The Sparkle Switcheroo: Draconic Destinies (Open!)

[SunsetSombra]

Morning had broken over Ponyville on this quiet winter morning, and Spike was up early...only because of the fact that today was cleaning everything not a book day...literally, the schedule on the board even listed it, and it was something Spike wanted to get an early start on...he'd already taken care of the stairs, although it had taken a good hour or so to do, and he was now handling the floor sweeping. Whilst it might not be his favourite time of the week, he still took enough pride in it to put all of himself into it, just as he would quite happily put all of his hard work into reorganising the reference books, dusting bookshelves, organising the kitchen utensils, or just generally assisting his boss and friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight was currently asleep, and Spike was doing his best to keep things quiet until she woke up - the princess could get a little cranky if woken up before her alotted hour, and he had absolutely no intention of being the unfortunate shmoe who did that, because that would just be a very very silly thing for a number one assistant to do, wouldn't it?

Of course, today was slightly tinted with the potentials for things to happen - things so unexpected that even a young Dragon had no idea what might lie around the corner - sometimes in Ponyville, even on a day where just tidying up was your focus, strange things could take place and make fools of everypony...and occasionally everydragon too!

[SteelEagle]

Twilight had learned to love her soft bed in the loft of the library, what had struck her first as a momentary rest stop becoming a permanent stop for her. She had a set schedule for it as well, eight hours on days when she didn't have anything beyond normal royal duties and light reading to attend to. There was a leeway of a few minutes either way but she hated being woken up early just as much as she loathed getting up late. Life was too short, even for a Princess, to waste on it. And eight hours, zero minutes, and forty-six seconds after she fell asleep, Twilight woke up, stretching out her legs and hooves as she groggily fought through the barrier between consciousness and the dreamworld.

"Ahhhhhhh..." Twilight yawned, getting slowly out of bed and stretching. Her dream had been wonderful- spreadsheets and books. Okay, maybe not so wonderful. There weren't even graphs or picnics. Lame. She brushed her hair in the mirror, running through the schedule of the day. They had many reorganization tasks ahead of them. Mostly it was menial stuff which Spike attacked with a certain amount of gusto. She would join in later, helping him when she could when she wasn't busy with her own royal duties. It was sure to be an interesting day! Maybe around noon she'd trot out and meet with friends before hitting those tax codes some m-

A guard landed quietly on her porch, a saddlebag filled at odd angles. Twilight beamed, reared, and galloped out, knocking the door open wildly.

"Your Highness, I bring what you have requested," the weary stallion asked as Twilight levitated the saddlebag over and opened. They had found it!

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe it! You did it!"

"The cave collapsed."

"They're all here!"

"It was close. Flighty lost his armor to a manticore."

"I can finally get to real work!"

The Guard wiped his brow, remaining stoic as possible. Twilight finally noticed his condition and gave a nervous chuckle.

"Well Lieutenant Hotshot, you and your mares earned the week off. By royal decree, of course," Twilight winked and the stallion smiled.

"Thank you, Your Highness," and with that he was off. Twilight teleoprted in a flash into the main room of the Library, nearly prancing in place.

"Spike! Spike! Spike! They found them! Haha! They found books!"

[SunsetSombra]

"Spike! Spike! Spike! They found them! Haha! They found books!"

Spike blinked as he dropped the brush upon hearing twilights exclamation of delight - Well okay, it wasn't actually the fact that the guards had found the books that had caused this, nor even the fact that the Princess who was usually so calm and levelheaded had suddenly transformed into a crazed book-desiring mare...he'd stubbed his broom-holding claw on a particularly mean splinter, and had been forced to relinquish his grip of the implement of cleaning, suckling his clawtip as he slowly plodded his way towards the door to see the excited Princess of books and the Guardpony who looked like he'd been dragged through the darkest realms of tartarus...twice, thrown into the pit of a thousand manitcores, thrown off the tallest tree in everfree to be left fending for himself against a hydra, and then dragged through tartarus once more just to entertain whomever was doing the dragging.

At this point, Spike found himself actually wondering WHO might be doing the dragging, and almost enivisioned a 50 foot high twilight sparkle doing the deed, clutching the guard like a ragdoll as she went in pursuit of 'how to terrorise the neighbourhood - cliffnotes edition' - which is where the young dragon shook himself back into the here and now, offering a meagre 'Sup?' out of the doorway towards the clearly-in-pain guard, who left shortly after without a word, before addressing Twilight herself...curious to know just what it was the mare was excited about with these books in particular.

" Sweet! " Spike exclaims, looking over the pile for a moment - the books seemed distinctly average...which, in Spikes experience over the last few times books had turned up, either meant they WERE average, or just craftily disguised to look that way because the contents within were something so unbelievably unique and powerful that they needed to be kept as ordinary-looking as possible.

" So, one question...what kinda books exactly ARE they? " Spike asked, an eyebrow raised quizzingly at his long time friend and mentor. " 'cause...I dunno, they look pretty regular to me! "

A fair question, of course, since it wasn't like he had any idea what books she was expecting...or that she was even EXPECTING any today...or maybe she hadn't been expecting any at all and they'd simply turned up out of the blue as an uninvited catalyst for some kind of hilariously untoward misadventure that would likely be remembered for days to come - Either way, he was gonna find out soon enough!

[SteelEagle]

Many magical eras of Equestria's history had been lost or otherwise mishandled, either intentionally or by crucial accident. As a consequence, a great deal of Equestria had been lost to the ravages of time. Many did not care much if at all about the slow drain of Equestria's finite past bleeding casually but occasionally dramatically into it's present and eventually future and considered it unimportant. Many were therefore wrong. Twilight's studies into the art and majesty of magic revealed that there was more than what she had ever thought possible to this, and as disturbed as she was, Twilight was excited to believe there were many mysteries out there. They just needed to be found and discovered, brought back to the fold with the rest of magic and magic history, and allowed to evolve like all proper magic should.

