Careless Wishes
Twilight Sparkle walked through the hallways silently, she didn't want to be heard by the guards because she wasn't sure what they would do if she was caught. Very slowly and silently she crept into Princess Celestia’s room.
Celestia instantly took notice of the opening doorway, “Hello there, Twilight,” she said. Twilight smiled, “Well hello there, Princess, it’s nice to see you again.”
“Please, just call me Celestia, there’s no need for formality around me.”
“Yes, of course, but I actually had a question for you…”
“Why do you have a forbidden section in the library?”
Celestia sighed, she knew that one day this question would be asked.
“Because nothing is forbidden, only certain… practices are restricted, they are something that should never be done, ever, do you understand?”
“Yes, of course, but if they can help out other ponies why not use it? I mean I saw spells for reversing time and immortality in there…”
“Wait, what?”
“I’m sorry, but I went through them and…”
“Enough, you should never have looked into them in the first place.”
“Yes, I’m sorry,”
“Being sorry will not be enough, I will need your solemn oath that you will never tell or share these secrets, and that you will never use them either, ever.”
Twilight gulped nervously, “A-alright,” she stuttered, “I-I p-promise.”
Celestia slowly smiled, “Very well then, thank you, was there anything else?”
Twilight shook her head, “No, but could I please have some cookies?”
After many years of practice Celestia did have the self-control not to laugh, but she still did have to resist the urge to giggle, and so she only smiled instead.
“Maybe if you’re a good little filly,”
“Oh, I have been!”
“Well then, why don't you tell me all the good that you’ve done?”
Twilight’s eyes lit up and she began to while Celestia listened to her smiling and nodding at the little unicorn when the time was right, but little did she know that even though the unicorn that she called her student would keep her promise a seed of curiosity was planted, one that would grow, one that would have to be answered, and one that would many, many years later.
Many Years Later…
Twilight walked through the library again, it had been many years since she had dared to explore this section of the library, and it was only at the request of Princess Celestia herself that she was here. After Chrysalis’s threat against Starlight Glimmer they both feared an attack, and Celestia herself was worried that somehow she might get her hooves on the forbidden arts of dark magic, if she got these texts, these scrolls, these books, then who knew what she could do. Nothing in this section was for the eyes of any pony that wasn't ready or worthy to receive it. But now that Twilight was finally a princess she could finally look through the books on her own. Suddenly she remembered the first time when she looked though the books, she was just a child then and Celestia was always fine with her borrowing books before, but after that Celestia asked that she come to her first before she did borrow a book, or, at the least, the librarian.
Twilight promised to do so and ever since then had kept her promise.
But now it didn't really apply to her, but to Starlight… well…
Starlight and Spike were the only two that she trusted enough to be in here, Spike because he was a dragon and therefore couldn't use Equestrian magic, and Starlight because she was her student, and while she was nervous and afraid to let her come in here Celestia assured her that whatever she felt was best and right for her would probably work out in the end. That’s why she was here, because Twilight wanted to know how she would react, if she could handle the truth of the old knowledge, and luckily enough she could. “Wow, these are really, really old,” Starlight said using her magic to gently pull down books from the shelves taking great care to make sure that she didn't drop any.
“Yes, some of these have protective spells on them, some are so old that if you touched them then it would be ruined, some are also the original edition, so be very careful,” Twilight said opening a book on a desk.
“Why are you even looking through them?”
“Well I need to know how old the book is, who wrote it, and what the title is just in case we want to sort alphabetically or chronologically on the names of the books or authors instead,” she said, “Just in case, you know.”
“Yes, of course, just in case, but I mean what about the ones by Star Swirl?”
“Oh, yes, he will need his own shelf, I mean we have On Time and Matter, How to Bend Space, Time, and Matter, and finally On Spirits and Souls.”
“Yeah, to name a few, but why is there one called On Stones, Gems, and Crystals? I mean what reason could he have for writing that one?”
“Oh, that just goes through the differences mostly, although there is a reference to the Elements of Harmony and the Infinity Stones/Gems, but he also claims to duplicate that, but I doubt that because no pony has ever found something that he made,” Twilight said instantly dismissing the possibility of it.
“Yeah, well here’s an interesting one, a spell that can give the user whatever they wish for,” she said. “Yeah, but what’s the price that you have to pay for it?”
“It doesn't say, but maybe I should try it out,” Starlight said lowering her hoof down to the page. “Hey, careful, some spells are activated by just touching the paper, once a stallion touched a page and was lost inside the castle for three days because no pony else could see him. These are very dangerous things and you should be more careful,” she said. “Yeah, well maybe you should let me try to explores new things and discover for myself!” Starlight shouted.
“I’m just trying to protect you!”
“Yeah? Well maybe you should just shut up even if you don't want to.”
“I only speak when I need to!”
“Yeah? Well guess what? I wish that you did shut up!”
Twilight tried to respond but could find no words. Her eyes lit up in confusion and alarm, what’s going on here? She thought to herself.
She quickly wrote something down on a piece of paper that she had in her bag, Starlight, I can't speak, did you do something? Was it a spell?
“Don't look at me, all I said was that I wished for you to shut up and…”
Realization started to sink in very slowly.
“Hold on,” she said as she turned back to the book, “Let’s see here, the user of said spell must say the magic words in order for their wish to be granted. One only need to say them and nothing more. The words are ‘I wish’, and to end the spell…”S
he stopped, “Oh no, not yet, I don't want to end the spell.”
Twilight flailed around desperately, “Oh, don't worry, I'll give you your voice back, but right now all that I really actually want is just a cheese sandwich, in fact I wish for a cheese sandwich right now…”
Suddenly there was a knock at the door, “Come in!” Starlight said.
There, right in front of them was a delivery pony, “Uh, I have a delivery for a Starlight Glimmer?” the stallion said.
“Yes, that would be me!” Starlight said going over to the stallion.
“That’ll be three bits please,” he said.
“Oh, yeah, I forgot to specify free, oh well, I learn, here you go,” she said handing the bits over, “Thank you very much.”
She went over and sat down and started to eat while Twilight flailed around desperately trying to tell her not to eat while they were in a library.
“Relax, I'll be careful,” she said taking a very large bit, “Besides, I think that it’s rather nice to not hear you, but if you plan to keep doing that then I just wish that you could take a hike…”
Suddenly starlight instantly regretted her words, uh-oh, she thought.
Twilight’s eyes lit up as she started to job outside the room and go to the nearest hiking trail. “Wait, stop!” Starlight said, but then she remembered the spell.
“I wish that you would stop already!”
Twilight did so, but then didn't move at all.
“Okay then, I wish that you could move around normally… and that you also had your voice back again,” Starlight said.
Suddenly Twilight could move around again and instantly started talking.
“Oh, thank goodness! I was starting to get worried that you would never do that, but anyhow please end the spell before you do any more harm.”
“Oh, come on Twilight, can't we have a little more fun to this?”
“No, we have to get back to work.”
Starlight sighed, “Fine then, I wish that the spell was broken, there, happy?”
“I don't know, try wishing for something.”
“I wish that I was married to Trixie.”
Twilight’s eyes lit up in shock, but nothing happened.
“Well, that was oddly specific.”
“Please don't ask,”
“Don't worry, I won't, but come now, we have a whole lot of books to clean up and if you had kept that spell you could have done a lot of damage.”
“Yeah, I guess that you’re right,” Starlight said as they started to work again.
“Yeah, I guess it’s true for what they say after all.
Be very careful of what you wish for.”