Ever seen the MLP: FIM episode "Magical Mystery Cure" where all the ponies get their destinies switched? Yeah. This is that, but with the pups. Enjoy!
The sun peaked over Jake's mountain and Ryder's alarm clock went off. Beep, beep, beep. The boy yawned and sleepily reached out a hand to slam the off button. Another day, another round of rescues. Ryder sat up and stared blankly at the wall for a minute while he fully woke up. Then, putting on his slippers, he shuffled out of his bed and into the kitchen, where a huge bag of kibble and six food bowls sat on the counter. He walked outside and gave his usual morning call. "Pups! Breakfast! Come and get it!"
The pups began sleepily emerging from their houses. But something was weird... They all came out of different houses than their own. Ryder shrugged it off. Maybe they decided to switch it up last night and see how the other pups lived? He set out the food bowls and filled each one to the brim with tasty kibble. The pups trotted over... but where the heck was Rubble? And why was Everest here at the lookout?
"Uh, Everest? Shouldn't you be at Jake's cabin?"
Everest looked up from her bowl with an eyebrow raised. "Uhh, no? Our sleepover is next weekend."
Ryder frowned in confusion. "Has anyone seen Rubble?"
Rocky spoke up through a mouthful of food. "He's with Jake, duh Ryder! Are you sure you don't need to start drinking coffee?" he teased.
Ryder rolled his eyes. "Okay guys, very funny. Rubble, come out and get breakfast! I'll get an extra bowl for you since Everest took yours."
The pups looked at Ryder, pure confusion written on their faces. "Uh, Wyder, wake up dude," Zuma said. "We're all right here where we need to be."
Their owner stared at them in confusion. It was then he noticed... why on EARTH were they all wearing each other's pup tags? Why was Skye wearing a gold star, and Chase wearing a recycling logo, and Rocky wearing... AN ANCHOR? Ryder couldn't help but pinch his arm. Ow, well I'm not dreaming, he thought. They must be playing a prank on me.
Ryder rolled his eyes again. "Alright guys, I don't know what kind of game you're playing, but I'll roll with it. Here's what we need to do today. Zuma... or Rocky.. Captain Turbot needs your help cataloguing the different kinds of coral in the bay. You'll have to dive underwater to help him." Surely that will get him to fess up and go back to his real job!
With a gulp, Rocky nodded. "Ready, set... get wet!" he said, faking enthusiasm.
Ryder frowned deeply. "Uh... alright. Chase... Skye... whatever... Mayor Goodway needs you to direct traffic at the intersection of Greenway and Second Street while maintenance workers fix the traffic light. Speaking of which, Rocky, or Chase, or whoever it is today, needs to help them fix the light."
Chase and Skye nodded. "These paws uphold the laws!" Skye yipped.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Ryder sighed deeply. It's gonna be a long, long day.
Scene change - Paw Patrol logo
Ryder sat on the top floor of the lookout, staring out at the bay with a glass of orange juice in his hand. It had been an incredibly weird morning. He had called up to Jake after breakfast, and sure enough, there was Rubble wearing a snowflake tag. Everest's had a flame, Marshall's had Skye's aviation symbol, and Zuma wore Rubble's wrench tag. Clearly the pups were really committed to this prank.
His pup pad blipped. He answered the call to find Farmer Yumi's face smiling back at him. "Hi Ryder! Think your pups could help me out? I need help digging a few holes to plant some new apple seedlings!"
Ryder sighed. "The pups are all playing some kind of game where they do each other's jobs for the day. I'll send over Zuma, but I don't know how much help he'll be."
Farmer Yumi laughed. "Oh, I'm sure he'll be fine. Thanks Ryder!"
She hung up, and Ryder swiped over to call Zuma. "Zuma, since apparently you're our construction pup today, I need you at Farmer Yumi's farm to dig some holes for her new saplings."
"I can dig it!" Zuma exclaimed, and the signal cut out. Ryder sighed for the umpteempth time that day, remembering how disastrous it was when Zuma had to pilot Rubble's rig when Rubble got himself stuck in the train tunnel. This is getting old. Really fast.
Scene change - Paw Patrol logo
As morning turned into afternoon, Ryder could almost believe things were back to normal. Marshall and Everest were playing with a tug toy outside, and the rest of the pups were out on missions... or up at Jake's cabin. Ryder still couldn't figure out why this prank was lasting so long, but he had to admit, he was impressed with their dedication. His pup pad blipped for the second time that day, and he answered the call from Captain Turbot. "What's up, Captain?" Ryder asked the frowning fisherman.
"Ryder, I know it's not my place to judge, and I know you picked these pups' professions for a perfectly good reason..." he began. Ryder frowned as the captain continued. "But I wonder if it was wise to choose a water pup who's worried about getting wet!" He moved his pup pad so Ryder could see Rocky, standing on the edge of the dock with a spare breathing apparatus strapped on. He was shivering and whimpering, occasionally dipping his toes in the water, only to yelp and recoil. "Every mission you send him on, he's positively petrified, and it's putting me in quite a pickle!"
