//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: That time Trixie was the key to saving the world // Story: Intertwined Reflections: That Time Everypony Swapped Bodies // by ThistleRose //------------------------------// 💎CHAPTER 3 💎 A Monumental Shopping List CURRENT STATUS Twilight inhabits Trixie Trixie inhabits Twilight  RainbowDash inhabits Rarity Rarity inhabits RainbowDash AppleBloom inhabits Lyra Heartstrings “You don’t have a reflection?” Twilight was confused.  “N-No.” she said, nervously shuffling. “N-Not…” she was speaking really slowly, as if getting each and every syllable out was taking a great monumental effort. “Not since that… I-Incident with the bats…” Realisation struck Twilight like a runaway freight train and she could feel her stomach tie itself into unsteadying knots as she absorbed what Fluttershy was saying. “B-But my spell… it reversed it!” she said, trying to convince herself more than anything. Fluttershy gave a sad smile as she shook her head, and opened her mouth wide. Her fangs remained, razor sharp and tinted very slightly red.  “You’re…” “A vampire.” she confirmed quietly. Twilight placed her head to the floor in angry guilt, pointed at herself.  “How did I never notice…” she mumbled to herself. “Well… I don’t really open my mouth that much when I speak. But Twilight… P-Please don’t tell the others. E-Especially RainbowDash.” “Fluts!” Twilight said, sitting down and placing a hoof on her shoulder, slightly hurt. “W-Why didn’t you tell anypony? We could have helped you! We could have figured out a way to fix it! We’re all here, you know that-” Twilight said, but Fluttershy quickly shook her head again. “I-I’ve already looked everywhere. E-Even… places I really shouldn’t have looked” she replied, avoiding eye contact. What did that mean? “B-But there’s no cure. And I didn’t want anypony to treat me any differently. So it was easier just to… not tell anypony.” she finished, awkwardly rubbing her hooves together. Twilight felt like a failure. She had failed Fluttershy in ways she didn’t even realise. This had already been a horrible day, and this was making it so much worse. And there was one question that had surfaced that she didn’t really want to know the answer to. “And how do you…” she glanced at Fluttershy’s fangs. “You know…” Fluttershy smiled a tiny bit. “T-Toby was kind enough to let me feed of him when I need to.” “Who’s toby?” “You know the friendly bear who lives near my cottage?” Right. Fluttershy loved bears. “And does that do the job?” Twilight asked delicately. “J-Just about. I’ve only lost control once. On m-my first week after the spell.” she said shamefully. “L-Luckily, Zekora was the pony I went after, and she has all sorts of protections… She  gave me a potion to drink t-that helps keep the craving down.” So Zekora knew too. Twilight nodded. Zekora was trustworthy and thus she understood why she hadn’t revealed her secret to anypony. “But what I don’t understand is why this means you think you should take the lead… I know how much you hate having to do that.” Twilight pointed out. “Twi… I don’t h-have a reflection. That means I can’t swap with anypony else.” The cogs turned in Twilight’s brain enough to understand.  “Which means that we don’t have to worry about you swapping with anypony and having to re-explain everything! Fluttershy! You’re a GENIUS!” She said, smiling wide and giving her a tight hug. Fluttershy squeaked and wormed her way out of it, leaving Twilight looking crestfallen. “Uhm… Y-You still… l-look like… Trixie…” “Shoot. Sorry, forgot… heh” she said awkwardly. “W-Well… thank you for telling me. I appreciate it alot.” “I-I’m only doing it b-because I need RainbowDash back.” she said. “But… she hasn’t gone?” “You know what I mean.” She reinstated firmly, eyes watering a bit. “I want t-to be able to be sad and crawl into her arms and cry and for her to hug me and not worry about if it’s Rarity or if it’s actually her but a unicorn and this is all just. A lot and. I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do…” she said, eventually breaking down as she lay on the floor, hooves over her head as she trembled.  Twilight was caught at an impasse. She couldn’t help her. Even her girlfriend couldn’t really help her.  “… would you like me to get AppleJack?” Fluttershy didn’t look up but nodded briskly.  “Okay. I’ll go get her. I will tell her it’s just about Dashie. AppleJack had been the pony who supported Fluttershy the most when she was in her multiple year long ‘I like RainbowDash but can’t tell her” phase, and had often comforted her at a low. It would certainly be more helpful than a pony who looked like Trixie.  “Come on now, Trixie.” Said AppleJack as she lead Trixie through the hallway towards the main library. Trixie happily trotted along, occasionally flexing her wings to show off a bit. AppleJack didn’t like this one bit. Not only was Trixie inhabiting the body of one of her best friends, she was also inhabiting the body of one of the most powerful creatures in all of Equestria. She was just glad that she was too inexperienced to actually use said magic in any useful way.  Trixie, on the other hoof, was having the time of her life. Not only did Twilight know she had her body, not ONLY was she now one of the most powerful creatures in all of Equestria, she was in the unique position of being able to fawn over the body of her favourite pony of all time: herself! The fact that her arch nemesis currently inhabited that body was just the icing on the cake~ “Hey! AJ!” Speak of the devil~ Trixie turned and WOW… What a sight. Herself! She stuck out her tongue as Twilight approached. Twilight rolled her eyes. “What's up?” asked AppleJack.  “Well, Fluttershy, she…” she said, getting momentarily distracted by Trixie looking right at her. “What's wrong, Twilight?” “... Fluttershy isn’t taking this very well, and I think she’d mostly just… like a hug from you right now.” Twilight said delicately. AppleJack nodded, a little confused. “Of course. But why wouldn’t she…” she started, but looked back at the others. RainbowDash seemed to be having the exact same thought. “... S-She’s having trouble, uhm…” Twilight paused too. An uncomfortable understanding covered the room, with AppleJack nodding and moving through to the main hallway, past everypony else. Trixie could see RainbowDash’s eyes tear up a little as she turned and hurriedly left. Rarity let out a sad little sigh and followed up after her. Twilight glanced back at AppleJack as she walked into the library, with AppleBloom awkwardly following Trixie. Trixie blinked a few times. She was now alone. Everypony had forgotten about her. She could just leave. Fly off into the sunset. But something was stopping her… This WAS her fault. She had caused the horrible uncomfortable situation. And if this issue was brought up by just two ponies swapping, she couldn’t even start to comprehend how much of a mess the whole continent was in now. She didn’t want to be here anymore. She turned to leave- “And where do you think YOU’RE going?”  Pinkie Pie was right up in her face.  “You’re staying right here, missy!” she said, scowling at her.  “Trixie wasn’t going anywhere.” she insisted. PinkiePie’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve got my eyes on you…” She said, placing her forehead on her muzzle. “I can see that.” she said awkwardly, and tried to move back. Pinkie Pie stayed ‘glued’ on. She walked backwards a little and only when she turned did Pinkie unstick. “Hehe… you may think you are great and powerful! But you forget! You’re dealing with the number one party pony in- oh is thAOKJHWOAHA!” Trixie’s ear flicked as she turned around to see Pinkie Pie was on the floor, seemingly in shock! Huh?? She looked around rapidly. Was she ok? She saw an open door. Oh no. She very carefully peeked round the door. It was Twilight’s room, the mirror being opposite the door. Pinkie had looked in a mirror. She quickly used her magic to slam the door shut, and turned to face ‘PinkiePie’, who lay on the floor, looking at her hooves in fascinated shock. She wanted to cry for help… But why would she? None of these ponies cared about her. Why should she even bother? Trixie was competent! She could handle this herself! She didn’t need their help. Trixie was an alicorn princess now! And they didn’t need anypony's help! “W-Who are you!” she asked sharply.  