So she had scoured the Royal Archives for what she termed level one and two magical spells and tomes that had been lost and made what she made for everything: A list. Then she had researched whatever she could of the creators, their time periods, where they lived and quite frankly what their vocabulary meant. She then cross-referenced those materials with historical data to come up with possible locations that the magical tomes could be at. She hoofed them over to her Guards, who were under orders to conduct searches where and when possible. The intent had been to make it open-ended and easy, but apparently they had little to do and had gone all out in the search for the first batch. Somepony would have to get rewarded and promoted if it called for it- judging by what she was seeing, they had found exactly what she had been looking for.

"All across Equestria, magical spells and tomes have been lost for centuries, even longer! I am going to try and see if I can recover as many of them as possible, and it all starts with these!" Twilight clapped her hooves together as she levitated the old books out of the basket and onto the table. They were quite old and looked the part, coming apart at the seams. She opened up one and found a troubling sight- ink had faded in most places, rarely a word had survived. Twilight frowned, nodding along to some internal thought.

"But before we can save the magic, we need to save the books themselves. Or at least, what was written in them. Spike, get some quills, ink, papers, and the book," Twilight finished seriously, eyes slitted. The book was her most important tool, for it was the largest tome in all the land. It was written and edited by her, and was the accumulation of useful spells she had either used, saw, or read about throughout her studies. Hundreds upon hundreds of pages of spells written in shorthoof, in terminology only she understood. In the future she planned to re-write it into seven or right volumes for the benefit of the average unicorn, but for now she needed it for a very specific spell. Hopefully it'd work.

[SunsetSombra]

The excitement and shine in twilights eyes was giving the young dragon a sense of impending adventure - something about these books SCREAMED weird and unusual, and he knew that Twilight would more than likely be all too engrossed in trying to study them at a direct hooves-on level. Whilst this was no doubt a good thing, and something Spike was aware would yield results in due time, the problem remained that whenever Twi was this excited about a book, and had that rather unnerving glint in her eyes...well, it was not exactly likely to end well for anyone!

" I just hope you know what you're doing with all of this stuff... " spike utters, looking through a book curiously...holding it upside down and shaking it, only to be rewarded with a dustball to land on his nose, forcing him to near-sneeze, which he expertly refrains from until he's put down the book a moment and lets his small draconic sneezing fit finish up quickly, luckily managing to avoid burning anything that might get in the way - that was close! . " I mean, I know that there's a bunch of cool magic to look at here and all, but...it looks so complicated, I don't even know if you've ever even looked at magic quite like it before! "

The question was mostly pertinant - he'd taken looks at some more recent spell books, and they looked a great deal simpler in execution...at least from what he could tell - a dragon like himself would hardly know the intricacies and details of casting a spell...all he knew was that what he had looked over here was giving him a much larger headache trying to just even look at than anything else he'd read like this was concerned. It was then that Twilight made her request for the book, and what more could he do after but heave it over as best he could - of course, it occurred to him that he could have queried her about the fact she could have just levitated it over easier than he could carry the heavy tome, but it seemed a waste of time...she was already muzzle first back into whatever she was currently studying.

" Well, with any luck... " Spike says, rummaging through the nearby drawer for quills and imk, along with some manuscript. " Nothing'll explode or come to life unexpectedly this time around! " - Seriously, it was just a little simple research on old and untested magics of the past, nothing special...

Nothing could POSSIBLY go wrong with Twilight so very focused TODAY, right?

[SteelEagle]

Twilight rubbed her hooves together conspiratorially as she looked at the bundles of knowledge wrapped up in front of them. Soon, the secrets of magic long thought lost would be revealed, written down and categorized for future generations to profit from. The other Princesses had so many affairs of state constantly stealing their attention that the past was simply too great a challenge. The future was bright, the present exciting, and Twilight was just the pony prepared and capable to do what was needed. Spike was a little less enthused about the prospect but he didn't have the vision she had. Plus somedragon had to act as the voice of reason, because even Twilight knew at times her ambitions in the art of magic could cause her to lose focus. Spike was a friend, Spike was an assistant, he was practically family, but in addition to all that he was her own voice of reason.

Of course, everything here was relatively simple. All they were doing was copying down what was written in a longer lasting way. Preserving knowledge for the future- wasn't all that hard! She wasn't even planning on using any of the spells. Probably. She wanted to maybe poke around a bit but that was a minor plan. A little one. She was mostly concerned with saving history! Maybe it would produce a few weeks of late night reading and maybe she had already created some room in the basement for possible experiments and maybe she had already considered the ramifications of certain spells she considered probable to be found, but that was a bunch of maybes and hearsay. She was going to be responsible about this or she wasn't going to do it, so she made double sure to take Spike's words as the fortification to her own demeanor that she needed.

"I haven't looked at magic like this before. Well, I don't think I have. Like I said, much of this book appears to have faded from the centuries it spent exposed to the elements. That is why first I am going to see what has been written and you will write it down. Then when we have saved this book, we'll kove on. I admit but that it will be a long process but we can do it. More importantly, if we do it safely it should not prove much of a problem. Safe and secure- I'm not casting, simply reading. And if something does come to life, we'll be prepared...hopefully. Won't be like last time!" She gave out a nervous giggle, memory pivoting on a recent incident that she quickly pushed out of her mind. Focus on the task.