Ryder groaned. "I'm so sorry, Captain. The pups are all trying to play a prank today where they switch jobs. I'll send Zuma right over. He's at the farm trying to pilot Rubble's bulldozer!"
Captain Turbot tilted his head. "Why on earth would Zuma come out? That construction canine craves crushing cobblestones and checking out caves!"
Ryder's jaw dropped and he stared at the screen, dumbfounded. Had they really gotten everyone on the town in on this? Captain Turbot shrugged. "Anyway, if you could come out here and give him a pep talk I'd surely be satisfied with his skills! Over and out, Ryder!" And with that, the captain hung up, leaving Ryder stunned at just how far this joke was going.
He didn't have long to think though. Mr. Porter's icon popped up on screen, and he answered. "Hey Ryder, it's sort of a bad situation over here. Your police pup caused a huge traffic jam, and your recycling pup broke the traffic light!" He turned the pup pad to show Skye frantically waving her paws from atop Chase's truck, and Chase standing over a broken traffic light, growling in frustration and clumsily moving parts around with his paws. The intersection was completely blocked from all directions with dozens of cars, all honking and yelling out their windows at poor Skye.
Alright, this has gone on long enough. "Can you keep the intersection clear for a little while? The pups and I need to have an emergency meeting."
"Okay, but make it quick Ryder! These people are downright furious!"
Ryder pressed the button that called all the pups. "Pups, to the lookout, NOW!" he said in an uncharacteristically serious tone. He paused, and called Jake's cabin. "Rubble, I need you at the lookout too."
In ten minutes or so, all seven pups were standing in front of him at the lookout. They all wore their usual uniforms, but with each others' pup packs, and each others' tags. They looked up at Ryder, confused.
"I'm happy that you guys are having fun with your little game, but there's serious business to attend to around Adventure Bay, and you guys aren't cutting it doing each others' jobs. I need you all to switch back and do your real jobs. That's an order!"
The pups paused, then all tilted their heads, seemingly in unison. "I don't understand, Ryder," said Marshall, his pink tag jingling against his chest. "These are our jobs!"
Ryder growled. "Alright guys, it ends now! The jig is up and I want you all to start telling the truth!"
The pups all began barking at once, about how confused they were that Ryder was insisting they do other pups' jobs, when these were the jobs they'd always had. The cacophony was cut short when Mayor Goodway's icon popped up simultaneously on screen and on the pup pad. Ryder answered, only to hear her shrill voice yelling as loud as she could.
"Ryder! Fire! City hall! Need the pups! Hurry!" and the screen went blank.
Everest stood and barked proudly. "I'm fired up!"
Ryder gritted his teeth. "No, you are not! Marshall, I need YOU and your fire truck working on that fire! Chase, I need YOU keeping the crowds back with your cones! And Skye, I need YOU in the air making sure the fire doesn't spread to other buildings! Are we clear?"
The pups started to talk, but Ryder covered his face with his hands and yelled into them in frustration. Wide-eyed, the pups all slid down the slide and into their-- well, the others'-- vehicles. Ryder might have lost his mind, but they still had a job to do.
Scene change - Paw Patrol badge
Ryder soon followed the six pups on his ATV, and found them parked in the grassy lot next to City Hall. Sure enough, flames lapped up from the second floor, obscuring the bell tower almost completely and sending plumes of smoke into the air. Ryder coughed and took a second to assess the situation. "I'm getting real sick of this," he groaned. Skye was trying to set up cones bigger than she was; Marshall was struggling to open Skye's wing pack, and Everest, wearing goggles that looked too tight for her, was barking in frustration at her truck's ladder, trying to get it to raise.
"Alright! This ends now!" Ryder roared. The pups all stared at him, frightened. "If you're not going to act like the Paw Patrol, give me your tags and go home! I'll call the Foggy Bottom patrol to handle this, and you can all think about what you did as you go STRAIGHT TO BED!"
The townspeople murmured to themselves as Ryder stood, seething. Alex timidly stepped forward, beyond Skye's haphazardly placed cones. "But Ryder, they're just doing the jobs you gave them!"
Ryder threw his pup pad to the ground! "No, they're messing around and putting people and property in serious danger! My snow pup is fighting a fire, the firefighter pup is trying to FLY, the flying pup is trying to be a police officer, while the police officer tries to be Mr. Fix It! A pup who's afraid of water is trying to do water rescue, the water rescue pup is in a bulldozer, and the pup who should be doing THAT job is wondering when he can get back on the mountain to SNOWBOARD!" When he finished his tirade, he was breathing heavily, and the pups were crouched down, completely terrified. They had taken off their tags and put them in a small pile, and nudged it to halfway between them and Ryder. Even the townspeople seemed to be afraid of Ryder's sudden rage.
