Be Careful What You Wish For (ATTN:Steeleagle)

[Pretzelparty]

 

 

The palace in ponyville was truly a marvel to behold. He'd seen pictures of it in Newspaper's in Canterlot, but being so close and in person now lended a certain presence to the structure that couldn't be replicated in an image. Before him were the mysterious crystalline arches and a soothing faint hum in the air. To his senses he could also smell the comforting scent of the force that so deeply filled this place. It was a scent that brought up a feeling of contentment and safety. Probably something like scented candles were supposed to. 

 

It was still hard to believe he'd been able to get in here legitimately. 

 

He had been passing by the Canterlot Magic School and heard some announcer telling a large group of students and faculty about Princess Twilight's difficulty in analyzing some mysterious relic. Hogo-sha had been curious about ancient relics for a very long time. Most of the ones he were familiar with were more, eastern in nature than many of the ones in Equestria, but the announcer's description of the object made his ears perk: A glowing green Ovoid jewel, perfectly smooth and prone to giving soothing whispers to the one who held it. He'd heard of such an object before! The Chintamaney stone. 

With some help a letter of his managed to reach the princess. So here he was. In the castle of a newly established princess in a foreign land, head full of knowledge he was happy to share. If he could add this to his memoirs one day it will surely make his legend all the sweeter! He knew he would have to be on his best behavior. So once he arrived at a large door in the castle he spoke kindly to the guard.

"Excuse me, Sir. I am Hogo-sha and I believe I have been scheduled to meet with Princess Twilight about a peculiar relic in her care."

 

 

 

 

 

[SteelEagle]

                                                                                      

 

Twilight was at her wit's end. 
It was an accomplishment because of the many things she had in her life an abundance of wits was often at the forefront of her accounting.
 

It had started several weeks ago when an expedition in the ____ mountains of the Crystal Empire turned up some ancient artifacts. As per usual they immediately came to Twilight who, despite ruling all of Equestria, never stopped herself from experimenting with what new discoveries had the possibility of shaking the world of magic up. Most of the artifacts wre readily identifiable. Enchanted weapons belonging to several cultures. Divining Rods of Pre-Equestrian ponies. Aetheric holding devices. Some of them were more esoteric and required a degree of experimentation, ending with the blank waters of Neighpon- a dangerous substance that wiped personality and memory from a target. Spike had a very close call with that. As she experimented and cataloged the items it became clear that what they had stumbled into was some sort of high-level security vault or collector's room with little in the way of organization or theme. Kind of like the Royal Archives before Twilight went to work on them! 
 

Yet one item remained. 

It was a stone. A simple oblong stone with ancient carvings in it that not even she could identify- and the pile of books she read as she tried to do so spoke to the vastness of that effort. It thrummed with powerful magic. A foreign magic, detached even from the aetheric flow of normal magic that existed across the world. She tried for hours, then days, to penetrate its secrets, yet the dozens of spells and artifacts she used all delivered her nothing but failure and hornache. Yet she continued. Day after day, spell list after spell list, until all she could do was bitterly admit that she was incapable of solving this message. She knew it had to be special. After all, it had been found in a class case at the very center of the room it had been found in, but with no documentation. It was strange and annoying and driving her mad.

 

So she sought help. She sent out a missive to all places of magical learning or interest, and displayed notices across the nation and around embassies internationally. One by one and then five by five, creatures from across the world came to inspect the artifact. Most did a few simple spells or potions, failed, and moved on. Others tried to con her- she saw through them. One strange kirin even tried to eat it, thinking it needed stomach acids to activate. Twilight would ensure she got the help she very clearly needed. One by one and five by five they failed. Hour after hour and day after day passed without success. Twilight lost her excitement after a while, and was left with the stubborn need to succeed at cataloging this damnable artifact.

 

"Next," she said with only a faint hope that the next expert could help solve this problem. She sat on her throne, bored, one hoof holding her head up with the artifact laying on the table at the base of her throne. Hopefully the next individual to take a crack could provide something, anything, to get her excited again!

[Pretzelparty]

 

The Door to the throne room soon stirred and out poked the head of a what seemed to be a well put together Diamond Dog. He walked slowly up to the table with the artifact, eyes widening at the sight of the relic. Not wanting to breach any etiquette, Hogo-sha bowed deeply to the princess. "Good Afternoon, Princess Twilight. My name is Hogo-sha and I came from the mountains of Neighpon." after straightening himself  back out he continued on, "I am a traveler with no recognition from academic institutions... but I have educated myself on many myths and stories from my homeland and beyond it in the east. I believe. At the very heart of my being, that this is the Chintamaney stone." 