The pink horse looked up at Trixie, blinking a few times. A smile spread across her way in a very disconcerting way. “I’m… P-PinkiePie!” “...Yes, I’m aware. But who are you? As in, who’s brain do you have?” “I told you! It’s me! Pinkie!” she said, bouncing up onto her hooves.  “But… you looked into a mirror,” said Trixie, slowly. “Doesn’t that mean you’d swap bodies with somepony?” “... Yeah! I thought so too! I… just got a bit of a fright, that's all!” she said happily. “You’d be frightened if you looked in a mirror knowing you could suddenly be in somepony else's body!” she said, and started bouncing off towards the library. The way she bounced was definitely Pinkie Pie.  “Come on! Let's go!” she said excitedly. “We aren’t going to solve this on our own, Twi!” “...I’m Trixie.” she said suspiciously. “Hehe! I know! Just trying to make sure you’re paying attention!” she giggled, and finished bouncing into the library. Trixie stood there for a few moments. That was… Odd. Then again, it was PinkiePie.  Nothing was off limits. Shrugging, Trixie followed her into the library. It was probably nothing to worry about. I’m sure. Twilight was sitting with RainbowDash, who was gently crying into her. Twilight had an arm around her, and was shhhhing her to try and calm her down.  “It’s all going to be ok. We are going to sort this, RainbowDash” She said, giving the unnatural unicorn a squeeze. It didn’t seem to help. “S-She doesn’t even want to l-look at me.” she whispered. Twilight could feel her heart break at hearing that. The worst thing was that she didn’t even know what to say to comfort her… because it was at least partially true. Rarity had already grabbed a book and started reading, but her eyes kept on glancing up to the pair of them, her bottom lip trembling.  Auuughhghghhhhh… “Come on, everypony!” PinkiePie had bounded in. “I know you’re all sad, and this is stressful! This is very NOT very fun at all! But if we all work together, we can do it! I know we can! And if anypony needs anything at all, just give Pinkie a call!” she said. Everypony gave a little smile. “She’s right.” said Twilight, standing up. “We need to fix this! Let's get to researching!” she said, and went over to the ‘ancient equestrian magic’ section.  RainbowDash wiped away her tears (being confused momentarily at why they seemed to be black (then remembering about Rairity’s mascara)) and shuffled over to one of the bookshelves. She was a terrible reader, but she’d do it for fluttershy. Anything to make her not have to suffer like this. Trixie came in a little later than everyone else, still a bit unnerved by what had happened out in the hallway. “Ah. Trixie.” Twilight called out, and trotted on over to her. Trixie took a deep breath, and then smirked as per.  “Aaaand what can I do for you?” she said, laying down comfortably. “I must say, Twilight, your body feels wonderful! You aren’t tired all the time and your bones don’t hurt!” “Trixie, your body feels like you only eat pop tarts.” Twilight replied, already tired of this. “And so what if I do?” Trixie asked innocently. She saw nothing wrong with this. “And- may I ask, why is your fur so…itchy?” She asked, giving her side a little scratch as she sat down. “Fleas” she said with a smile. Twilight froze. She tried to tell if Trixie was joking or not. Trixie was doing her ‘clearly you don’t have an oat fryer’ face. She was unreadable. Aloof. An Enigma. “...I am showering before we leave.” She shuddered. “Anyway… I need to… well…” Twilight was having trouble getting the words out. “Go on, Twilight… Spit it out!” she said, sticking her tongue out again. Twilight gave a little growl. “If this is going to work… there is quite a big possibility I’m going to have to teach you advanced magic. A-And If i do, please, please will you do as you’re told? All of Equestria is at stake.” she said, almost pleadingly. Trixie’s smile only grew wider, and her tail twitched a few times out of excitement. “You mean.. I get to learn truly amazing magic!?” “...Yes.” “Taught by Twilight Sparkle?!”  “...Yes?” “Personally?” “How else did you think I’d be doing it?” asked Twilight, growing weary of this already. “YIPPEE!” She exclaimed, leaping up into the air with a powerful flap of her wings which sent a few papers flying. She did a full spin in the air before landing comfortably on her haunches. PinkiePie applauded. “I’d love that more than anything!” Twilight was taken aback from her incredibly animated response. “Uhm… Ok. Uhm-” She looked away awkwardly and pointed at the bookshelf. “Can you check the book on everfree forest there? I have a slight hunch…” she said, before returning back to the book that she was reading. “Anything for you, My-” “Trixie.” “Hehe~ Sure, professor!” “...” That one she could accept.  “Howdy, bud!” AppleJack came into the main hall where fluttershy was curled up in a small quivering ball. “Heard you were needin’ a hug?”  The ball nodded, and AppleJack obliged, sitting back against one of the chairs and embracing Fluttershy fully, who curled up and continued to sob quietly. AppleJack was much, much taller than fluttershy, a whole head taller. Fluttershy looked about the size of a filly compared to her. “... Twi told me about how you were feelin’ about RainbowDash.” she said sadly. “It’s… well, safe to say it ain’t the best situation now, is it. Not for anypony.”  Fluttershy let out a sad little giggle, shaking her head. “I w-want to…” she started slowly. “I want to tell her everythings going t-to be fine… B-But I don’t… She looks like Rarity… A-And Rarity was b-being quite mean about R-RainbowDash’s mane…” she mumbled softly.  AppleJack let out a little laugh. “Eyup. She can be a bit of a diva about her mane. It’s her pride and joy, after all.” She said, looking up and around at the room. Fluttershy’s ear twitched. She would never tell AppleJack, but thanks to being part fruit bat, her hearing was greatly enhanced. This means she could hear her heartbeat. And her heartbeat had gotten quicker as soon as she started talking about Rarity. Fluttershy would usually never pursue something like this; she didn’t really feel good about exploiting something she had no control over. However… she had just crossed the huge step of actually telling somepony about her condition. And curiosity was eating away at her… She wasn’t going to pursue… but she would give it a little push. “I-It’s… j-just so hard seeing somepony you love acting so… n-not like themselves” she managed to stutter out. “Eyup… It sure is…” she said sadly. There was a moment of pause, before AppleJack tensed a bit. Fluttershy heard her heart rate begin to rapidly increase. Fluttershy let out a little smile, before it dropped as the anxious pit in her stomach enveloped her whole being. She felt so horrible and guilty. How could she do that!? “Shoot-” Said AppleJack, laughing at herself a little. “Well, guess the opal’s out the sack now, aint it?” she said, giving a little sigh. Fluttershy looked up at her with wide eyes. “You… have a thing for… Rarity?” “Guess you could say that” she said, smiling. “Why didn’t you ever tell me!” “Well… I guess because I didn’t really think it was too relevant. You were loosin’ sleep over Dashie. I wasn’t about Rares.” “How long..?” “Goin on three years now.” she said, shrugging a little. “But to be honest… I’m not too keen to pursue it. I’m perfectly happy with how things are between us now. No point in riskin’ anything that could cause undue stress on anypony.” “B-But…” Fluttershy was about to point out the hypocrisy, but applejack put a hoof to her lips. “Especially not now with this whole disaster goin on.” Fluttershy buried her head back into her fuzzy chest. She was talking sense. “I-I won’t tell anypony.” “Thanks, Fluttershy. I appreciate that.” The guilty hole in Fluttershy’s stomach was starting to eat away at her. Part of her felt almost obliged to tell AppleJack about her vampirism… She shrank back down. She just couldn’t do it. It had been several hours of research by this point, and everypony was getting exhausted. RainbowDash had already given up and was idly practising making small objects float with her new magic. Rarity was much the same, working out how to use her new wings. Occasionally the duo would give little tips and suggestions, but it was incredibly awkward to do so.  