"Ready, Spike?" She asked, her horn touching the book. It lit up, and Twilight felt herself get lost in the deep fathoms of her own magical knowledge. A vast unseen library of the mind responded to her queries at the clop of a hoof, and she pierced the veil. Spell after spell flew by until in what seemed to be a fraction of a bare moment she had found the spell she needed. The cutting aura that gave such power to her magic was then used like a scythe, cutting across the mental barriers tha prevented the completion of a spell. Laid bare, she went to work. Words were like smoke, here one moment but drifting away with time. Always memorable, always forgetful, they blended into your surroundings like phantoms and seemed to carry nothing but poor omens to those that never sought it out. But to those that did seek them out, both held such stately secrets of unfathomable power in their grasp. And now, as one form vanished, another took it's place and secrets revealed would soon depart.

Her horn lit and in a flash, thin lines of dark smoke slithered out of her horn and onto the pages of the book, assuming the place of lost letters and words as if it were being stitched on. It filed in between the closed pages of future chapters and Twilight opened her eyes, her horn still glowing and emitting the smoke. Now was a good a time as any. She coughed.

"Here we go. If you need me to slow down, just ask. This book is entitled, 'The Sixteen Spells of the Lorial, By Golden Lily of the Third Time, Volume I'. It is written in the following font: Pre-Equestrian Advanced Calligraphy Style Six, and..."

[SunsetSombra]

Spike found himself sharing a small nervous giggle at the same time - he knew all too well that things had never always been smooth when Twilight got too absorbed into her spells and casting them...and whilst he was aware that she had improved greatly over time...there were always examples of moments that had not been handled so well. It was at times like this Spike was reminded of an orange-frog that had been accidentally created during one of her 'meetings' with Pinkie Pie.

Wait...whatever happened to that thing anyway?

Watching as Twilight got right into her self-appointed work, the silent reverie of his friend and mentors studious nature always left Spike in awe of her ability to simply understand and absorb knowledge like a sponge in ways many others seemingly weren't able to handle. She was second, he was sure, to only Celestia herself with her talent for the subject she was dealing with, the essence of magic itself. Of course it was only natural that Twilight would have had interest in such old and unexplored magicks as the ones the books discussed...and thus, Spike was on hoof to ensure that anything that might be required was readily available.

Twilight started to absorb the information, or at least start magically scanning it and analysing the contents...it was something she'd done for so long that it was pretty much the norm when it came right down to it. Spike readied a quill and manuscript as she begins to recite the pertinent information. Seemingly it was just going to be business as usual, and he devoted his focus now to just making sure he copied the data being relayed to him carefully and neatly so that it was easily readable later on once this was all done and dusted - there would be plenty of time later to perhaps exchange notes and thoughts later, but for RIGHT now...well, it was time to get to work!

[SteelEagle]

The pair worked at it as they had worked before in similar tasks a thousand times before. Her spell was draining initially but was sustainable in the long term, even as it tired her out she could feel her own fortitude holding steady against the stream. Word after word appeared in front of her, restitched at every level as her eyes perceived them as clearly as the day they were written. She spoke clearly to her assistant who in his good turn wrote what she said verbatim. Word by word, sentence by sentence, they would fold back the fabric of time and reveal secrets lost to the ages. History rewritten accurately; magic long forgotten revived like life from the dead. The wonder she felt at the revalations was tempered only by her willingness to see the job done.

And she wasn't doing it alone. Spike was an important part of the process. She was in no position to write the spells down and in her state even if she could they would be a garbled mess. Spike was an experienced dragon when it came to jotting this down, and she had no doubt his claws were moving fast and true towards their shared purpose. Time passed even if Twilight could hardly sense it- so lost was she in her work that the sun's dancing in the sky held nothing for her. After several hours, she perceived that maybe it was time to take a break. Less for her- the expenditure of magic had been immense but she could handle it- but Spike, who by right would have been writing for celestia knows hpow long. The pace of her speech slowed and slowly the spell came to an end at a section break, her horn dimming and the etheral stitching no longer crackling out of her. She shook her head and took a deep breath, wiping her brow successfully as she turned to her assistant.

"How far are we now, Spike?"

[SunsetSombra]

Owie, Spikes claw was developing a beastly case of the cramps from writing so much that he'd almost contemplated taking the pony route and using his mouth. Of course, that was an utterly silly idea so the dragon hadn't LITERALLY tried to do something quite like that - as a result, he was most thankful when Twilight herself slowed down and was seemingly prepared to take a small rest.

He looks back over the small pile of manuscript behind him, before glancing back at Twilight with a small shrug. " if we're aiming for the world record of words written in 5 hours or so, I think we're probably doing okay....seriously, we've covered a lot of this stuff now, methinks... " he pauses and winces as he looks at the source material, there was probably a good amount of pages left to cover - far too many pages to even guess, maybe. " Got everything so far though...at least I'm sure I did! "

Spike was relatively sure that he hadn't missed anything at all...but everything had felt like a blur the last few hours as they had sat there and looked long and hard through the long list of spells, hex's and incantations together...it was a pretty impressive collection, he had to admit that!

" Wanna take 5 and have some herbal tea, Twi? " he asked, ever ready to help out twilight however he could. " You KINDA look like you could use one! "

[SteelEagle]

Twilight took a deep breath, momentarily lost in relaxation. The immediate aftermath of such a long magical spell felt like the end of a massive muscle tense-up, this wave of drowsiness hitting her in dense waves. She only held firm in its face because of her own training and experience and that alone stopped her from falling asleep then and there. Well, that and her natural reservoir of magical talent. She felt a hundred pounds heavier or her muscles twenty years less developed, but the worst effects were shuttered behind barriers and allowed to fizzle away into mist outside of the fiercest strongholds of her mind's defenses. She still yawned as Spike's clawed hand seemed to spritz up a bit. Poor thing worked himself to the bone without complaint for her. She was lucky to have him.