He gave a moment to let the name sink in before speaking up once again, "... The short answer to what you wish to know, is that is a stone that can grant wishes to any who holds it. It was originally a combined effort by an ancient sect of monks of the harmonious path, formed from both Neighpon and Long Guo to create a faster method to attain harmony. Some texts speak of wishing to gain a kirin or longma form of ascension in the way of..." He gestures towards her wings. "I have nothing but speculation to back this up... but I think that the reason you are having such difficulty activating it may be because you have already gotten so close to achieving perfect harmony or at least are quickly on the way to it. If I may approach it?" 

 

The 'dog' took a step closer and sniffed a few times at the air. Hm... it was strange. This item's magical scent was both present and absent, "Hmm... curious. I'd heard stories that they may have used the blessings of ancient yokai, hoping that our mythic connection to the one you call Discord would be able to grant them a way to give the jewel a link to a realm beyond to fuel its potent magic." Hogo-sha's knowledge came from a bevy of tomes and parchments he'd read. He'd snuck into many places of learning before to try and get a look at leads on artifacts before. He also had the advantage of being raised by one of the oldest yokai in Neighpon who had many stories he loved to share, for better or worse. 

[SteelEagle]

                                                                                           


Twilight listened to the honorable Hoga-sha. She was aware of him, more so than other yokai. And what he said made a lot of sense as she started to put the pieces together. Why they had failed. Why she had failed. Her ignorance of all the possibilities came crashing down not as disappointment, but relief.

"The Chintamaney stone! Of course. How foalish of me!" She said with earnest joy, jumping out of the throne and towards the stone, circling it- and by extension, Hogo-sha. 
"Now it makes sense. Equestrian aetheric displacement can't have an impact on the stones since the stones are what we refer to as artificer magic, or made magic. Once you isolate the aetheric principles behind auric displacement and separate it, you can create a feedback loop. Issue is, Equestrian magic- indeed, most known magic- can't violate Starswirl's Sixth Law of Magic. But you can! Haha, it all makes sense! Finally! THANK YOU!" She laughed half-maniacally, hugging Hogo-sha. After a moment she realized how uncouth it was, and stood back, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Ohh, uhh- sorry about that. A pleasure to meet you, Honorable Hogo-sha, and feel free to approach it. I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, and I thank you for your help. Spike, announce that the problem has been solved. Bits and papers of travel to those who had hardship or expense getting here," she said with a gracious bow before turning back to the artifact.

"So, this works off of the Harmonic Principle. Very interesting. I wonder why they would feel the need to create such a thing for such a purpose? Then again, I suppose we did have the Elements of Harmomy so it can't be that strange," she asked, lost in thought. "Wishes, you say. Hmm..." She tapped her chin, then gave a half-frown. "I never trust something that makes such a claim. You rarely get something for nothing and you never get gains without loss. Especially something tied in with Discord. he is a fan of irony, after all. What else do the legends say?"

[Pretzelparty]

 

 

Of all the things Hogo-sha expected to receive from this endeavor, a hug from a princess was something he surely did not expect. He definitely wasn't prepared for it, but being able to grant somepony such a relief was worth the slight discomfort. The traveling wolf's unease wasn't from the embrace. It was actually from the intense magical scent that he could feel coming off the princess in waves. He could feel his nose starting to twitch... Thankfully, Twilight let him go not long after the contact. After a quick rub of his snout he smiled at her and bowed forward, "You are very much welcome, Princess Twilight. I'm glad to be of assistance."

 

"I can understand how stressful it can be to stress over an artifact's purpose."With a pleasant chuckle he would pat the side of his bags, "I once carried an object in my youth I was so sure was a relic because of how saturated in the magical scent it was... I had it for five years until someone told me it was a practice target at a Neighponese magic school and didn't do anything at all." He heaved a sigh, so much time wasted on that silly bauble. At least he had plenty of time to think about other relics. 

