Several days had passed and while Sweetie Belle and Opal would talk and Spike and Owlowicious would talk when they were alone, for the most part the pets that could speak remained quiet around their owners. Finally the day had come for their weekly pony/pet play date. As usual, Tank and Rainbow Dash were a bit late since he was still having a few problems learning how to steer his flying device properly. When they gathered Fluttershy asked Rarity, "Rarity, have you thought you heard Opal demanding that she get you fish anymore?"
Rarity replied, "No, I haven't and luckily I haven't had any more dead fish wind up in my boutique either."
Twilight over heard this and asked, "Rarity, what was this about a dead fish in your boutique? I'm surprised you would allow one in there in the first place."
Rarity replied, "Well it was weird really. I know I heard Opal telling me she wanted fish in my house but then the next thing I know I am waking up in my boutique when Opal comes in and again demands fish. Well Sweetie Belle and her friends decide to go and catch a fish for her while I was visiting Fluttershy. When I got back she is eating a dead fish right in the middle of my boutique!"
Twilight's jaw dropped open. She asked, "You too? Maybe Applejack wasn't imagining things after all."
Rarity asked, "What, did she think she heard Winona talk."
Applejack heard this and interrupted, "Eeyep, Ah thought I heard her talk. She was screaming and yelling at the sheep to move when we were herding them to a pen on the other side of the farm."
They went quiet as Twilight was standing there deep in thought. At first she began to wonder if maybe Sweetie Belle was lying and did cast a spell but then again she remembered that she does not know that advanced of magic. She replied, "Well maybe both of you are just imagining things. It is scientifically impossible for animals to speak."
Rainbow was flying around with Tank when she heard this. She landed next to Twilight, tapped her horn and said, "Not scientifically possible Twi? That is kind of odd coming from miss magic pants. I would think that if any pony would think outside the box it would be you."
Twilight rolled her eyes and sighed, "Rainbow, I didn't cast these spells and nopony else who knows that kind of magic could have got access to my books. I honestly don't know if I even have books that have those kinds of spells in them."
While they continued to talk the pets were playing with one another. Tank was flying around when he accidentally bumped into Owlowicious. This did not sit well with the owl. He shouted, "Tank, watch where you're flying! You could have injured me."
The ponies heard this and Twilight stood there in a stunned silence. Pinkie heard this and started shouting, "Wow, Owlowicious can talk! Hi Owlowicious, you want some cake to celebrate you being able to talk?"
Owlowicious replied, "No thanks, I'm not really a big fan of cake."
Pinkie then looked at Gummy and asked, "Gummy, can you talk too?"
Gummy just stood there blinking his eyes in silence, which disappointed her. Pinkie pouted, "Oh I wish I had a pet that could talk."
After standing there in a stunned silence for a couple minutes Twilight came to. She thought that maybe she was just imagining things. She laughed, "I don't know if I was imagining things but I could have swore I heard Owlowicious yell at Tank for bumping into him!"
Right as Applejack was getting ready to respond to Twilight they heard Opal hissing at Winona. Winona had been chasing her around when Opal stretched her leg out, opened her claws and swiped at Winona. She hissed, "Back off or else!"
Opal had clawed Winona before and she did not want it to happen again. She replied "No need to be such a grump."
When Twilight saw this she didn't know what to do. Rarity asked, "Now do you believe us Twilight?"
Twilight replied, "Well...uh..."
Applejack raised her voice and said, "Twilight, y'all can't deny it now. Y'all saw it and heard it for yourself! Something is up and we need to figure out what it is."
Twilight asked, "Fluttershy, you know everything about animals. Do you know of anything that may be causing these animals to talk?"
Fluttershy replied, "I don't know. I've never heard of animals talking before."
Rainbow added, "And it is only Owlowicious, Opal and Winona that are speaking. Why aren't Tank, Gummy and Angel speaking? I would think if something was causing animals to talk all of them would be speaking."
Twilight replied, "You make a good point Rainbow. There must be somepony around here who knows how to cast spells to make them talk. Don't worry everypony, we'll get to the bottom of this."
Everypony agreed and took their pets home and then headed to the library. They all wanted to know what was going on but deep down Rarity was suspicious that Sweetie Belle was a lot better with magic than anypony thinks but didn't say anything because she knew what Twilight would say.