Switching Sides

Shadow had lost her brown paper bag, but she was no longer concerned about who sees her like this. The key to her questions was Twilight, because she somehow always knows how to fix it.

Although Shadow didn't know Twilight personally, they were casually acquainted through her friends Pinkie Pie and Rarity.

Mostly, she just saw her when she was getting or returning a book.

She knew Twilight as more of a celebrity than anything, seeing as Shadow moved to Ponyville after the Nightmare Moon thing happened.

Lost in her thoughts, Shadow found her snout pressed into the fur of a lavender unicorn mare.

Stepping back frantically, she nervously apologized while walking in place.

“Oh! Shadow Blast, I was looking for you!” the unicorn said with a smile.

“Twilight?” Shadow opened her eyes to see just the pony she was looking for.

“Twilight! I was looking for you too!”

Twilight grinned and pointed a horn towards the path leading to her library. “Could you come with me for a moment?”

“Twilight, I'm sort of having an emergency and I need your help,” said Shadow with a worried expression.

“I know, and this is pertaining exactly to your needs, I assure you,” Twilight said quickly while nudging Shadow in the direction of her home.

“Wh-whats going on? Do you know why I have this...horrible growth on my head?!” she wailed, and Twilight found herself offended at the statement. “Hey! That's racist.”

Shadow's pupils dilated briefly. “What? No, I didn't mean it like that...”

Twilight just rolled her eyes and sighed, gently nudging the once-pegasus again.

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“Alright, so I'm sure some of you are wondering,” Twilight announced to the two ponies sitting on the main floor of the library, “about your newly acquainted... body parts, or the body parts have that disappeared from you.”

The two just nodded silently, both wearing different expressions that seemed to say the same.

The other pony in question, was an ashy gray coated stallion with pale, shaggy green hair. He looked like he was just working under a motorized vehicle, stained with oil on parts of his fur and hair.

While Shadow could recognize him as Charcoal Shift, the village's best mechanic, she noticed he was having a similar dilemma; instead of a horn on his forehead, his back was sporting two large, feathery black wings.

Shadow just gawked at his new appearance. At least she wasn't alone in this!

Twilight obviously knew something the two of them did not, and Shadow wondered what might have happened to cause this.

“So, then, how did this happen to us?” Charcoal spoke up, eying her suspiciously.

“Well, you might want to make yourselves comfortable,” Twilight announced as she lifted a book with her magic.

It was thicker than an average book, but it wasn't massive. The book itself was a smooth purple, with a strange sign on it under the title.

“This is 'The Complete Guide to Beginners Magic and Spirit'. It was actually one of my favorite books we used at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns,” Twilight proudly remarked, a smile on her face.

“And,” Charcoal drawled, looking at her expectantly.

“And,” Twilight responded with a glare, “It's the key to turning you each back into your respected forms.”

“Then tell us how, Twilight!” Shadow yelled, jumping to her feet. She still wasn't used to the new weight she had to support, given her wings helped ease her muscle use. When she called on her nerves to flap her wings, nothing came. It was a strange sensation.

“Just sit down!” Twilight ordered with an annoyed glance. Shadow quickly sat down like a trained puppy, looking at her with big, sickeningly curious eyes.

“It all started yesterday morning during one of mine and Charcoal's magic lessons,” Twilight began.

“Charcoal, I said get it inside the cup,” Twilight stated without even looking up from her clipboard.

“That tea is not inside the cup.”

“Well excuse me, Princess,” Charcoal remarked, “but I wasn't trained my whole life under the prestigious watch of Princess Celestia!” he mocked the princess's name with a ridiculous tone of voice as he said so.

Twilight gasped with two hooves clapping to her mouth. Her expression quickly turned from shocked to angered as she flared her magic, surging her clipboard at the offending unicorn.

He dodged it just by a hair as he ducked and the board soared behind him and clattered against the wall, falling to the floor where it remained still.

“What'd you do that for?!”