 

From her previous remark about him being able to break Starswirl's sixth law, Hogo-sha figured that Twilight must have already been informed of his nature. In a flash of harmless electrical magic patterns he strolled up to the stone.  He looked over it from a few angles first, "Well, from what the tales told... It will grant you a wish, but only a wish that gives you the chance to attain a form of Harmony based upon your request. So... Say, a pony wishes for a cure to an illness that overtakes his hometown: this is one of the stories. The stone gives him the power ot never catch a cold again... But he has to find a magical flower that only blooms once in a century. The story goes he went to seek this flower of myth with a clue that the stone granted him, when he reaches it he finds the it belongs to a strange group of tiny equine. He takes the flower, driven by his desire for fame. However he soon finds himself shrunken down. It turns out his task was to know the small creatures living around the flower as they knew the cure to the illness... in taking this flower so greedily he fails to attain a form of harmony by letting a drive for fame overcome his willingness to learn from an unexpected source. Now he lives among the tiny ponies to learn the humility he lacked... and his village finds itself miraculously cured."

 

 

[SteelEagle]

                                                                                  


The story told to Twilight shared the same rhythm as any number of cautionary tales told about spells, artifacts, potions and charms throughout time. The eager but flawed hero forgetting himself at the moment of truth and paying the price. It certainly spoke to the sort of attention to detail that such powerful magics required one to adhere to if they wanted to properly understand and respect the magic that such items held. It was also a useful trope in tales that were passed from mother t son, father to daughter, across the ages. Of course as ponies in the modern era found out, tales as old as time could sometimes have the resonance of time itself and prove themselves very prickly concerns in real life.

 

"Ahh, the classic Rakshasa ploy. The wish is granted at a cost, often a lesson, almost universally with great irony. Many cultures share similar stories. It speaks to the universality of the concept, as well as no shortage of the truth. It may be easy to dismiss such stories on their face but we live in a world of powerful, boundless magic. Is it so strange to think that such stories hold a kernel of truth, if not all the time, at least some of it? After all, the Breezies are a mostly unknown species. Always possible they are the pegasi-types of their land," she pondered as she circles around both the artifact and her guest in equal measure, styding both.

She smiled. Time to focus on what this artifact was capable of!

 

"So, let us see. It requires you to activate it. And a wish, it seems? So the real question is, what do you wish for?"

[Pretzelparty]

 

 

Hogosha didn't have to think long about that, "... That's easy. I wish to be able to step out of my father's shadow and get past every one of his faults I have inherited." The things that Hogo-sha could say he disliked about his father could go on for quite a while. That air of casual calmness, his insistence of acting like some yokel fresh out of the mountain,  his refusal to use his power and his territory in the mountains to bring any sort of fame ot the family. Most importantly his inability to track down even one of his own children.  No wolf such as him should have any fame in Neighpon's long and complicated folklore. 

The stone began to emit a faint glow from behind the wolf... Something that Hogo-sha picked up on. He glanced back at it as a it bathed him in some strange light across his body... no changes yet. To the trained eye it may seem as if the stone was searching him.  There was a bit to uncover with this dog it seemed. 

"I believe this is the beginning stage of the granting part..." The wolf leaned in and narrowed his eyes at the device, "... this is so exciting!" He said with a wag of his tail. 

Analysis revealed a few issues with this Wish seeker on the stone's part. It sensed an abundance of pride,  a hint of bitterness, and an nearly immovable stubborness.  Hogo-sha's desire to get past his father's faults could be granted... maybe not in the way he wanted, but it could. It could tell what he ultimately wanted to gain of this wish: to be a figure of prestige and respect of his kind. To be able to protect all that he cared for with every fiber of his being. Such aspirations could be admirable, but just as easily be twisted and guide someone down very dangerous paths. If he sought to achieve his goal, he'd need to achieve inner harmony.

 

Shadows returned as the glow in the stone faltered. Then returned in an incredibly spectacular fashion.

It was blinding, filling the room and making the shadows cast by everything in the room so much darker... before returning to normal. When Twilight's eyes adjusted once again she would find her guest looking... very different.  The glow and lightning arcs across his fur were now an electric blue rather than yellow. His muzzle had thinned out... the billowing nature of his mane became a little less wild but somehow more messy.  

