A young mare was trotting through the library of her home, a huge grin present on her muzzle as a set of books levitated alongside her, held within a magenta field of telekinesis.
Finally she had found it, the very foundation of a form of magic that the Princess had always forbidden her to use.
For months she had thought about where the books could be hidden and she had carefully searched through the whole library without raising suspicion.
Ever since she had heard about these tomes she had been obsessed with them and she had gone through nearly every book she could find and after days of reading tome after tome and looking around. She found these last few books hidden in the bedchambers of the Princess herself!
With this new form of art she could tap into the very power of probability and what ifs. Wild Magic it was called, and already her firm grasp on arcane power channeled her magic in this new art for the very first time.
It wasn’t as easy as she hoped, the surge almost tearing itself out of control as more of the filly’s mana reserves channeled their contents in a desperate way of trying to control magic that could not be controlled.
Her horn ignited with even more power as she channeled everything she could give, and with a burst of the uncontrolled magic there was now a cactus standing right in front of her.
She stared at it for a moment, all this power of chance and chaotic magic had given her a cactus? A frown made it’s way to her face as she just could not believe that of the thousands upon thousands of outcomes a cactus was the end result for all her efforts.
Had she cast the spell wrong? No, magic ran in her very bloodline. Nopony had ever been poor at casting spells in the Sparkle family, it was a trait that most if not all of it’s members shared. And the filly was already known to become a mighty magus one day.
Then why had the outcome been among the more lowly possibilities? Had she fed the spell a too small amount of power? Or had she in one way or another held back?
She didn’t know the answer and it frustrated her greatly, but just as she was about to cast the spell again, a clear and stern voice made her halt. It was a voice that usually offered warmth and love, but if spoken in anger the voice commanded respect and obedience.
“Twilight! What are you doing?!” she was in so much trouble, the princess had returned far earlier than she had expected. And of course she knew what Twilight had been doing, she merely asked the question because she was too shocked or angry to say anything else.
“Did you take the very book I forbade you to use and actually cast it’s magic?” the Princess said with a scornful tone, staring down at her star pupil while said pupil hastily tried to hide the books under her robes and give the Princess an innocent smile.
“But mom!” Twilight Star started, seeing that her mother was not amused the act, or falling for it. “I cast the spell successfully! Even though the end result was merely a cactus this time, and thus maybe I can equal him in prowess eventually.”
“No buts young lady,” Princess Twilight Sparkle replied. “ You could have seriously hurt yourself! And besides, not even I can match him that easily in power. So I would think you would need a good few more years of studying yet if I allowed you to cast magic of that nature at all.”
Star huffed and looked up at her mother. “I saw you cast it without trouble or anything going wrong, so why can’t I? Surely it gets easier when I practice more?”
Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes and brought her face level with that of her daughter. “I am an Alicorn Princess sweetie, if anything went south I would have a far better chance of getting out of trouble unscathed.
“But mom I got this! You can’t take this away from me now! Please?” Star pleaded, thinking it so unfair of her mother to not even let her show that she could. Because she knew she was capable of so much more if her mother simply let her try!
“What you got is a one way trip to bed.” Twilight replied, “And do trust me that I will tell your father about you not only going into my room to take those tomes without permission, but also about you casting dangerous magic inside the castle again.”
The younger mare thought about something, but then nodded and cast her eyes down. “Yes Mother I am sorry.” then she dutifully headed towards her room. She had been disobedient yes, but she didn’t want to disappoint her mother even more if she could help it.
Later that night while Twilight Star lay asleep in her bed, a peculiar thing occurred in the corner of her room.
The very fabric of space seemed to tear open and a strange amalgam of various kinds of species stepped through the rift without a care in the world.
Discord, the spirit of chaos looked down upon the young unicorn and gave a gentle smile, which was quite rare for the draconequus.
He then leaned down and kissed his daughter tenderly on the forehead. Whispering more to himself than to her.
“Your mother is right you know? If I had not been who I am, and felt your attempt at tapping into my very source of power. You could have seriously hurt yourself.” Star stirred slightly but did not respond otherwise.
He caressed her still form and chuckled. “But even though you are far too young to even begin matching my strength, you at least dared to take the step and dabble in the magic of chaos. So I couldn’t be more proud of you my dear.” Then left a single tome on her nightstand. "Don't tell your mother."
And with that, Discord sunk through the floor. After all, there was still a cactus and an easily annoyed wife for him to have fun with. And unsurprisingly, not moments later a squeal sounded through the halls followed by an angry yelling Alicorn.
This didn’t wake the young magus that had been sent to her bedchambers however, her dreams kept her occupied with visions of rarely tapped power and spells that no mage cast without thinking twice.
And in her slumber Star also did not notice the brief but bright flash emanating from her flank, bathing the room in light for a single moment, she had finally found her destiny and was ready to follow the path she had chosen for herself even though she would not find out until the morning.
The whimsical but rewarding path of being Equestria’s very first Wild Mage.