“How dare you dishonor the princess's name like that!” Twilight half-shouted, her nostrils flaring. She would not tolerate disrespect of the princess in her presence!

“I didn't even disrespect her,” Charcoal barked back as he got to his feet.

“Yes, you did,” Twilight growled as she tipped her nose up, turning her back on him.

“And besides, you could have been trained by her if you didn't drop out.”

Charcoal felt a pang of betrayal in his chest. How could Twilight say such a cruel thing?

She knew why he dropped out. She knew she was crossing the line.

When Twilight didn't hear a response, she turned her head slightly to the right to look behind her. What she saw was Charcoal with a blank expression as he avoided her eyes.

“You're right,” he stated flatly, his voice deepening in tone. “That's why I'm here. Can we just get back to the lesson?”

Twilight turned around, already feeling the atmosphere around them change and she instantly felt guilty.

She had grown up alone. For most of her life, she had a select two ponies who truly understood her; Shining Armor and Princess Celestia.

She wasn't good with other ponies. She wasn't used to so much social interaction.

She confusedly stared at Charcoal, who just quietly avoided her eyes.

Had she offended Charcoal?

Twilight mentally analyzed the conversation which had just occurred.

After a moment of thought, it registered in her head; Charcoal had dropped out of magic school as a colt because of a terrible accident he cast on his friend.

It was a bit dramatic for him to drop out, but now's not really the time for opinions, Twilight thought.

“Charcoal?” Twilight quietly called across the room.

She wasn't sure Charcoal had heard her at first, but a twitch of his ears assured her that he did.

“I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you,” Twilight carefully continued, trying to mentally look through her list of words for use here.

Charcoal stared at his hooves for a moment. His pupils darted back and forth for a moment, as if searching, then suddenly, he looked up at Twilight. “It's okay,” he said with a reassuring smile, “You didn't mean it, right?”

Charcoal knew she didn't think about if that would offend him, nor did she mean to.

It still hurt his heart, though, and he can't help but remember the dark red stained on sugar brown fur as multiple sets of eyes just looked at him.

“Alright,” Twilight said quietly with a small smile.

She trotted forward, closer to Charcoal as she set a book down on the table next to them.

The book was large and purple in color, and written in large silver letters it said 'The Complete Guide to Beginners Magic and Spirit'. Under the logo was a sign Charcoal remembered learning in Elementary school that was an old symbol for magic.

She used her hooves to open the book, to which the other side toppled onto the table with a loud thud. It was obviously opened hundreds of times, and Charcoal guessed that it was from Twilight's personal library.

More specifically, the book was opened to a certain page that had a strange looking table of elements.

“With this, I will perform a spell I've been practicing and you can write down exactly what you felt.” Twilight said with a smile on her face.

“Wait, what?” Charcoal asked, dumbfounded.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Basically, when I do the spell, you gotta write down the different elements you experienced during the magical transition.”

“A-alright...” Charcoal stuttered, not entirely getting her.

Twilight, on the other hoof, did not notice his confusion and her horn sparked up, glowing a soft rosy red.

“When Princess Celestia passed Starswirl's last written spellbook to me, she gave me the responsibility to try and make something of his unheard spells. He died, and he never got to bring his spells to life, to the public. I've recently been testing one of the spells in his book with some animal subjects.

“It works, but now I want to try with a pony. If my calculations are correct, it will change your race! You could become a Pegasus, or even an Earth pony!”

Charcoal froze, entirely shocked. Twilight waited until the last moment to tell him so he couldn't chicken out.

“Brace yourself!” Twilight announced excitedly as her horn finished charging for what she was about to do.

“Wait!” Charcoal called desperately nervous.

“Twilight, you've got to be kidding, you're kidding, right?” He brought his hooves to his mouth, terror gripping him. What if her spell goes wrong?

“Look, Twilight, let's just discuss this like calm ponies...”

He begged and tried to talk her out of it, but she was ready.

They hadn't even noticed the pegasus who had trailed idly inside on the floor below.