 

Spoiler

 

 

"Oooooooo...  By the ancestors you can shout." The new voice called out with an annoyed tone, "If you'd calm down a second I can probably set you strai- Okay, that is just rude. Keep up that tone and we'll stay this way all day!" Whatever happened, this new okami in the throne room seemed unimpressed... also much less proper. As the stranger scratched behind her ear like a certain canine down at the Apple farm, her eyes soon fell upon the alicorn. Once she got the itch, she stretched herself out without a care and offered her paw to the princess, "Nice to meet you, Kanshi-in. The old guy's being a spoiled pup about this so I hope you don't mind if I take the helm a while."

Edited October 23, 2019 by Pretzelparty

[SteelEagle]

                                                                                   


Twilight watched with an even, satiated expression as the process unfolded. Her eyes would glow a certain shade of white as she cast her own aetherical sense so she could more accurately piece together the minutia of the mechanics behind the process. She shouldn't have bothered doing so. It was a mess, though one she properly understood. The granting of wishes and the taking of something in return were what was dubbed in Equestrian circles as Acute Auric Transferance. The magical energy given as part of the wish granting was, in all actuality, no greater than the energy it took from the subject. It was reshaped and reforged and given new life, but the mechanically exchange was nothing too untoward. It was still fascinating to discover that even with such strange artifacts and foreign methods that the basic laws of exchange still worked out.

 

She was so wrapped up in minutia that she almost missed the bigger picture. Aetherically it as a flash, but the flash was for show. It was like watching two souls formed out of one, and then an auric rearrangement to give one prominence under conditions. And in this case it was a female Okami, a rather more excitable and feral version of the proper masculine warrior who had entered earlier, who made her presence well known. It made sense, did it not? Beings of great magical power could easily power incredible feats of transferative prowess. The evidence was right in front of her. She took a deep breath and approached. "Kanshi-in, a pleasure. I am Princess Twilight Sparkle- or do you already know? Are you him, or are you new?" Twilight asked as she took the paw, looking her over. She could only wonder why she was so feral-minded though, so canine. Was there a difference between the female and male Okami? Did the aether have an impact? Her mind ran with questions but she couldn't really ask them, at least as easily as she wanted.

[Pretzelparty]

 

 

"I'm all caught up, Don't worry about it... still, though nice to meet ya!" The wolf winced and her ears perked as if someone got off a very cutting remark, "To answer your other questions though, I'm myself and what the dog you knew could have been. Hogo-sha's a bit annoyed at the moment and he can actually hear you as I hear you!" Kanshi-in shook the princess's hoof, the okami was definitely a strong one. Seemed a tad excited too. "So... accordin' to the stone I'm supposed to stick to this fella and help him grow past his flaws whatever they may be." 

 

Kanshi-in looked around the room and marveled at the architecture, "This place is so fancy! I grew up on the mountains like this guy did, or at least I have memories of it. I wonder if the rest of the family knows... " She thought aloud as she began wandering around the room, sniffing curiously at the air.  "This place smells incredible... So much magic in the air." She looked back to twilight, "I've got answers if you've got questions! Well, most answers at least." 

[SteelEagle]

                                                                                 


So many questions ran through Twilight's mind. This creature was still mysterious to her. 'was what he could be' didn't resolve matters either. Did she always live within him or was she a creation of the magical effect of the artifact? Twilight's mind raced as did her hoof after the firm and energetic shaking that sent her foreleg wobbling about without her control for a few moments longer until she caught it with her other leg and brought it down. She was a very powerful creature as well. Very friendly, very powerful, and endlessly curious. Now this was the type of okami she could get behind! Of course it sounded like the guest who had made his way inside was still in there and aware. That was a little less than exciting, and meant it was a state of affairs that could not last forever.

 

"This is my castle, in the capital of Equestria- Canterlot. Home to a School of Magic and many unicorns, so that would help explain all the magic you are sensing," Twilight giggled lightly as she swept her leg around. "And the castle itself is home to many magical artifacts and spells used to help with upkeep and defense. Depending on how strong your senses are, I could always tone it down if it becomes distracting or a problem for you," the Princess offered as a small notebook and quill appeared off to her side.

 

It was time for questions.

"So, you say you are what he could have been. What does that mean, exactly? Are you pulled from a slightly different universe, a timeline, or a recreation of what te artifact thinks he could have been? Is the implication that he was always going to act the way he does, and you are always going to act the way you do, and only in different forms are these reflected? You say he can hear us, and this implies you are both different personalities and consciousnesses. Have you always been there, buried, or were just birthed from the artifact? And how does 'control' flip?" She asked breathlessly, her mind racing with the implications of the transformation in front of her.