On Tuesday morning, Karyn slapped her books down as she entered the classroom. Although they had no assigned seats, she had gotten used to the second row, second column, and came early to get it. It was out of everyone’s way and easier not to be noticed. She waited for the professor to come in and daydreamed. There was a rumor that a pop quiz would be given that day, but she wasn’t worried. The required liberal arts courses were dumbed down so that anyone could pass them, and the history class she was in was no exception.

As her thoughts drifted idly, so did her body, and she found herself in midair. She panicked for a second, then remembered what Derpy had told her and spread her wings for the glide. When she landed, she took stock of her location. It was the Ponyville post office.

That makes sense, she thought. If it’s Tuesday morning here, it would be time for her to go to work. But that means she’s in my body in my class! What if she fails my test? Don’t panic now. You’ve got to do the best you can at her job because she’ll be doing all she can for you.

“Hello! Equestria to Derpy!”

Somepony was talking to her. Pony-Karyn blinked and said, “Yes?”

“About time you came around. Postmaster General wants to see you.” It was a stallion in a blue uniform that she realized must signify a postal employee, possibly her boss.

“Right away, sir! Um. . . where’s that exactly?”

“The second door on the left, same place it’s been for the last twenty years.”

Pony-Karyn quickly composed herself. She was not doing well, but at least she had Derpy’s reputation to help her. She headed to the second door.

This guy must be the big boss. And he’s actually named Postmaster General, which is weird, but I guess it’s par for the course with ponies.

She knocked on the door with her hoof. The cornflower blue pony inside beckoned her in.

“Ah, Derpy, good to see you.”

“Likewise, Mr. General.”

He laughed. “Always with the jokes.”

Just then a secretary walked in with a paper for him to sign. “Thanks, Mr. Mintsugar,” she said. Pony-Karyn shut her eyes. The stallion in the sash had called him by his title, and she had assumed it was his name. Luckily, she seemed to be getting away with it.

“Anyway,” he continued. “Lazy Susan called herself in sick, so you’ve got to take over her route today. I know you won’t be familiar with it, but just do the best you can.”

Pony-Karyn breathed an internal sigh of relief. If she messed up, she had a built-in excuse. “I’ll certainly try, sir. I know that all these ponies are waiting for their letters.”

She went back out to where the blue-uniformed stallion was. “I’m supposed to take Lazy Susan’s route,” she said.

“Yeah, I heard.”

“So, um, where do I get the mail to take there?”

He sighed. “Do you want me to run the route for you?”

Pony-Karyn decided not to be intimidated by this pony, even if he was bigger and more boisterous. “No, I just want you to do your job and make sure I get the mail to the right place.”

He stared at her. “I’m sorry, Derpy. Let me get it for you.”

He found a sack of mail and strapped it to pony-Karyn’s back. She stepped out and took off.

******************************************

Derpy was drifting through the air on the way to work when she felt herself slam to a halt with her rear end in a chair. She blinked and looked around as she realized what had happened.

I’m in a college class for humans! she thought. This is going to be awesome. I’m going to learn so much about their world now.

She turned to the young man next to her. “Hey, do you know what we’re going to learn today?”

“Did you miss last week? We’re still on double-you-double-you-eye-eye.”

Human-Derpy’s eyes almost returned to her crossed state. “Oh, that sounds really interesting.”

She hoped that he couldn’t tell how confused she was, and decided to keep a low profile during the class. The professor entered a few minutes later, and human-Derpy was amazed. She had never been to college herself, and had a mental picture of all instructors as vibrant young folks like Cheerilee. The fellow who entered was graying at the temples and wore thick glasses. As he started his lecture about history, she concluded that he must have gotten his position as a history teacher by having been present at the events of which he was talking.

A half hour later, she sat stunned as she had listened to the lecture. It wasn’t the content that bothered her as much as the disaffected way that the professor described it. Even the students seemed bored and weren’t as emotionally affected as human-Derpy was.

She endured the tales of horrors and atrocities as long as she could, then heard something she couldn’t believe. She looked around the room to see if anyone else was going to bring it up. Finally she had enough and raised her hand.

The history professor liked to have students engaged in the class, but didn’t expect it in the 101 and 102 levels.

“Yes, miss?”

“Um, OK. If these Japonese—“ that was the word she heard, anyway—“knew they were going to crash, why didn’t they just go land somewhere else and not tell anypo-anyone?”

“Well, there was such a thing as national pride. Although a study of the culture of that time would be out of our depth, there was definitely a unique perspective.”

Human-Derpy was still shocked. She couldn’t reconcile in her mind the kind human she knew with the story she had just heard. She wasn’t even sure whether or not to believe it. But a moment later, she had a more immediate problem to deal with, as the professor announced the feared pop quiz was indeed about to occur.

