The Sphere of Psyche

Starlight Glimmer stepped off the train in Ponyville, her friend Spike by her side.

The two friends had just returned after a weeklong trip solving a friendship problem in the dragonlands together.

It had taken a lot of work, but the two managed to get the job done.

“I still can’t believe those two male dragons had stopped being friends just because they both liked the same girl.” Said Spike as he hoped off the train, carrying his and Starlight’s backpacks in his claws.

Starlight reached for and grabbed her bag from Spike.

“I can’t believe she agreed to date both of them! Much less that they were all fine with that.” Said Starlight.

“Well they all seemed to have a really strong connection with each other. Kind of like you at Sunburst.” Said Spike.

Starlight blushed. She didn’t want anypony knowing just yet that her and Sunburst were dating.

They had decided to give it a try after he accepted the job of co-headmare at the School of Friendship alongside Starlight.

They had written frequently back and forth their romantic thoughts about one another ever since.

It would only be another week or so until he would arrive in Ponyville and move in.

The two of them made their way through town and down the country road to Twilight’s castle, opening the door and stepping inside.

“Twilight! It’s us! We’re back!” Spike yelled as he and Starlight made their way through the castle halls.

No one responded to Spike’s statement however.

He and Starlight made their way up the stairs the next floor of the castle to the library, expecting to find Twilight inside with her head buried in a book.

Instead however, they found a familiar looking pink pony sitting on the couch, wrapped in Twilight’s blanket and reading a large leather bound book.

Spike and Starlight gave each other slightly worried looks. Ponies were allowed to check out any book they pleased from the castle, but they certainly weren’t allowed to just come in and make themselves at home.

“Uh, hello?” Starlight said to the pony.

The pony looked back at them and gave a warm smile before getting up, the blanket falling to rest on the couch.

“Spike! Starlight! So glad you’re back!” Said Pinkie Perfect, giving her two friends a hug.

“How was your trip? I want to hear all about it!”

Spike and Starlight looked at each other puzzled.

The pony in front of them certainly looked like Pinkie Pie, but her mane and tail looked exactly like Twilight’s, and her voice sounded much more like a scholar then the usual party pony they associated her with.

“Pinkie Pie? Is that you?” Said Spike.

“Pinkie Pie? What an odd sounding name. You know who I am Spike! I’m Pinkie Perfect! Your friend and local librarian.”

Spike pulled Starlight aside into a huddle.

“That is Pinkie Pie right? There’s too much of a resemblance for her not to be.” Said Spike.

“Only one way to find out.” Said Starlight.

She aimed her horn and shot a beam of magic at the Pinkie pony, enveloping her body in a greenish blue aurora before disappearing.

“That’s Pinkie Pie alright. But there’s some kind of strong magic surrounding her. I’ve never felt anything quite like it.” Said Starlight.

“Oh my, look at the time. I need to organize the books. We’ll have to catch up later.” Said Pinkie as she walked over toward her desk by the library door.

Spike went and followed her, with Starlight about to join him when she noticed a box lying on the table next to her.

It’s not like Twilight to leave garbage around.

Starlight thought to herself as she investigated further.

She looked in the box and saw a strange white sphere, which her horn immediately recognized as emitting the same magical energy as Pinkie was!

She then noticed a piece of paper and quill lying next to the box with Twilight’s handwriting on it, listing what appeared to be what she witnessed the sphere doing.

She then read the back, which contained Celestia’s letter.

Starlight gasped as she finished reading the letter.

Clearly Pinkie had somehow been affected by the sphere!

She ran over to Pinkie, the sphere held in her magic so it wouldn’t be activated.

“Pinkie! Did you or any of our other friends touch this thing?” Starlight asked her in a panic.

Pinkie looked into the box.

“Oh yes! Twinkle Sky showed it to us at our last lunch together. Apple Jewel, Flutter Dash, Raritini, and Flutter Dashie were there too! I told Twinkle I’d look into it, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.”

“If you want to get started, this book would probably be a good place to start.” She handed Starlight a book that lay on top of the stack of returned books, called “Ancient and Obscure Magical Artifacts”

Starlight looked at the book, then back at Pinkie as she marched off with the book cart.

Wait. Pinkie mentioned five other ponies had lunch with her here at the castle. If Twilight showed them all the sphere, then that probably means…

Starlight quickly ran back over to the table and began flipping through the book.

If all her friends had been altered somehow by the sphere’s power, then she had to figure out all the information on it quickly so she could get them back to normal!

About half way through the book, she found what she was looking for.

“’The Sphere of Psyche’, while the origins of this item are unknown, it contains great power. Once activated, two ponies simply need to touch the sphere one after the other and soon will swap lived experiences, making each pony act like the other. In order to reverse this process, the sphere must simply be activated and the process must be done in reverse order. Be warned, a skilled unicorn in the art of magic should mediate when using this item, as the ponies affected by it will have no recollection of the changes taking place.”

Starlight placed the book back on the table. It looked like all she had to do was find her friends and complete the reversing process.

She quickly caught Spike up on all the details.

“Well since Pinkie is here at least, we should have her come with us and try and find Twilight first.” Said Spike.

“Good idea. Pinkie Pie! Where are you!?!” Yelled Starlight.

“Uh, Starlight. She’s probably not gonna respond to that. Remember, she said her name was Pinkie Perfect.” Said Spike.

“Oh right. Hehehe.” Said Starlight embarrassed.

Upon looking through the rows of books however, they found the pink pony was nowhere to be found.

“Darn it! We lost her.” Said Starlight.

“Let’s try looking around town for the others. We’re bound to find her eventually. Maybe if we look at their new names, we can figure out who they switched with, and that will help us find where they are!” Said Spike.

