics, Rainbow." Twilight jotted down something with the quill in her mouth.
"We did?"
Twilight froze. "Oh. We didn't reach that part."
Rainbow facehoofed. "Great. The one time I need to use unicorn magic is when I don't know how to."
"Well, try something now. It'll all fall into place after that."
Dash turned to a random cup that was lying in the room. That'll do.
She closed her eyes, only to open them again. "Um, Twi?"
"Uh huh?"
"Do I have to, like, think about picking it up with my mind?"
"That's close enough."
Dash turned to the cup again with new resolve. As soon as she thought about picking it up from where she was sitting a cyan field wrapped around it. It was taxing, and the table around it seemed to be getting a little charred.
"Twi, I think I got it!"
Twilight turned to see the cup slowly being lifted. "Excellent- Wait."
Rainbow turned to face Twilight, and cringed at the sound of the cup smashing into the wall. "Huh?"
"The magic was the wrong colour."
"Maybe it's because I'm using the magic instead of you?" She poked her horn.
"Or it could be something worse." Twilight gasped. "Combine that with the fact that you were suddenly able to use your magic mostly effectively means..."
She once again smacked her muzzle into Rainbow's. "We're getting used to our new bodies."
Rainbow pushed the mare back. "Hang on, how's that a bad thing?"
"It means that, given enough time, you'll forget how to fly and I'll forget how to use magic." She dashed back to the chalkboard, sketching a mass series of sums. "I need to do some more calculations. Don't use any more magic."
"But-"
"I mean it!" She paused, noticing herself flying. She immediately landed.
A good ten hours later, Twilight had finished. "There, done." She turned to face the now-sleeping Rainbow Dash.
"I guess I needed the sleep." She muttered to herself as she prodded the unicorn awake. Rainbow opened her eyes slowly then yawned. "Wow, that took a while."
"Ok, let's go through the procedure." Twilight pointed to a mass of writing on the chalkboard. "Ok, you need to start a reversal spell. Imagine trying to fix something in your mind-" She froze. "Um... My eyes..."
"What about them?" Rainbow looked at Twilight's. "They look like normal."
"No, my eyes- the ones you're using, they're magenta."
"And mine aren't?" Rainbow peered closer. "Um..." Her eyes widened. "Oh."
"We need to be quick about this." Twilight grabbed Rainbow. "Think about fixing something. I redesigned this spell so that I will focus it, and you'll be the power source."
Rainbow shut her eyes. Let's see, thinking about... Fixing my cloud home! Her horn sparked into life, a distinctly cyan field wrapping around it.
Twilight closed her eyes, spreading her wings out. Cyan energy flowed around her wings, turning lavender before being sent back. The air rippled, kicking up a thin layer of dust.
Then the spell stopped. Both opened their eyes in panic.
"It didn't work?" Rainbow screeched.
"You mustn't been thinking hard enough." Twilight muttered.
Spike cleared his throat. "Allow me." He dashed his way to Rainbow's side, and slapped her on the back.
Nothing.
"Well, I trie-"
A huge beam of cyan-lavender magic struck the pegasus in the head, knocking the three around the room. Spike hit the statue in the middle of the room, his natural hide protecting him from most damage. Twilight rammed into the bookshelf behind her, ending up buried in books. Rainbow soared straight through the door, stumbling to the street and right in front of Pinkie's hooves.
Pinkie leaned down. "Hey Twilight."
"Ugh..." Rainbow moaned. "I'm Rainbow Dash, Pinkie..."
"But wasn't Twilight in Rainbow's body before?"
Rainbow shot up. She flexed where her wing were supposed to be. And were.
"I'm me again..." She patted her chest. "Rainbow Dash the pegasus." She let out a single laugh. "It actually worked!"
"What?" Pinkie asked, ignored by the blissful pegasus, who dashed back inside.
"I will never understand that pony..." She mumbled as Applejack, who had just arrived, chuckled.
Meanwhile Twilight used her magic instinctively to lift the books off her. "Ow, my flank..." She looked around, seeing a cyan blur land perfectly on the centre table.
"Rainbow, is that you?"
"The one and only." She replied proudly, striking a heroic pose. "Welcome back to the land of the unicorn, Twi."
Twilight looked up to see that she had in fact lifted the books in fields of magic that had just finished turning lavender. In her shock she dropped them all. She lifted them back up and stacked them without a second thought.
"I'm glad to be back. Watching you waste so much magic..." She cringed. "How are the wings?"
"Still good." She flapped them.
Spike groaned, picking himself up. "Hey guys... What happened?"
"We're back to normal." Rainbow replied.
"Ok, so what's your favourite number?"
"One, obviously." Rainbow scoffed. "Geez, can't you tell I'm not Twilight? Because I'm flying, and Twilight couldn't fly-"
"Hey!"
"-As well as me."
"Yeah, you're totally Rainbow Dash." Spike chuckled, pulling out a scroll from the ground and checking if it was empty. "Do you want me to send a letter to the Princess?"
"I would like that." Twilight replied.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I have learnt that just because your friend is one of your best friends doesn't mean that you can share their life.
I also learnt that just because your friend does something you can't doesn't mean you can't appreciate it, and it certainly doesn't mean you can brag about your own.
Your faithful student, with help from your loyal subject Rainbow Dash,
~Twilight Sparkle.
"Sparkle... Done." Spike placed the quill down on the table.
"Great, send it." Rainbow replied.
Spike sucked in a breath and released it in a burst of green fire. The scroll turned to flying ash and sped out the open window.
"So, Twi, wanna go to Sugar Cube Corner?"
"Sounds good."
"Hey Dashie!" Pinkie pushed the window open. "Wanna try my ZAMCFD?"
"Your want-now?"
"Zapapple Apple Mega-Cupcake For Dashie." Pinkie deadpanned. "Geez, it's like ponies don't understand acronyms."
Twilight chuckled, followed by the pegasus and then the dragon.
"No, I'm super-serious about that." Pinkie replied.
The End