AppleBloom was asleep in the corner, her horn occasionally sparking with the uncontrolled magic it contained. AppleJack was beside her, gently patting her back in comfort. Fluttershy had rejoined the group too, and was idly colouring a comfort colouring book in the corner. Only Twilight, Trixie and PinkiePie were actively searching (although Pinkie was mostly just looking through to see if there were cool pictures with nice colours). It was Twilight who finally got some sort of an answer. “Aha!” She looked down at the notebook. “I’ve got it! The mirror pool!” PinkiePie’s ears flattened down. “Oh nOoo… not the mirror pool… That was one of the scariest days of my life! I almost got zapped into oblivion by Twilight!” she said, a little bit of shudder in her voice. Twilight looked a little guilty at this. She did… kind of do that. Anyway- “Y-Yeah. Anyway… I think it has to do with it! According to this book on the everfree forest, the mirror pool has some sort of connection to a so-called ‘mirror dimension’! It's like a type of pathway between worlds that lies within mirrors. When I travelled to the world that Sunset Shimmer lives in, I used a mirror and travelled through the mirror dimension to get there! And so far it's the closest thing I can think of to this ‘mirror entity’.” She said. “Well we know where that is! Let's get going!” Said AppleJack. Everypony else nodded in agreement. AppleJack looked down at the green unicorn beside her and smiled gently.  “Come on now. Time to wake up.” “Huh… oh…” said AppleBloom, sitting up. She gingerly felt the horn on her head. “So it wasn’t all just a bad dream…” “I’m afraid not, sugarcube. Now… I need you to head to your lil’ crusader treehouse. Hopefully your friends will know where your body is, and you can try and stay safe there. Okay?” “Siss… I wanna go with you!” she protested. “I’m not a little filly! I’m… uhm… however old Lyra Heartstrings is!” “AppleBloom…” AppleJack gave her one of her stares. “Please. I can’t have anythin’ else bad happen to you today, ok? We don’t know what we’re gonna find at that mirror pool. Please.” Sadly, the unicorn nodded. “Thanks so much, hun. I’ll walk you there on the way to the forest.” AppleJack gave her a pat on the head.  As everypony prepared to leave, Trixie went up to Twilight. “Well Twilight! This has turned into quite the unexpected collaboration, hasn’t it?” She said, wrapping a wing around Twi and holding her hoof up into the air in front of her, as if they were standing over a huge open landscape and Trixie was declaring it to be hers. “Together we will be UNSTOPPABLE!” “Trixie,,, I just want to get this over with. We’ll all get back to our own bodies, and then you’ll be on your way.” Trixie’s eye twitched a little, and her smile dropped. “Oh! I… I see.” She said, quickly stopping the embrace. She stood there awkwardly for a few moments. “You… Wouldn’t want Trixie around to… help with… anything? I can be very helpful, you see!” Twilight could feel a small twig in her mind snap. The build up stress and frustration of this day had finally come to a head. “Trixie.” Twilight turned to face her.  “The last two times you’ve come here, you’ve done nothing but cause dismay and destruction. And now you’ve thrown the whole of Equestria into turmoil. To be honest, you’re lucky that you’re in my body, otherwise you would be held in the dungeon. Nopony wants you around.”  The whole room had gone silent, staring at the pair of swapped mares. Trixie felt her heart slowly start to crack. Receiving that devastating of a verbal attack from her own voice and from Twilight was more than she could handle right now. Twilight felt a tiny bit bad but was too worked up to apologise right now. “... I’ll see you all outside.” she said shortly, and left. The tension in the room was palpable as Trixie glanced around at the others. Everypony was looking at her with various degrees of sympathy.  “... What are you all looking at? Come on! We have a job t-to do!” Trixie declared, trying her best to maintain composure. Everypony slowly turned away and got back to preparing. Trixie let out a big sigh, and left the room. Out in the hallway, she slid down against a wall, staring at her strange and unfamiliar hooves. Even when she was Twilight Sparkle, the princess of friendship… Nopony wanted her around. The sound of tears splashing onto the cold hard floor echoed through the corridors.  