"A five minute tea break sounds wonderful, Spike. We are on page eighty-nine of four hundred and six so we have a ways to go, might as well take a break now. I'll get the tea, you just sit and relax," She offered, trotting and getting the tea and some cozzies for the two of them. As she poured, she spoke.

"Well Spike, just from your dragon's intuition, see anything there that looks new? I don't have much memory of the past few hours. Truth be told I am very anxious to see what we have. Think about it- magic lost to time, but so much more! History that was forgotten, ponies that were forgotten, will be remembered forever once we're done. Isn't it exciting?" She nearly flew away with glee, splashing her tea on the floor just a bit as she landed next to Spike, looking it over.

"The Lorial was an old region that we think was near modern day Fet Loch. Over time it vanished into obscurity before much of it was lost. How a book from that region came to be in the Everfree is a mystery as in those days that was a more dangerous trek than it is today. Much of the land we now consider tamed was not back then, and getting from the Heartland to the Foothills and vice versa often meant going through the mountains themselves. The history behind such a tome could be amazing! See anything especially exciting?"

[SunsetSombra]

" See anything especially exciting? "

Spike wasn't sure if he could really say he knew exactly if he could answer that - there were a few interesting incantations....some spells about manifesting this, or that....some that required weird, undiscovered or long since lost artifacts to come anywhere close to functioning. After inspecting and attempting to read a large portion of the text, along with sipping his own delicious tea...which was always sweet and delicious when Twi made it, Spike realised that he might just be a little out of his depth on this particular subject, especially when it came advanced spells, hex's and enchantments.

" I got nothin'! " Spike proclaimed with a small sigh.as he finally relented to what was growing obvious the more he read.

" I mean, I know we've practiced many a spell together and such, but a lot of this stuff...well, unless there's some kinda awesome super moustache spell in here, or awesome spell lettin' us see whats going on in the world at any time...I'm just a teensy bit stumped, it's pretty high grade "

Spike scratched the back of his head and gave a small hmm, pondering for a moment as he gave a second glance through what was before him - there was no doubt that the content was interesting, even if he couldn't understand all of it. The sisters clearly had bunches of magical scripture here for the studying, and he knew that Twilight was perhaps far more eager to delve into the realms of the alicorn magic and the elements behind it...and whilst she could be a little flakey sometimes on the whole magic front, nopony was better suited to understanding it's cosmic aethereal makeup more than Twilight Sparkle - indeed, she was positively glowing with absolute excitement. Considering this fact, Spike decided to make the only other decision that made sense at the time, and passed the whole question back to Twilight.

" What about you, Twi - I mean, you're better at this whole subject...was there anything in there that caught your eye - other than absolutely everything written that is! "

[SteelEagle]

Spike was Spike no matter what and he didn't really understand what was in front of him, making him unable to come up with a good answer for Twilight. No problem nor was it unexpected, Spike never being one for the research anyway. It would have been nice if he had the same desires that she had but that wasn't to be, a fellow researcher rather than assistant. But he was the best at what he did and Twilight was beyond content with him how he was and how he would be- a good dragon, her number one assistant, and a great friend. But that didn't stop his answer from leaving her a bit pensive and desiring more than the dragon was willing to give: All that work had to have ended with at least a few complete spells amidst the many pages of random magical notes unrelated to spells. More often than not, for every spell that would be transcribed, there would be about ten to fifteen pages of magical research and aid around it. The idea is to make sure that whoever uses the spell is prepared to use it properly. Twilight had not prepared herself for Starswirl's spell and while that had ended in her becoming a Princess, the whole ordeal was more shameful as far as she was concerned than it was transformative.

Spike asked for her opinion and as she sipped her tea, she levitated the book to eye level. Indeed, a lot of it was very high grade which came as a little bit of a shock. The Lorial, from what few sources she could cobble together, wasn't known as a haven for powerful unicorns. But wasn't that the point of discovering lost history, that over time such things would be found to change perceptions and ideas? It was even more exciting tha it should have been for Twilight to leaf through what they have done, which would have been incredibly exciting anyway. Page after page flashed in front of her in quick whisps of action until she found something odd, slowing down and completing her reading as she laid the select few pages out for both of them to see. It looked strange, but not because of the sort of spell it was.

"The perils and possibilities of the Lorian Consciousness Swap?" She asked out loud, her interest beyond piqued. It sounded like a sort of mind reading spell, or some sort of joining spell, an exchange spell of some sort.

"That sounds like it could be a sort of interchange spell, the sort of spell that the Justices of the Peace use to discern truth from untruth as part of a lie detector test. To see in a limited capacity what is going through the mind of another. But what is it about this one that makes it so special? Odd," she continued for a moment, muttering the words without finishing it.

"This could be very interesting, Spike. It doesn't like as complicated as the delicate procedure that the Jusices use, which tells me that this is either a lower level and therefore safer spell, or it is unfinished. But I read further and it seems to be that the work moves on, so it must be finished," she looked over at Spike, a cocky and excited grin on her face.

"Well, might as well try it. You haven't been keeping any secrets from me, have you Spike?" She asked rhetorically, turning towards him with determination and a wink before her horn lit up...

[SunsetSombra]

Spike looked at Twilight with a nervous grin - he hadnt forgotten anything had he? he took a moment to recall all of the little 'crimes' of recent note...

Cookie jar thefts of the last week? Nope, he confessed that when he was caught...

Leaving gem crumbs on the floor? Nope, Twilight had told him off for that only the other day

'Forgetting' to let owlywicious back in from an early morning flight? ...Well, he was SURE something had happened about that a while ago - maybe not.

Still, nothing really seemed to be hugely important enough that it warrented attention-bringing, and he certainly didn't think he could remember if there HAD been something of note. " Nope, my conscience is as clean as the windows! " he piped up, giving a shrug.

