The entire town gathered in a confused mob before the stage. On that stage were Twilight, who had Big Mac's body, Pinkie in Applejack, Rarity in Filthy Rich, Applejack in Octavia, Spike in Spike. "I still don't get why she skipped me." Rainbow Dash in Prickle, and Prickle as the villain. There was also the villain herself, currently appearing as Scootaloo.

Applejack glanced about with cultured eyes. "Where'd Fluttershy run offta?"

Twilight grunted as only a stallion could. "She refuses to be seen. Let's get this underway." She stepped up towards the microphone. "Citizens of Ponyville, I know you're all very confused and worried right now, but we have things under control. The perpetrator has been apprehended and we're working as hard as we can to get things put right."

Big Mac suddenly came down from the sky, landing just before the stage. "Ah'm an alicorn princess. Ah'll fix everything with magic!"

Twilight blinked at the sudden interruption. "If you think... you can?" She had no confidence that Big Mac suddenly knew enough magic to do much worth talking about. Then again, he was flying capably enough.

The crowd turned its eyes to the grinning form of their neighborhood princess, though few were fooled by the smooth deep notes that issued from... his... throat. "Ayup!" He closed his eyes and concentrated, his horn starting to glow, dim at first but quickly escalating. With a loud set of cries, Carrot Top and Junebug lifted into the air.

To Prickle's combination of relief and disappointment, that was not Junebug's yelp. She had heard that before.

Twilight began to get nervous. "Be careful, Big Mac. Magic isn't a toy."

"Nope."

With a sudden nova of power, Big Mac struck both of the mares. Sparkles danced and whorled, and both ponies were set down with flowers sprouting in every direction.

Junebug, or whoever had her body, blinked softly, confused but seemingly unharmed.

Twilight applied her larger hoof to her face. "Thank you for trying. I'm afraid to say this... but we're going to have to call in outside help. Spike, I'm glad you're still you. Would you come here? I need you to take a letter."

"Ahem. Dear Princess Celestia, Ponyville's hit a bit of a problem that requires your direct intervention. Magic has been used irresponsibly." She turned red, hard as it was to see through her red fur. "It wasn't me. I am unable to address this matter personally. Please come at your earliest convenience. Thank you, Princess Twilight Sparkle."

"So do we simply wait until then?" came Mayor Mare's voice from one of the secretary pony's snout.

Spike puffed on the paper he had drafted and the sparkles danced away towards the castle up on the mountain. "We can't force Celestia to go faster than she wants."

The crowd murmured dejectedly, but nopony was hysterical about it.

The changed mayor hopped up onto the stage. "I forward that we all just pretend we are who we really are. Everypony in town knows what's happened, so let's just pretend it's not happening, for now. Go to your usual homes, do your usual jobs as best you can, and hopefully this situation will be resolved soon."

Rainbow Dash raised a hoof and waved it wildly.

"Um, yes... Tiny Titan?"

"That's Rainbow Dash," she corrected. "How can I do any of my jobs without my awesome wings?"

Similar statements rippled through the crowd.

"Ah'll use magic ta farm!"

Applejack squinted down at her brother. "No ya won't! Ah'm gonna tell Granny what you just said."

That cowed him sheepishly.

Mayor Mare tapped the microphone lightly. "Ponies and gentlecolts, let's try to keep a level head. We'll work together to get through this as we have so many times before. Rainbow Dash, who has your body?"

"Me!" Scootaloo waved a hoof wildly. "I'll take over weather duty!" She sounded quite excited to do it. "I always wanted to try..."

Snails, er, Cheerilee gave Scootaloo a prod. "Only outside of school hours, young filly."

The conversation remained as loud, but was changing subtly. Ponies were swapping duties where required as best they could. It seemed some ponies would just have to oversee or take a day off.

"Time to make sweet sweet candy," sang out Lyra in Bon Bon's body. "You'll help me, right?"

Bon Bon rolled her eyes. "Of course I will, but I'm not playing the lyre, sorry."

The two wandered off, arguing about the merits of at least trying out the instrument.

Prickle put a hoof behind her head. She supposed that being a mare wouldn't really stop her from going to school, but... "Rainbow Dash, can we talk?"

"What's up?"

"Privately?"

They wandered away from the crowd, only to hear a familiar voice right behind them, "Going somewhere, darlings?"

There was Filthy Rich, er, Rarity. "If you want some privacy, you can visit the boutique. I'm heading back there now to do some good crying." She heaved a sigh. "I'm not going to get much seamstress work done like this. Working by mouth is such a chore and takes the fun out of it." She waved a hoof in a fashion Filthy Rich would never do. "I know I could use the machines, and I will! But it's not the same."

She walked alongside the others. "And don't even get me started on the whole stallion thing! Filthy, darling, you really need to update your fashion. You've been wearing this same suit for most of your life." She rambled as she went, and soon they arrived at her home.

