The Sphere of Psyche

Once upon a time in the small town of Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle was preparing to enjoy a lovely lunch with her friends.

The dining room table was set with a fair assortment of vegetables, fruits, and drinks.

Twilight sat a plate a daffodil sandwiches just so on the table a stepped back to admire her work.

Everything was set neatly and the favorite foods of each of her friends remained closest to their assigned seat.

It hadn’t been easy preparing the food and setting the table herself.

Spike and Starlight were away in the Dragonlands trying to help Dragonlord Ember with some friendship problems that were occurring there, so much of the work around the castle fell onto her.

She hoped they’d be back soon.

Suddenly a knock could be heard at the front door to the castle.

Twilight teleported herself from the dining room to the front door before opening it with her magic.

A mail pony stood on the doorstep with a package in hoof.

“Package for Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Said the stallion, bowing in respect.

Twilight blushed.

She wasn’t sure if she’d ever get use to ponies bowing for her.

“Thank you sir.” She said as he handed her the package before giving her a nod and flying off to continue his deliveries.

Twilight closed the door and teleported herself back to the dining room, placing the package on the table before opening it.

Inside was a scroll and sphere that appeared to be made of some kind of glass.

It was perfectly smooth on the outside and easily fit in her hooves.

It almost reminded her of a crystal ball.

She placed the sphere aside before opening the scroll.

“Dear Twilight Sparkle, recently myself and Luna have ordered a full scale inspection of our old castle in the Everfree Forest. While most of the possessions of ours and the castle residents were removed a thousand years ago, you yourself know there is much still there among the rubble.

One such item that has been uncovered thus far is this sphere. Myself and Luna do not recognize it and Starswirl is unsure of exactly what it is either. While ponies here in Canterlot are searching for any mention of it in records and texts, I thought it would be best to send it to you in hopes that you may find out what purpose it serves.

I will let you know if we find anything out here and hope that you will do the same. With much love and appreciation, Princess Celestia.”

Twilight laid the scroll down and picked up the sphere again to inspect it further.

Aside from appearances, she could tell using her magic that the item possessed some kind of magic properties.

The only thing that made sense was to channel her magic into it and see what would happen.

She sat the item on the ground in front of her and concentrated, focusing her magical energy and shot it toward the sphere.

Upon finishing this action, the sphere began to glow a soft purple color, blinking intermittently.

Twilight grabbed the letter from Celestia and flipped it over to make a note of this phenomenon.

As far as she could tell the artifact was activated, but surely it did more than just blink color?

Just as she was finishing making her note she heard the door to the dining room burst open.

Turning to see who it was, Twilight saw her good friend Pinkie Pie bouncing toward her, followed by the rest of her friends not far behind.

“Hi Twilight! We knocked at the door but you didn’t answer so we just let ourselves in. Hope that was ok. Hey! What’s that?” Pinkie Said, grabbing the sphere from Twilight and looking at it intently.

“Pinkie careful! That’s an ancient magical artifact Princess Celestia sent me to investigate.” Said Twilight.

“Whoops. Sorry Twilight.” Said Pinkie as she went and sat the sphere on the table.

It was at the moment the sphere began to also blink a pink color as well. Pink, purple, pink, purple over and over again.

“Now it’s blinking pink also.” Said Twilight as she scribbled down this observation.

As the sphere blinked, Twilight and Pinkie both began to feel slightly light headed.

Not enough for it to be a problem for them, but just enough for it to be noticeable to both ponies.

Before either could say anything about the matter though the feeling passed and so did the colors blinking in the sphere, returning to its natural white shade.

Twilight again made note of this observation. “Very odd. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.” Said Twilight.

“Neither have I darling.” Said Rarity as she picked the sphere up with her magic and looked at it closely before setting it back down. ‘It certainly isn’t a precious stone I’m familiar with.” The sphere then began to glow a white color.

Applejack wondered over and picked the sphere up in her hooves. “It certainly doesn’t look like a tool I’ve seen used for anything.” She said as she placed it back on the table.

Both Applejack and Rarity began to feel a light headedness come over them as the sphere began to flash orange and white before stopping, along with the farm pony and fashionista’s light headedness.

Twilight again took note of the change. “It seems to do something when two ponies hold it but aside from that I can’t figure it out. Do any of you feel different?” Twilight asked Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie.

All three shook their heads. Finally, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy looked over the sphere. Again it flashed colors of yellow and blue but nothing else seemed to happen. Except for the both of them feeling slightly light headed for a few moments.

“I’ll have to look more into this later. I’m sure I’ll get to the bottom of it eventually. For now though, let’s eat!” Twilight Said as she placed the sphere and the scroll with her observations on it back into the box and sat it next to her seat on the floor.

The six friends chatted as they ate about their going ons in life and how each of the classes they were teaching at the School of Friendship were going.

Before long their hour long lunch was over and each friend went their separate ways to accomplish other tasks they had for the day. Twilight said goodbye to her friends and made a small task of cleaning up. She wanted to get started researching the strange sphere.

Using her magic, she quickly cleaned the table and the dishes in mere moments, making sure the dishes were put back in the kitchen cabinets and chairs were pushed in.

She then grabbed the box and headed for the library, placing the box down on a table before walking off to find a book that might reference the artifact.

Little did she know however that this artifact would hold a secret surprise her and her friends would never see coming.