The mane 6, plus Trixie, were trudging through the everfree forest. PinkiePie was in front, happily bouncing as she went, describing the last time she had been to the mirror pool. “It was SO COOL! When I came out of the pool it was like BAM! TWO PINKIES! There's usually only ONE! And then we had the amazing idea of making even MORE pinkie pies! And so we had SO MANY PINKIE PIES it was like heaven in Equestria! Twilight DID have to destroy most of them… which was needed! But also quite sad… but it's ok! They’re all still alive in the mirror pool! That's what I like to think anyway!” Twilight smiled to herself as PinkiePie rambled. She loved the energy that she had in everything that she did. Some may find her annoying, but the constant vibrating bubble of excitement and energy really did do wonders to keep her spirits up. Every now and again, she would glance back at Trixie. She hadn’t said anything since they left the castle, which really wasn’t like her. A guilty twinge set itself comfortably into her stomach. She needed to apologise to her… Just not now.  Fluttershy and RainbowDash were together at the back, both very awkwardly walking next to each other, avoiding eye contact. Occasionally their eyes would meet, and they would smile awkwardly. Both wanted support and affection from the other, but it just felt wrong. Rarity was much the same. Occasionally, she would jump up into the air and fly a few metres above the group, letting out a little laugh of joy as she did. RainbowDash and Fluttershy would always look up at her forlornly, both looking at the body they wanted (in different ways of course).  “Aaaaaaand here it is! The mirror pool cave entrance!” Pinkiepie said happily as she bounced up to it, but stopped bouncing a few metres away. She tilted her head in confusion. “Oh! Nevermind! This is some sort of weird force field instead! Teehee!”  “Force field!?” Twilight had remembered putting a rock over the entrance with the help of big mac, but she hadn’t cast any spells on it! She quickly pushed past the others and got to the front. The rock was no longer there. Instead, a shimmering blue magical barrier covered the entrance to the cave. Panic began to rise in her as she prodded it with her hoof. It zapped her pretty badly, causing her to cry out in pain “N-No!” she exclaimed, stumbling back a little. “What is it, Twi?” asked AppleJack, moving closer to make sure the unicorn didn’t collapse. “It’s starswirl’s impenetrable barrier…” She said quietly, managing to steady herself. “N-Nopony is getting into that c-cave! T-The only way past is a…” she said, before shutting her eyes in regret. She looked to Trixie. “... Trixie.” The alicorn hadn’t really been listening, but ears perked up a little as she was addressed. “Yes?”  “I need you to teleport past the barrier.” Twilight asked slowly. Trixie blinked, before a smile formed on her face. A chance to prove herself! Only problem is she had no idea how to use teleportation magic. “Of course!” she said, and moved towards the translucent barrier. “Teleportation spell… GO” she declared, standing proudly. … … “Teleportation spell……….. GO!”  She remained in place. “Trixie… you don’t know how to teleport, do you?” Said Fluttershy quietly. “SHHH! This is my process. Teleportation spell… GO!” Twilight was on the floor, head in hooved, mumbling to herself as Trixie continued to (in vain) teleport through the barrier.  Fluttershy’s eyes were starting to water. She had hoped that everything would be back to normal today. It seemed like that might be a fantasy.  RainbowDash could see how much she was struggling. She couldn’t take it. “Rarity.” she said quietly. “W-We need to help her.” “I know…” she said, looking at the quivering pegasus. “But what can we do?” The pair looked at eachother, and nodded. Slowly, they both sat down next to Fluts and embraced her. Fluttershy started shaking as she began to cry again, but having both of them there seemed to be at least some comfort. AJ stood next to the suffering Twilight for comfort as Pinkie repeatedly zapped herself trying to get in.  “It was much less tricky the last time I was here…” Eventually, Twilight stood up. “O-Okay girls! I know what to do.” she said. “I-It won’t be easy, but there is a way to break the barrier. W-We will need some very hard to find ingredients, though.” “How hard? I’ve got lots of rock candy!” Piped up Pinkie after her fourteenth time getting zapped. “Even harder than that.” Twilight replied with an affectionate roll of her eyes.  “We will need four different things to cast the spell correctly…” “One: Some infernal metal from the depths of Tartarus”. “Two: Never melt ice from the mountaintop glaciers of Yak-Yakistan” “Three: A 7 carat ruby from the dragonlands” “Four: A drop of alicorn blood.” There was a stunned silence as Twilight finished.  “Oh, so just a simple trip to the farmers market then?” Said Rainbowdash, who started laughing in tired disbelief. “My… This IS a monumental shopping list…” Muttered Rarity. “How in the hay are we meant to get all of that?” asked AppleJack. She didn’t even know where they would begin to find that sorta stuff. “Well…” Twilight gave a little sigh. “We already have the blood of an alicorn. Well, I mean, we can GET the blood of an alicorn.” “Excuse me! This is MY blood! You can’t have it!” Trixie protested. “Actually, it's MY blood. You’re just borrowing it.” Twilight snapped back, which shut Trixie up pretty quick.  “Anyway… I know the way to Tartarus. I can head there. But I’ll need powerful magic to get in… and somepony to distract cerberus…” she said, looking at Trixie and Pinkie Pie. “I’m the pony for that! I’m so distracted, you didn’t even realise I stole AppleJack’s hat four minutes ago!” she said, frisbeeing the hat back onto AppleJack’s head perfectly. She was right. Nobody had noticed. Trixie looked at Twilight looking at her. She blinked. She looked behind her. Who did she- OH! Her head turned back round, and she was smirking again. Twilight groaned internally. “So what you’re saying is… we get to go on a road trip… Together?” “... Yes.” Twilight said. “B-But I want to make it clear that-” “YIPEE!!!!!!!!!!” Trixie took off into the sky again, spinning around. PinkiePie cheered as well, unsure why this was so momentous but hey! Smiles go for miles!  Twilight facehoofed. She would deal with that later. “A-Anyway… For YakYakistan, we would need some ponies to head up to the peaks of the mountains to gather some of the ice. The terrain means that it would be best for Pegasi to go… not to mention the dangerous creatures that a certain somepony I know would be perfect to handle” she said, looking over at Fluttershy and Rarity. “O-Oh.” Said Rarity, looking at her wings. “I suppose that makes sense…” “Y-Yes, I’d be… able to do that.” she said, looking at Rarity. In the body of her girlfriend. “I-I’m sure we’ll… uhm…” She looked away awkwardly.  RainbowDash’s uneasy feeling in her stomach doubled. “Which leaves the Ruby…” Finished Twilight. “Usually, I’d suggest the dragon lands obviously, but I don’t know that it would be the best Idea to go to, seeing as there is a chance that Ponies may have swapped with Dragons. And since Spike is off…” she looked into the camera. “Somewhere…” she looked back at the ponies. “I think we need to work out a plan B…” “... I know where we can get one.” Rarity piped up. “R-Really?” Said Twilight in surprise.  “Yes. In my vault at the Manehattan central bank. I had been saving it for a big piece but….” she looked away forlornly. “I SUPPOSE that this is important enough for me to part with it.” “Perfect! Well then you- Well… not you. R-RainbowDash and AppleJack can head there!” RainbowDash nodded glumly, with AppleJack just staring for a few moments, thoughts of her affection for the unicorn body’s usual occupant running rampant. “Eyup…”  “Uhm… I guess I can do that.” said RainbowDash, looking over at Fluttershy sadly.  “O-Okay. T-Thats settled then.” Twilight stood up, and gave a little recap. “So Me, Trixie and Pinkie will head to Tartarus. RainbowDash and AppleJack will head to Manehatten to get the ruby out of the vault. And Fluttershy and Rarity will head up north to YakYakistan to retrieve some of the ice there.”  Everypony nodded.  “T-This isn’t going to be easy. But I know we can do it. Together. And seeing the barrier confirms to me that It has to be something to do with the mirror pool.” They had their goal. They had their quest. They had their teams. What could possibly go wrong?