“That’s a great idea Spike! Let’s get started!”

The two ran out of the library and began heading back toward Ponyville, deciding to find Applejack first.

They found her inside Carousel Boutique, trying on all the new cloths she had bought that day.

She insisted on trying on everything before coming with them.

This didn’t bother Spike too much however; he liked seeing Apple Jewel pose seductively in the mirror.

Soon though she settled on an outfit and they headed to find Raritini.

They found her at Applejack’s farm, eating dinner with a very confused apple family.

Once they had the two friends together, Starlight activated the orb and had both ponies touch it.

There was a puff of smoke, and when it cleared both Applejack and Rarity stood where the other had moments ago, although Applejack was now wearing her hat and Rarity was wearing the short shorts and tank top Apple Jewel had on seconds prior.

Both of them could not recall what they had done in the previous hours since leaving Twilight’s castle, but agreed to help Starlight and Spike on their mission to help the rest of their friends.

They then went by Rainbow Dash’s house and found Flutter Dash, who insisted on showing them the new tricks she had mastered that day before coming with them to what she insisted was Rainbow Shy’s house.

They found Rainbow back in the barn, feeding a wolf pup a baby bottle.

Once Rainbow had finished giving the baby animals their bottles, Starlight again had the two ponies touch the sphere, a cloud of smoke appearing and disappearing to reveal the Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy as their normal selves.

The five ponies and dragon were now heading back toward town to try and find Twinkle Sky.

“If Pinkie was acting like Twilight, then that must mean Twilight is acting like Pinkie, and should be at Sugar Cube corner right?” Said Applejack, happy to be herself again.

She had asked Spike and Starlight how they had found her, and shuttered at the thought of what she might have been up to as a fashionista.

“Unless there’s a party in town, in which case we may never find her.” Said Fluttershy with a bit of worry in her voice.

“We have to try. We found all of you didn’t we?” Said Starlight.

The group of friends entered Sugarcube Corner, finding the cakes tending the front counter.

“Oh thank goodness you’re here. Something seems really wrong with Twilight! She came down from upstairs an hour ago saying she was ready to watch Pound and Pumpkin, even though we never asked her to! We figured it’d be fine since Pinkie didn’t show up.” Said Mrs. Cake.

“But she’s been acting a lot like Pinkie! Her hair is all poofy and her body looks like she’s eaten a weeks worth of cakes!” Said Mr. Cake.

“Where is she now?” Asked Spike.

“She’s up in Pinkie’s room!” The cakes said in unison.

Starlight headed up the stairs, followed by Spike and the rest of her pony friends.

When they reached Pinkie’s room, they spotted Twinkle Sky flying up at the ceiling, the cake twins sat atop her back.

“Twinkle! Can you come down please. We need your help!” Yelled Starlight.

“Looks like it’s time to come in for a landing babies!” She said as she dove toward the bed at an almost dangerous speed before doing a loop to catch the cake twins in her arms and land on the bed with a big bounce, making her and the twins break out into a fit of giggles.

“I’ll just drop the twins of with the cakes and then I’m all yours!” She said as she put the twins on her back and marched down the stairs.

Starlight looked at Twinkle Sky with uneasiness.

Seeing her teacher acting and looking so different was really throwing her off. She was just so chunky and bubbly!

Twinkle left the twins with their parents before making her way outside with her friends.

“We’re gonna need Pinkie too. Do you know where she is?” Asked Rarity.

“Oh I’m sure she’s probably holed up in her room at the castle reading some boring book like she always does this time of day. Let’s go get here!” Said Twinkle as she began bouncing along at a fast pace, her friends struggling to keep up.

The group of friends followed Twinkle inside the castle and up the stairs.

She made her way to the door opposite the library, opening it and stepping inside.

When Starlight and company entered the room, they were surprised at what greeted them.

Stacks of books and parchment lay everywhere, a small desk and a few photos were the room’s only furnishings, except for a bed where Pinkie Perfect lay, a book sat at her side.

“What’s up girls?” She said as she rose to her hooves.

“I just wanted you and Twinkle here to take another look at the sphere. I think you’ll find something quite interesting about it.” She said as she passed the sphere to Pinkie, who then passed it on to Twinkle.

Just like before, a puff of smoke bellowed and when it dissipated, the chunky pink party pony and the elegant purple princess were back as they belonged.

The two ponies looked at their friends, then at each other, and lastly at themselves, bewildered at how they had gotten there.

Items in the room also vanished as the room’s past reality returned, leaving it filled with random items that were in storage.

Starlight ran forward and gave her teacher a big hug.

“Oh I’m so glad you’re back to normal!” She said as she hugged Twilight tightly.

Twilight looked at Starlight then looked down at her hooves to see the sphere sitting on the floor.

“So, what exactly happened?” Said Twilight.

The group of friends found themselves once again in the dining room of Twilight’s castle, sipping on refreshing glasses of lemonade as Starlight and the others filled Twilight and Pinkie in on what had happened.

It had been such a busy day, and everypony was glad to have everything back as it was.

Twilight filled out a quick report to Princess Celestia explaining what had happened, along with her advice to put the sphere of psyche somewhere secure and safe where nopony would ever be faced with its ill effects again.

She then sealed the box and sat it on the floor, having Spike send it off to Celestia with his magic flame.

“Well it’s a good thing Starlight and Spike arrived when they did. Otherwise we might’ve gotten into even more of a mess. A toast to our amazing friends!” Said Twilight.

“Cheers!” Said everypony and Spike.

It was always good to know that no matter what came there way, the magic of friendship would always help them find their way back home.