The Change You Wish to See

A quaint old well, a shiny coin, the first star of the evening: all harbingers of good luck and happy wishes. But lately, several ponies can’t even remember making wishes. They certainly wouldn’t have wished for this.

Takes place before “Magical Mystery Cure.”

Got the last of the finalist spots (and most controversial!) in the write-off event “Deal with the Devil.”

Featured on Equestria Daily.

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Comments ( 8 )

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MixMassBasher

MixMassBasher #1 · Oct 3rd, 2019 · 1 · ·

This is a great story. It hones in on how to be careful what you wish for.

And the part where everyone keeps saying thank goodness for Pinkie. Hinted that she might've been the cause to me. Not the one to save everyone.

Though I wonder what happened to the morning star at the end. Is it the case of unwishing every wish prior by making the morning star not meet Fluttershy.

Kinda reminds me of Penstrokes story Fluttershy's Wishes.

Pascoite

Pascoite #2 · Oct 3rd, 2019 · 1 · ·

9863554
The morning star got its wish, just as Pinkie wanted it to. It's the new evening star. And yes, by doing so, it never granted Fluttershy's wish or any other's.

Powderjaggy

Powderjaggy #3 · Oct 4th, 2019 · · ·

Took me a few rereads of the last part for all the pieces to fall into place, but when they did... wow, what a lovely story. Great use of the characters and the ending left me with quite a mixture of emotions despite the ostensibly positive outcome. Can absolutely see what you meant in your blog post about granting consequences to the nullified timeline, seeing as the happy ending wouldn't have occurred—at least not in this way—without branching down that other one first. Thank goodness for Pinkie indeed.

Powderjaggy

Powderjaggy #4 · Oct 9th, 2019 · · ·

Some stray musings:

It's established that the morning star altered its speech patterns to mirror whoever it was addressing. I assume it changed its voice as well, as using Fluttershy's regular voice from the start would have been an instant giveaway to her friends.
One thing that still feels vague to me is the connection between the moon and the wishes. I'd thought that nothing bad happened to Spike's wish because his motive was explicitly altruistic, but the morning star rejects his first wish that would have near certainly been viewed as selfish and seems to indicate the state of the moon as the reason it didn't grant the first wish. Does it just happen to twist wishes only when the moon is obscured?
How much of Fluttershy was left when she became/fused with the morning star? The star seemed to speak entirely from its perspective once it was exposed, but it does slip up with the "one year older" line, hinting that there's still a little bit of Fluttershy in there.

Pascoite

Pascoite #5 · Oct 9th, 2019 · 1 · ·

9873984
Yes, her voice sounds different, and in a couple of instances, I did explicitly describe it as something that wouldn't fit Fluttershy.

This isn't the first time I've used a conceit that there's wisdom in children's rhymes. Maybe that just happened to be accurate lore, but the star might have chosen that as a constraint. It was listening at the beginning when some children sang it. So when the moon's out, it won't twist a wish, but it can't give a very powerful one either, as in its inability to give Spike a rare comic.

Not much of Fluttershy was left. She certainly didn't buy in to this scheme. Her mental slip was more due to a moment of inattention on the star's behalf. Its claim that Fluttershy was still largely present was more of a way to try needling the girls even more.

I appreciate you reading!

Powderjaggy

Powderjaggy #6 · Oct 10th, 2019 · · ·

9874770
Thanks for the answers! Do you think the star would have twisted Spike's ice cream wish had he made it on a dark night? I got the impression that it viewed his wish more positively than it did for the others, independent of its wish-granting constraints.

Pascoite