" I can't really say there's much going on in my mind right now...wait, that sounded better in my head. "

Spike gives a small blink as he watched Twilight ponder - she was clearly getting something out of this whole venture, and that was always a good sign...because a challenged Twilight was a Twilight who was going to be taking care of whatever it was that was challenging her with utmost dedication and care. He trusted the mare to do things right, naturally, although the sound of this particular spell was a little nerve-wracking - the idea of a pony somehow reading his mind, regardless of who they were, was a little unsettling to dwell on for long.

" You sure this is a good idea? " Spike rubs the back of his head, raising an eyebrow curiously. " I mean...what if the spell backfires? "

The dragon was most certainly not one to tread lightly on the issue - afterall, it WAS 2 minds at risk here, what happened if the spell fizzled and popped wrong?

" Because this feels like a pretty, iunno, risky thing for us to be doing...how do you even know you'd be doing it right - would you even have a way to reverse it?! "

All of the worries about the complications of the potential spellcasting, yet both Spike and Twilight truly had no idea of what lay ahead of them this day!

[SteelEagle]

Twilight loved Spike as much as she could possibly love somecreature without it being the singular relationship of her life. It was brother-sister maybe, or perhaps mother-son, which she reluctantly acknowledged was probably closer to the truth. She was used to looking out for him and helping him learn and adapt to the customs of ponykind, something which he was grasping with increasing ease as the days turned to weeks, months, and eventually years. She knew him better than anypony else, and consequently so did he for her. While she taught him how to live, it was not a dramatic gesture to say he kept her alive when she played with such viral magic. His caution and prudence was both a welcome juxtaposition against her desire to test everything out as well as the best possible reaction he could have. Still, she was the mare of the household and when her crazy little mind was making crazy big decisions, he'd have to live with it. And so would she. But she knew what she was doing so he could panic and sweat a bit and then they'd both laugh and have tea. She had this done.

She listened to Spike's warnings as well as his declaration of innocence faithfully, but her decision had been made before she had asked him. While his opinion was important and valuable, her trask required risk and there was little risk in a slightly modified Justice spell. At worst, a counterspell was just a few books away and considering how benign the book made the spell seem she assumed that it wouldn't be required. The only way it would be a danger would be if the author was a dunce, but magic of this caliber wasn't made by dunces. Still, she didn't want poor Spike to be entirely too freaked out, which happened all the time. She knew she needed to ease his mind on the prospect before she started up or else he might mess them up with a sneeze or movement. She levitated a few books nearby and dropped them under Spike, whom she had sit on top of them. Twilight smiled.

"Spike, don't be worried. It is a simple spell and if there is anything wrong we have many counterspells in those books. Besides, I don't think anything bad will happen!" Twilight offered with a smirk, the new spell book levitating with her and Spike as her horn lit up. The book flipped to the right page and magic begun.

"A switch of minds, a stitch in time, from one body to another- until such a time as the moon and sun smother each other in the high sky, until the unicorns fly and the earth ponies die-" she whispered, her horn glowing brighter as she went until a blinding flash of light erupted as if it was the center of the sun. Twilight felt herself- not her body, but her aura, her aetheral connection, her mind and soul- start to tear out of her body. That wasn't right- it was a far simpler spell than that! When the final tear happened it felt like she was adrift in a raging river, a current of aether crackling alongside her. She went over the waterfall; of eternity and smacked against an aethereal black hole...

..Twilight fell backwards off of the books she was sitting on, slamming with a thud on her scaly back, a belch of green flame erupting from her mouth!

[SunsetSombra]

And so it was that the spell was cast, and Spike had no further options but to simply comply with the wishes of the mare who so assuredly told him everything would be okay - She knew best, right? Wasn't the whole point of researching such magic to be able to explore so called final frontiers, stare into the abyss of the aetheric and cast down barriers of the metaphysical...or something?

...

Oh this wasn't right, this wasn't right at all...Spike was not liking the feeling of having his absolutely EVERYTHING go cold, before getting the sensation of being plucked from his very being and moved around like an unwilling pawn in an invisible chess game being manipulated into a position as yet not seen by the young dragon - he could only best describe it as being literally made of 'invisible fluff' that somehow he could perceive moving along through time and space somehow, in some weird way. there was the sense of freedom, and Spike found himself not missing his regular form for a fraction of a second, although he sincerely hoped that this phase wouldn't last long - Spike found something about being a cosmically detached freeform spiritual aetheric spark, when he's NORMALLY a plain ol' dragon, mildly unsettling!

And then with a FIZZPOPBZZZZK, Spike found himself back in a Body...wait, this wasn't himself he'd ended up in, was it?

" Uh... " Spike found his voice...oh Celestia, that wasn't his voice, at all - still...she did kinda, uh, explain that this was some kinda weird mind swap thing, right?

" So... I guess...I'm a Pony now? This is... " he holds up a hoof and waves it in front of his...twilights....whoevers face with a rather uncertain look.

" This is strange as heck! "

It was about this moment that TwiSpike saw 'SpikeTwi' fall off the pile of books and gave a small nervous wince as he spoke out again louder. " Gazuntheid, I guess! "

[SteelEagle]

It took a few seconds for the sweet drull of reality to hammer back into Twilight's brain as the last vestiges of the spell wore off. A simple consciousness spell shouldn't have been so powerful and so intense- it was a simple delve into another's mind, not an exchange to such a great degree. Still, Twilight pulled herself up off of the floor groggily and inspected the body of a dragon. Tail which was fat and ended in a spade? Check. Green scales all over? Check. Short, pointy fingers and toes? Check. She took a deep breath and even the layout of her lungs felt different, taking in each breath in a subtly different speed, sharper and faster. She was after all a smaller creature. All of this was standard and expected, if still wildly unsettling. Especially one fact.