Prickle used her newly-gifted magic to tug the door open, even if she only managed a precious half an inch. Rarity smiled at the effort and easily got it the rest of the way with a casual swing of a hoof. "Thank you dear. It's good to see these recent events haven't worn on your manners."

Once they were inside, Rainbow turned to face Prickle. "So, why are we here again?"

Prickle pointed at Rainbow. "You can't do the weather right now, but if there's other trouble, you're Tiny Titan."

Rainbow blinked softly and looked down at her little body. "Huh, guess I am. So ya want me to pound some monsters if they show their ugly mugs?"

Prickle bobbed her head. "Exactly."

"As if you needed to ask me." Rainbow took a proud stance. "I'll show them a thing or two!" She punched into the air, bouncing on her hind hooves a moment before she came back down. "Besides, I did that before. I'll just be doing it a little different now. Hey, since we're asking favors, keep an eye on Scoots for me, alright? You two are in school together and all."

That seemed a fair request and Prickle bobbed her head. "I'll do that."

"I'm glad you two are getting along." Rarity was smiling at the two of them. "But if you're done with the clandestine little meeting, I'd like to get to my crying now, thank you."

So they left Rarity to do her scheduled sobbing and split up. Rainbow headed towards Twilight's castle. "I can't reach my house, but I know Twi'll put me up until this gets straightened out."

Prickle waved goodbye and headed to her own house which was thankfully on the ground.

She opened the door to find a pony she had seen once or twice but didn't know the name of.

The unknown mare smiled at Prickle. "Prickle?"

Prickle knew that voice and hurried forward to hug her mom tightly, regardless of what she looked like at the moment. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Look at you, my little porcupine went and grew up overnight." She was smirking with obvious jest. "Dinner's already ready. Eat up. Did you finish your homework?"

Prickle rolled her eyes as she settled by the table. "Only you would ask that right this moment."

Her mother stuck out her tongue. "I haven't heard a thing about Cheerilee cancelling class, so I expect you to remain a model student." She trotted up and set a plate of food before Prickle. "Hopefully Princess Celestia comes and puts everything back to normal."

"Or Luna?" posited Prickle as she began to eat. "I guess any good magic-using pony would do."

"What are they doing with the pony that did this?" asked Junebug as she sat across from her at the table. "She's still a filly, right?"

"Scootaloo." Prickle bobbed her head. "I'm her right now." She pointed at herself.

Junebug raised a brow at that. "Why don't you take that mask off and we'll see who she is? Maybe it's somepony we know."

Prickle felt a chill run up her spine. "N-no! No... I won't take a pony's mask off..."

Junebug looked at Prickle quietly a moment before she nodded. "Very well, but you do need to take a bath, and you can't do that with that outfit on."

Prickle glanced around nervously. "You won't peek, right? I just won't look in any mirrors."

Junebug smiled gently. "I was raised better than to go peeping on ponies enjoying a shower. Finish your food for now. Her secret is safe with me."

Prickle devoured the food gratefully. Her mother's cooking has not been diminished her her bodyswap. She produced her homewor-- "Oh."

"What's wrong?"

Prickle pointed where Twilight's castle would be. "Rainbow has my homework."

Junebug applied a hoof to her face. "Get it back in the morning on the way to school, leave early. You'll just have to explain to Cheerilee what happened. Go on and take that shower."

Prickle let out a little sigh, mixed feelings of relief and annoyance showing. "Sorry," she mumbled as she got to her hooves and trotted off to the bathroom.

Her eyes moved to the mirror and she jumped at seeing not-her looking at her with equal surprise. She reached up and flipped the mirror over. She couldn't reach the mirror before. Being tall had perks. She closed the door behind herself, twisted the lock, and got to washing away the troubles of the day.

"Hey."

Prickle blinked out of her funk and looked towards the tiny bathroom window where the voice had come from. There was Rainb--Scootaloo, hovering in sight. "Prickle?"

Prickle blinked softly. "Scootaloo? Why are you spying on me taking a shower?" Were things getting more complicated?

"I brought your stuff. Can I open the window?"

Prickle broke into a smile. "Oh, thanks! But why not just go through the front door?"

"Oh yeah... I just liked flying so I'm kinda doing it all I can while it lasts and then I saw you in here and I thought I'd say hi, and here we are!"

Prickle reached up and could get to the window, another feat that was impossible as a filly. "There are perks to this," she said, shaking her mane a little.

"T... Trixie?" Scootaloo was staring at Prickle with wide eyes.

Prickle only then realized she wasn't disguised. She was a big fat hypocrite! "No! You didn't see anything!" She slapped the window shut, bonking Scootaloo on the nose. "No!"

Author's Notes:

Is it really Trixie? Why would she go and do all that? What's going on?! Someone fix these typos!

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