Her initial delight about at least being able to write like a human was quickly dashed when she found out that the test was multiple-choice. She was handed a small card and read through the instructions. She found them simplistic, but was strongly unnerved about the test itself. It wasn’t fair to Karyn, she thought, to have her take the test when she hadn’t been in the class, but wasn’t about to explain that she was off delivering mail in the pony world.

Nonetheless, she felt that she owed to her friend to give it the best effort that she could. She worked by process of elimination on the multiple-choice questions, and looked for easy true-false questions that were too specific and used words like “never” and “always.” Although she had never been to college either as a pony or a human, she had an instinct for how a test writer would think. To Derpy, all questions were trick questions.

When she was finished, she looked around and saw that she was the first one finished. That made sense, since she wasn’t thinking about the subject matter per se. She decided not to hand in the test. Not only would that be particularly conspicuous, but if by chance Karyn switched back into her own body, she could check over the test herself.

As it happens, they did not, and Derpy waited out the entire period bored. She reflected on what she had learned and resolved to ask Karyn more about it. She finally jumped back as she was heading back to Karyn’s dorm after the class.

******************************************

On Thursday afternoon, Karyn had already finished with her classes for the day and returned to her room. She tried to keep herself on a schedule, and Wednesday was her cleanup day, but she had gotten distracted hanging out in the common room the day before and put it off. She was all set to begin tidying when she felt the switch again. At least this time she was on the ground.

She took stock of her situation. She wasn’t on the mail route, so Derpy must have already taken care of that, but neither was she at home. She didn’t recognize any of the surrounding buildings, so she just walked forward.

Soon she came to a wooden fence that seemed a little familiar. The veil was lifted when she saw the red barn come up over the horizon. Applejack was standing outside pitching hay. Pony-Karyn thought about waving hi, but remembered that she was in Derpy’s body and didn’t want to have to give an awkward explanation. Applejack saved her the necessity when she saw her.

“Howdy, Derpy. What’s shaking?”

Pony-Karyn faced a dilemma. Should she try to fake being Derpy or try to convince her of the truth? It was one thing to fool ponies she was only seeing for a few minutes, but Applejack might well be Derpy’s friend, and Karyn hoped that she would be hers as well.

“Well, actually. . . “

“That’s incredible,” Applejack said after Karyn had explained. “That’s the princess for you, always pushing the envelope on what we know.”

“Yeah, so on Tuesday I worked a mail route, and now I guess I should go to Derpy’s house and take care of it for her.”

“Well, if you’re lookin’ to learn about Equestria, you might try seein’ what it’s like on the farm.”

Pony-Karyn looked over Applejack’s shoulder at the bales of hay that she had stacked. “What did you have in mind?”

“Well, you can’t buck the trees the way I do, but there are plenty of things that a pegasus can do to help.”

So it happened that pony-Karyn found herself tying the hay into bales and stacking them next to the barn.

“So what do you use the hay for?” she asked.

“You eat it, of course. But we also use it for animal feed and such.”

Pony-Karyn took a little bit of one end, then spat it out. “Still tastes like grass to me,”

“I’m glad you like it.”

“Hey, Applejack, can I try an apple instead?”

“Sure. Help yourself.”

She flew up to the top of the nearest tree and picked a shiny red apple. She was unused to eating an apple without washing it first, but figured that ponies did it all the time. She also wished that she could remove the skin, but bit into it.

“It’s tasty. Fresh. I like this.”

“You should. Everypony knows that we’ve got the best apples here.”

“Yeah. For the work I’m doing I should at least get a pie or a fritter or something.”

Applejack laughed. “Don’t worry. I’ll hook you up.”

Pony-Karyn went back to hauling hay. Applejack’s stack of bales dwarfed her own, but she didn’t feel too bad, not being experienced. As she stacked the last of them, Applejack went inside. It was right then that she made the leap back into her own body.

Derpy looked around. “Huh? Why am I working on a farm?”

Applejack walked out. “Here you go, Karyn. A whole box of apple turnovers, all for you.”

Derpy was still confused, but recognized a treat when she saw it. “Thanks!"

******************************************

Derpy was heading home from her route in high spirits when she found herself relaxing at Karyn’s desk, the computer screen showing a news web site. Deciding that she had enough of depressing human stories since the class two days before, she switched it off and tied to find something to do.

“Ugh, this place is a mess,” she said to herself. Karyn’s desk was laden with papers, books, and an empty soda cup. Derpy tossed the cup into the trash bin and found a leather-bound notebook. She opened it to reveal a day planner. It fell open to that day’s agenda which showed “Clean dorm” written and doubly underlined.

“Well, if she was going to do that, I suppose I’d better help.”