She wasn't connected to the aether. It was something she had never really considered or felt, but had taken for granted. A certain subtle presence in the mind and soul that pierced the veil of what was material and what was not. It felt a little colder, a bit emptier, and she suddenly felt a lot less Equestrian than before. In boiling waves of panic her mind was almost overwhelmed as quickly as she felt that stinging nothingness encroach on her every fiber, but she had one last defense and it was thansk to Cadance that she had it. Before she spoke, she used the breathing exercise she had been taught- and continued to do so for a full minute, an awkward silence filling the room as she did so until she was done and ready to go. Barely. It still felt awful.

"This isn't right, Spike. The spell is supposed to simply allow us to dip past mental guards, not switch bodies. It- I hope- I-It shouldn't be a problem. Quick, read page fifteen, third paragraph!" She offered in Spike's voice, the dragon-princess clambering awkwardly up on a stool to try and see the book.

[SunsetSombra]

Uh-oh, this sounded kinda serious - Twilight was rattled in ways that even Spike couldn't really remember seeing in a long while...he stopped poking at his 'new' horn lightly with a hoof and looked at the book, deciding that he'd...well, maybe he could see if he could give this magic thing a shot - besides, how the heck would anypony be able to properly turn pages with hooves?

" Right, okay... " Spike says, before giving closing his eyes and pointing the sharp appendage at the book, trying to focus as hard as he could...which, to the observing parties outside, mostly comprised of scrunchymuzzling and making weird 'Hnnnng' noises for a moment - not a lot was happening, otherwise...well, except for the small glow at the tip of the horn which gave a small audible 'Pbbbbt' and emitted a rather useless spark, which bounced from the tip onto his muzzle before disappearing into the aether once again.

" Eheh.... " Spike utters and rubs the underside of his currently possessed muzzle and sighed loudly, before doing things the manual way and using his hooves to open the book as best he could. " PLEASE tell me you know how to reverse this, Twi - I'm not cut out to be an Alicorn Princess...I can't even make your wings do anyth- "

*POMF*

Before he could even finish that sentance, Alicorn wings were proudly displayed at their full length...welp, this really was awkward, wasn't it?

[SteelEagle]

Twilight had learned long ago the value of keeping calm in a crisis. It was the singule most important facet of controlling a situation and overcoming challenges. Every course in crisis management and leadership extolled those virtues and Twilight had likewise sought to soak it all up. It had served her well, but this was a different beast entirely because she was a different beast entirely. She was no longer connected magically to anything except herself, that subtle flicking aura that defined an Equestrian gone and in its place, to her, a stark void. That creeping darkness unsettled her to the degree that for all of her famous calm demeanor was slowly sapping away. She had to get under control and get the both of them out of this mess. No big deal. No big deal, Twilight Spike. She put her clawed hand out and did the breathing motion, her experience as a bipedal creature with fingers allowing her some relief.

"Okay, okay, gotta work, where is it..." she said, ignoring Spike's failure to use magic. He'd get to the right page eventually and in the mean time the important thing was that Twilight find the counter spell. Spike wouldn't be able to learn how to use her unbridled magical prowess easily if at all, but a counter spell had many variations. She leafed through the books she had been sitting on until she got to, "Countering the Crazy: Subduing Wild Magic with Advanced Magical Defense by J.D. Neighman". She sighed in relief.

"Don't worry Spike. I'm sure the answers are in here," She said proudly, feeling in control once more. She opened it up-

-And got a face full of dust. In a flash, she reacted by sneezing...green flames. Green flames on the book. In a few moments, her magical fire breath turned the book into ash, and it fell apart in her hands. Silence.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

[SunsetSombra]

Ooooh, this wasn't good at all...

Spike couldn't help but feel bad about the fact that they were both in rather an odd predicament - sure, it wasn't really his fault and Twilight was the one who had gone full steam ahead, but he still kinda felt like if he could just do SOMETHING, anything...then maybe he'd still be able to kinda sorta fulfil SOMETHING that resembles his assistanty, helpful self.

Idea - It was time to...FIX THE BOOK!

Spike scrunches up his muzzle and looks at the ash pile on the ground...restoration, right? This couldn't be too hard - jus' gotta picture the object as it was, and focus whatever wild aetheric energies he could channel into restoring the object into it's prior state...he might be a baby dragon, but he'd seen twilight do something along these lines before a couple of times. Sure, nothing like restoring a FREAKING MAGICAL TOME from beyond the ages, but he could not let the thought get the better of him, or he would fail before he even began.

" Stand back, I'm gonna try something! " he says, pointing a hoof at the ashpile and doing his best 'THIS IS SRS FOCUS' face...

( although to be honest it just felt like he was straining something. )

A small spark formed at the tip of the horn, as the focused energy within the AlicornDragon found it's way there...a small resorvoire of magical force that Spike could feel coming together and taking shape into something metaphysical - it was warm, glowy and he had to kinda admit the feeling was pretty neat. Letting off a small pant of extreme focus, Spike squeezes his eyes closed shut again and tries to bridge the gap between magical energy and tattered, ashen book...commanding the soft, warm sensation within to take shape and manifest into a magical form, ready to carry out his mental whim - the single, simple internal thought. " Fix it! "

Of course, this was the point that the pile of ashes just kinda turned into raspberry jam, made a small picture of a duck on the floor and, uh, not a whole lot else...

" Well, I...guess that's a start? " the DragonCorn says with a light shrug, although clearly now sure that he really, REALLY needed the manual for this thing!