Ryder immediately regretted his angry outburst. "I'm sorry," he murmured to the pups. "I shouldn't have gotten so angry. Just... please, guys, let's get this done. We can talk about it later." He stepped forward and picked up Marshall's tag. The golden flame emblem glinted in the sunlight. "Marshall, come here buddy. Just do your job." Marshall slowly crept towards him, a small whimper escaping his throat. Ryder wiped away a tear and gave his Dalmatian a gentle scratch behind the ear. He clipped the tag onto the pup's bright yellow collar. "Come on, bud."
Marshall gasped, and his eyes went wide. For a second, Ryder could have sworn he saw Marshall's life flash before his eyes, in the spotted pup's pupils. Then, as soon as it had begun, Marshall shook his head and blinked. "Woah... what happened?" he asked woozily. He instantly picked up the smell of smoke and gasped again, looking at the burning City Hall. "Ryder! Why am I not up there right now? What happened?"
Before Ryder could answer, the fire pup was dragging the hose off his truck and carrying it up the ladder. With the ease of a pup who had trained for this situation a thousand times, he aimed the spouting hose at the fire, quickly beginning to douse the flames. All Ryder and the other pups could do was stare in shock as Marshall did his job-- his real job.
Everest bounded onto the fire truck and shrugged off her pup pack. "Marshall! Come get this!" The pup took a second to jump down the ladder, put on the water cannons, and spring back up to continue fighting the fire. "Thanks, Everest! I don't know why you had it, but this makes it a lot easier!"
Ryder was dumbfounded. "I wonder..." He picked up the tag with the golden star. "Chase, come here!" The Shepherd approached, ears flat against his head. Ryder clipped the tag onto Chase's collar, and again saw his pup's eyes go wide. It was like they were having an epiphany about who they were and what they were meant to do. Chase snapped to attention and surveyed his surroundings. "Attention townspeople! Stand back while we get this situation under control!"
The townspeople suddenly seemed to recognize Chase's authority and moved back as the Shepherd adjusted the cone barricade. Ryder muttered to himself and picked up a pink tag. "Come here, Skye," he said, and the Cockapoo bounded over to him. Again, Ryder watched one of his pups have an epiphany. Before he knew it, she had hopped into her helicopter and risen into the sky. "It's a big fire, but it hasn't spread anywhere else!" her voice crackled out from the broken pup pad.
One by one, Ryder gave his pups the correct tags. One by one, the pups seemed to snap back to reality and assumed their normal jobs like nothing had ever happened. And the townspeople seemed to go back to normal, recognizing each pup for the job they were meant to do.
Ryder could only stare as Marshall fought the fire, Chase patrolled the crowd, and Skye monitored the scene from her copter. Their reactions when I put on the tags... they weren't faking it! They really thought they had each others' jobs! Ryder tried hard to think of what could have caused his pups to act so strangely. Then he remembered...
Ryder had found an ancient-looking book at the town library, labelled "Dangerous Magic". Assuming it was a novel of some kind, he had taken it home, only to find it was written like a textbook for different kinds of magic. He had scanned the pages, intrigued, and found one called simply the Changing Spell.
Another to one, one to another, each of them will have the destiny of their brother. One to another, another to one, remind them of their fate and the spell is undone.
Ryder gasped. He had murmured the spell out loud as he read! He must have caused the pups to believe their jobs had been switched. He shook his head in disbelief. The Paw Patrol had seen magic before, even aliens, but this was something he could find no explanation for.
"Ryder? The fire's out," Marshall said, standing proudly by his owner. Ryder looked around. The crowd, and the rest of the pups, were cheering.
"Oh thank goodness!" Mayor Goodway exclaimed as she walked over. "I don't know what we would do without our Paw Patrol!" She gave Marshall an appreciative pat on the head, and the Dalmatian's tongue lolled out in pleasure.
"Nothing to see here, folks! Move along!" Chase's voice boomed out from his megaphone. The crowd began to disperse. Skye landed her copter on the lawn and rushed over to nuzzle Marshall.
"I don't know what happened," Chase said as he put away his megaphone and walked over to the group. "It was like I was dreaming all morning, and I woke up just as Marshall started putting up the fire!"
"I know!" Rocky said. "I had this weird dream last night that I was underwater, and it felt like it wasn't over until a few minutes ago! The rest of the pups nodded their agreement and began talking about their "weird dreams".
Ryder could only shake his head. This was the weirdest... day... ever.
"Well, what matters now is that the fire is out and you pups are all fine. Who wants to go back to the lookout for some treats?" The seven pups cheered. As they drove away in their vehicles-- the RIGHT vehicles-- Ryder smiled. At least everything was back to normal.
But he was going to return that book ASAP.
-fin-