She went around collecting all the trash and putting it in the bin. It quickly overflowed, and human-Derpy poked her head outside to find the larger receptacle for the floor. It took several trips this way. On the last there was another girl there. Human-Derpy gave her a smile, but she scowled in response.

“You know,” she said, “you should really separate your trash.”

“Oh, I have. This is my fourth or fifth trip here.”

“No, I mean take out your recyclables. The green bin’s down the hall.”

“My what now?” asked human-Derpy.

“You never heard of recycling? Are you not from here?”

Thankful for the escape, she said, “Nope, I’m not. My name’s Karyn, what’s yours?”

The other girl didn’t respond, but just said, “Whatever, just go ahead and dump it. The earth can go ahead and rot because of you.”

She walked off, and human-Derpy was left looking at the pail. She didn’t see anything in that would damage the earth, but she made a note to ask Karyn about it.

At last the room was emptied of the trash, and human-Derpy could get down to organizing the rest of it. She made the bed, finding it much easier to do with hands than her normal teeth-pulling method. Just to see what it was like, she tried mouthing one corner in, and immediately gave it up to go back to hands.

Then she neatly stacked the books that had been strewn around in alphabetical order. By this point, she was getting a little frustrated. She muttered to herself, “Come on, Karyn, couldn’t you just keep it neat for me? It’s not that difficult.”

She realized that she was being unfair. Karyn wasn’t planning on having anyone else visit, and even Derpy’s presence was not something she had planned for. How she wanted to keep her private room when no one else was around was her business.

But now Derpy was there, and she liked an organized space. She had a theory that with her thinking as jumbled as it was, she needed an anchor of rationality to give her something to hold on to.

It hadn’t always been that way. When Dinky was a filly, she had been the mess that most foals were, and Derpy hadn’t minded. But at that point she had Dinky herself to serve as an anchor to reality. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for her filly. She made another mental note to prepare, as Dinky would be visiting soon.

When that was done, she made an actual note for Karyn. While she used her hands to make the bed, she still found it easier to write with her mouth. “Dear Karyn,” she wrote. “I hope that you are well, and that you don’t mind too much that I cleaned up your room. If you are, feel free to mess up my place the next time you’re there. I’m looking forward to seeing you soon once the spell finally wears off.

“Love, Derpy.”

******************************************

On Saturday night, when Derpy switched once again into Karyn, she found herself wearing a black dress and her hair done up, with a bottle of perfume at the ready. Determined to maintain Karyn’s life as best as possible, she decided to put it on and see if she couldn’t figure out what the occasion was.

“Maybe I should look for her day-planner again. That was helpful last time.”

Before she could rummage through the desks, there was a knock at the door. She opened it to a young man in an ill-fitting shirt and off-center tie. His shoes needed a shine, but the cut of the clothes still gave an air of formality to him, particularly in the low light. Human-Derpy was more surprised that it was a face she recognized.

“Mike?” she said.

“Were you expecting someone else?”

“Well, no, I wasn’t expecting. . .” Her speech slowed as she took time to think. Clearly Karyn hadn’t broken up with Mike after the last incident, or had gotten back together. Karyn must not have told her because she knew that Derpy didn’t like him. And under normal circumstances, it would be none of her business. But once again she had committed an involuntary invasion of privacy. She ought to do her best to be Karyn and then pretend she didn’t know.

On the other hoof (hand, she told herself), she was still of the opinion that Mike was bad for Karyn, and the best thing to do might be to break them up again. She spent a few seconds weighing which option would hurt Karyn least, or if indeed she shouldn’t just try to beg off sick. No chance of that, though, having already dressed up and looking perfectly healthy.

Finally she decided that she had to be true to her friend’s wishes. She wasn’t Karyn’s mother, and had no right to interfere by magical means. Besides, she could always do it later.

“Hello?” Mike said.

“Oh, sorry. I spaced out for a moment.”

“I guess I do have that effect on girls.”

This might be harder than she thought. “I’m ready to go.”

“Well, at least that’s a change from most girls.”

Human-Derpy bit her lip and accompanied him out.

The dance club they went to was filled with other young humans, none of whom were infested with the consciousnesses of pegasi on the edge of a panic attack. Was she going to be expected to dance? Could Karyn dance? If so, would her skill carry over when it was Derpy in her head? Derpy liked music well enough, but preferred quiet listening to frenzied movement. It didn’t help that the music being played was more to Vinyl Scratch’s taste, while Derpy preferred the sort of thing that Octavia listened to.

Mike led her to a booth on the side of the dance floor and left to get them drinks. She stared at all the dancers and the black lights. When Mike returned, she would have to be careful to nurse her drink and make it last as long as possible. It would be just like him to try to get her drunk, and human-Derpy concluded that she would be more susceptible to liquor with the smaller frame she had.