[SteelEagle]

All twilight could do was hyperventilate as she saw her future burn up in front of her. This was a full transfer spell, banned from Equestrian use for a good reason but not without ways to counter it. She had it. She knew it all so vaguely, but like a snowflake from a fiery grip a wave of panic drowned the knowledge out of her before she could try to piece together the fractured remnants of knowledge. No, this was bad. Very bad. Most spells had time limits and then the spell wore off, but when this spell wore off, did they go back to their normal bodies or would they be stuck like this? She had to find that counter spell! But even if they found out, could it even be cast? It took a lifetime of learning and research buoyed by an incredible amount of personal talent. Spike may have her talent and her body, but he didn't have her memory or her capability. She love dhim but doubted he could so much as lift a broom properly, let alone complete complicated spell architecture.

He tried to repair the book but that didn't go well, reducing the already damaged tome to ashes before their eyes. Well, that was a rare and expensive loss. She could get it replaced out of the archives but that was one of only a dozen copies left. Valuable books were being disintegrated before her eyes and she could do nothing to stop it but wallow in her little feet in her small body with no magic! Wait, she had one piece of magic.

"Okay, okay. We'll write a letter to Celestia. She'll have access to both the spell and the ability to use it. Spike, take a letter!" The dragon exclaimed proudly.

[SunsetSombra]

Spike blinked a little before giving a small nod, going over to the drawer where the writing implements were kept - he manages to tug it open using his teeth, a small grunt of effort given as he did so...was this thing getting sticky, or was he just not used to doing it this way? regardless, he delves a hoof in instinctively to pull out what was required, forgetting for just a short instant that he wasn't possessing clasping, grasping and gripping draconic claws!

" Ack! " the dragonpony utters as things fall out of the drawers and clatter to the ground, causing the young slowly-getting-annoyed dragon to roll his eyes at the situation more. " Seriously with you there, the sooner we fix this, the better! " he says under ihis breath, managing to get both quill and manuscript on the table before taking the quill between his teeth and looking at Twilight expectently, awaiting her next lines!

[SteelEagle]

Spike's inability to handle moving around like a pony aside, everything was going as well as could be expected. Well, that was a lie worthy of her dysfunctional title. Nothing was going well at all, and even her propensity to look at the positives was failing against the harsh reality. But if nothing else, she at least knew what she could try and knowledge was power without equal and it worked as a succor as faithfully for her as a bottle to a foal. It was humbling to accept that she would need to seek Celestia's aid swiftly but better to need to do it and have the capability than need to do it and lack the capability. It was going to be awful when she was admonished and stripped of her title before being removed fro under Celestia's wing, but that was a punishment worthy of her foalish crime. The only exception was that until she switched back, Twilight needed to make sure word didn't spread. Spike was now capable of great power but did not know how to use it. She had to ensure that he was safe from those that may wish to take advantage of his...inexperience. In many things.

In any case, he was ready to dictate.

"Dear Princess Celestia,

I have an urgent matter of grave importance, and I plead for you to send help. While researching a spell found in a tome recovered by the Guards, 'The Sixteen Spells of the Lorial, By Golden Lily of the Third Time, Volume I', an unidentified spell was, umm, lit off by accident. Spike and myself have switched bodies, and I can no longer feel the aether. Other accidents have burned my advanced counter spell volume and I am currently unable to solve this crisis, but I fear leaving the library. Should something happen to either one of us, this may be irreversible. I seek your guidance and aid.

With Devotion and Honor,

Princess Twilight Sparkle"

Twilight finished and allowed the alicorn to finish before tying it up with the royal postage swiftly and firing it off- Spike's dragon breath was something that twilight understood to some degree, and she used it with confidence. So much so, she even wiped her claws free of dust.

"Well, that should help. No doubt she-" Twilight began but was interrupted by a flying letter coming out of a bright purple puff of dust that hid the void and smacking into her head at velocity, sending the little dragon falling to the ground. She shook her head around for a few seconds before looking at the scroll. It had about half a dozen different stamps and markings on it now- Undefined Address, Tartarus, Gallopagus-Manehattan, Manehattan-Unyasi, Unyasi-Manehattan among them- which bode ill for her understanding of Spike's magic. It also unfurled itself due to momentum as the royal seal no longer held it tight, revealing...the manic and insane hoofwriting that passed as Spike's rendition of her own script. It was hardly even legible!

"Graaaaaaaaaa..." Twilight muttered, rubbing her face- and poking herself in the eye on accident in the process.

"Youch! Uggh, this is awful. We try again!"

[RarityDash]

Today was a day of great importance for the unicorn known as Rarity. She could just feel how close she was. Perfection did not come easily to any one mare. No, much effort was needed for even one such as her to truly reach the heights of true greatness. The long, winding road of fashion was not an easy one to traverse. Pitfalls and stumbling blocks could be found in every bend and fold. Overcoming the obstacles was a continual struggle, and then even when the end goal was in sight the last stretch could be the hardest. Sometimes a mare of fashion found herself in need of a little push to make those last few steps on her own. Inspiration was not a thing that could be forced, after all. It had to be cultivated carefully and nurtured to the point that it bore fruit. So it were that Rarity found herself making a mad dash to the Golden Oaks Library with a desperate need to see a certain young princess.

Not even thinking to announce her presence beforehand, Rarity burst through the library door, a mare on a mission. Her mane was a bit unfurled, as it got after days at end hard at work, but other than that she looked well enough, her work glasses in place on her face for pouring over the volumes she needed to see. It wasn't long after she made her entrance that she was able to find sight of the pony she so sought. Twilight Sparkle was standing there, evidently writing something. Spike was sitting on the floor, looking startled and confused by something or other--not an uncommon thing for the little guy. Rarity wondered if they weren't busy, but she was ultimately too determined to bother getting a very good handle on the scene. Instead she ran up to her darling friend Twilight and embraced her.

"Oh, Twilight, you're just the pony I need to see!" she started her tone already insistent. "I don't mean to intrude on anything, darling, but I was wondering if you might be a dear and help me with something of utmost importance!"

She let go of Twilight and offered her a smile. "You see, I just so happen to be presently at work on a brand new fashion line inspired by the courtly styles of Aquellia during the early modern and post classical periods. I've already pulled extensive material on the eras, but I'm at a loss as to how to give the line that distinct finishing flair it demands to help guarantee the line's success. Nothing I try seems to satisfy me, and as the clock ticks my frustration only grows deeper! I simply won't stand to leave this line unfinished and abandoned, but I find myself at a loss..., and I was just wondering if you might have some sources on your shelves on the subject which I might have overlooked."

"I'd be ever so pleased with whatever you might be able to give me," she started. She was probably laying it on a little thick, but she didn't mean to sound insincere, she was just in need. "I might even buy you lunch some time! I know you're ever so busy, but you know, we really don't spend enough time together just the two of us. it could be nice," she added, moving back toward Twilight and offering her a wide smile. "It is, after all, of paramount importance that friends as dear as us stay as close as possible."

Rarity looked to the side then, remembering that Twilight wasn't the only one there. "Oh, and hello, Spike. Nice to see you today," she said simply before looking back at Twilight.

​

[SunsetSombra]

Well, this wasn't really doing anything to make Spike feel any better - he was trapped in a body he wasn't familiar with, confronted with a situation that was probably going to wind up being a long winded, impossibly complex thing to deal with, and was witnessing another rather unfortunate breakdown on the part of his best friend and general mentor figure...as far as days went, this wasn't exactly turning out to be one he was going to want to remember.

" Ugh, this is ridiculous! " Spike utters to himself, snorting derisively as he felt himself getting more and more annoyed at the fact that the whole letter writing process had just gotten a bunch more complicated in ways that he had never even dreamt they could. " What in the heck do we do now? "

Of course, it is often when things look like they can't possibly get any worse that they often do - because this is the point that Rarity makes her entrance into the fray, and Spike found himself awash with all manner of rather unexpected conflictions about this rather unfortunately ill-timed visitation - normally, he would have been pretty much the first one to offer the mare a cheerful hello and fawning over for a while, but in this situation...well, he was kinda finding himself on the spot, and this wasn't quite the spot he really, really wanted to be in right now.

He listened to all she had to say, and tried to nod attentively...on the outside, he was doing his best to remain relaxed and twilight'ish, but on the inside he was pretty much having a small freakout of his own. the moment he opened his mouth, er, muzzle to answer the mare, the situation would no doubt get worse unless he found a clever way to avoid having to do so. There was really only one single way to make this situation even slightly more bearable and handleable - it was a trick that was a little far fetched and silly, but at the same time he didn't just wanna open his trap and make things worse than they already were!

" Sorry Rarity... " Spike speaks in a raspy voice, looking over at SpikeTwi with a small shrug. " I...uh...I lost my voice - I think I'm coming down with something! "

He coughs once and points to his throat as he puts on a raspy speaking voice...making the most pathetic face he could in order to back up the ruse - with any luck, Rarity would probably believe the story and act accordingly. It wasn't exactly that he had any way of knowing that she'd react one way or another, but it stood to reason that if Rarity thought she was ill, then maybe that might help get her out of here faster and get them back fixing this whole mess.

As much as Spike loved being around the magnificent mare in white, he wasn't really twilight would want to delay getting this whole thing fixed just for the sake of Rarity's needs...he might only have been a baby dragon, but he'd been around Twilight long enough to know that she wasn't really one to sidetrack herself with something if there were more important issues at hoof!

[SteelEagle]

Of all the times in the world when a friend could have come into her life and mare her situation infinitely more awkward, now would be the time it'd happen, wouldn't it? She could never once remember wishing away a friend with all the willpower she could muster but as Rarity entered with her dilemma, all Twilight could think was that every second she was here was another second she was stuck in a body cut off from the aether of Equestria harshly. What sort of angry spirit had she offended to have brought such grave misfortune down on top of her head? She couldn't help now. Even if all things were well, she was in the middle of an important research topic and couldn't delay it for sake of her own mental well-being. It wasn't that Twilight didn't value her friend's work ethic and ability to involve such wondrous history and culture in her brilliant designs, but simply put, Twilight was a mare who when obsessed had a remarkably one-tracked mind. She couldn't afford to help because had this event not occurred, she wouldn't have been much help at all.

Not that she could help any more now. She couldn't let Rarity or anypony else know what had happened for the good of all involved, and even if it wasn't dangerous, it was incredibly embarrassing. Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Equestria and former Element of Magic, fooled by an ancient spell. She must have stepped outside of comfort zone, which must have been quite small for a pony supposed to be the greatest worker of magic in recorded history. The rumors would swirl because even though Rarity was a great friend, she was a gossip hound the likes of which nopony had ever seen. Could she even help herself? Twilight didn't know. Twilight didn't want to know. She had to keep this on the down low because above everything else, Twilight didn't want that embarrassment and didn't want to appear weak, arrogant, and foolish in front of one of her best friends. That would be the worst outcome of all.

Luckily, Spike was somewhat on the same page, but at the same time she didn't want to make Rarity think anything was wrong.

"Yeah, Sp- Twilight has the, uhh, feather flu. Very contagious!" Twilight began as she started pushing Spike with Wings and Magic off screen into a side room slowly, as she had the size of a squirrel in comparison. She also had to keep up appearances.

"But i would be more than willing to help you with what you need, Rarity! How did the potion work?" She said, referencing something that only Twilight would have known about regarding a potion Twilight had made her. The Princess didn't notice the mistake.