He came back and set her drink before her and she took a sip. It was frozen and tasted like banana and strawberry. She liked it and had to remind herself to be careful.

“So,” he said, “do you want to dance or just hang out here?”

Still afraid of showing her ineptitude, she said, “Let’s stay here a while.”

He seemed pleased, and she realized why after a moment. He put his arm around her and leaned in. She felt that she had made a bad situation worse. Please, Karyn, come back and help me! she thought. I don’t want to kiss your boyfriend!

******************************************

When Karyn realized that she was pony-Karyn once more, sitting quietly in Derpy’s house, everything that would occur became clear to her. Derpy would be in her room, wondering why she was dressed up, Mike would be coming to the door any minute, and from there the situation could dissolve into any number of outcomes, all of which, she thought, were bad.

“This is horrible! What am I going to do?”

She hadn’t asked the question of anyone in particular, but there was an answer nonetheless. Muffinhead looked at her and said, “Blerp?”

“I wanted to tell her, I did, I just never got around to it. Now she’ll break us up again.”

“Myewp!” the cat said, pawing at Derpy’s saddlebag.

“You’re right, I’ve got to go to Earth and stop her, er, stop me!”

She picked up the bag with her teeth, awkwardly, and flipped it open. There was still no indication of which spell did what, but she hoped that invisibility and transportation to Earth were the first two.

Pony-Karyn activated the second spell in front of a mirror and was relieved to see that she couldn’t see herself anymore. She used the first one and found herself back in the dorm that she had left not five minutes ago, but it was too late.

Getting to the club was a challenge for pony-Karyn. Mike had the speed advantage by taking his car, but she had the ability to fly straight and cut corners. Her earlier fears about flying were gone. She soared fast and didn’t notice till afterwards that she wasn’t nervous. It took a few more minutes to wait for a break in the club’s entrance line to sneak in invisibly, then she finally spotted herself.

Mike was just leaning in to give her body a kiss when pony-Karyn reached human-Derpy. She pulled her away and Mike wound up leaning past and awkwardly righting himself. Human-Derpy reached to her left and felt feathers and fur.

“I’m sorry, could you excuse me for a moment?” she said to Mike.

She ran off to another alcove and whispered to pony-Karyn, “Thanks for getting me out of there! I did not want to kiss him.”

“And I didn’t want you to. Oh, this is awkward.”

“I wish you had told me that this was going on.”

“Well, I know how you feel about Mike,” pony-Karyn said. “And thanks for not just slapping him and walking away.”

“I thought about it, but I couldn’t do that to you.”

“Anyway, that doesn’t tell us what we should do now.”

From pony-Karyn’s invisible bag, a pop and a ding were heard. This time, they actually felt their consciousnesses moving in space to the other body.

“That must have been the last of the twenty-four hours,” said Karyn. “We’re saved!”

Derpy breathed a sigh of relief as well. “All right, you go back to your date. I’ll see you back at the dorm. Tomorrow’s our day, remember.”

“I wouldn’t miss it.”

When the sun rose the next morning, Derpy and Karyn woke up together and got cleaned up. “I’m going to check back in at home before we do anything else,” said Derpy. “You want to come with?”

“Sure.”

When they were back in Equestria, with Derpy topping up Muffinhead’s water bowl, there was a knock at the door. Karyn took it upon herself to go get it.

“Good morning, Miss Karyn.”

“Princess Celestia!”

“It’s good to see you back in Ponyville. Tell me, how did you like my little gift?”

Karyn thought about how best to be diplomatic. “It certainly gave me new insight into pony life, which was what you wanted, right?”

“It was indeed. And Miss Derpy?”

“You can ask her yourself. She’s in the kitchen.”

Derpy came out and curtsied to the princess. “Nice to see you again,” she said. “Come to hear about our adventures in each other?”

“I would like to hear that, but there’s something else we need to discuss.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. Come in, please,” Celestia said to the door. It opened and a blue unicorn walked through.

Derpy smiled. “Dinky!”

Author's Notes:

Here's what's coming up in next week's chapter!

Still cautious, Dinky put her hoof in Karyn’s hand and shook. “Dinky.”

“I’ve tried to be a good friend to your mother, and I’d like to be to you as well.”

Dinky opened her mouth to say something, but Karyn interrupted and pressed her advantage. “And to prove it, I’ll help you out of this jam.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dinky’s mouth dropped. “Come on, let me relax a little. I haven’t even had a chance to unpack.”

“Well, all right, you can do that. Your room is exactly the way you left it.”

Dinky started to leave the room, then came back. “Mommy, this is a new house. I don’t even have a room here."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Derpy caught up with them and landed. “Did you two get everything sorted out?”

“I think so,” said Dinky. “Karyn really is a good friend.”

“I know.”