Fairy Tales of Equestria

Garblestiltskin

Once upon a time in a kingdom far away, there was a miller who had a beautiful daughter named Starlight Glimmer. She was one of the smartest mares as well as the loveliest in all the land and everyone was friends with her. Starlight's mother was always proud of her and she would often boast about how wonderful and magnificent she was.

One day, the King's Prime Minister, a unicorn named Blueblood, was passing by the miller's home when he overheard the miller say:

"My daughter, Starlight Glimmer, spins so fine that she could even spin straw into gold!"

When Blueblood heard this, his interest was greatly peaked. So he immediately ran back to the castle to tell the King at once. The King was intrigued by this piece of news and he ordered Starlight to be brought to the castle at once. When she arrived at the castle, Starlight knelt before the King and Minister Blueblood. When she first saw the King, she immediately felt strong feelings of affection towards him. The King shared the emotion towards her. They stared deep into each other's eyes for a good few minutes of silence until the Prime Minister snapped them out of their trances.

"Ahem! Your Majesty!" Minister Blueblood said, clapping his hooves to get their attention.

"Oh, yes! Sorry. You're Starlight Glimmer?" The King asked.

"Yes, Your Majesty. I am Starlight Glimmer. Um, why did you ask to see me? Is something wrong?" The mare asked nervously.

"I've heard from a reliable source that you could spin straw into gold." The King replied. "I must know, how do you perform such a feat?"

"Straw into gold? I... I, uh... um..." Starlight stuttered; she didn't know what to say to that. She didn't want to get into trouble so she decided to improvise. "It's, uh... it's an old family secret, Your Majesty."

"Yes! And to prove it, this lovely filly going to spin us an entire room full of gold!" Minister Blueblood said, stepping forward.

"I am? Oh, yes! I am!" Starlight said, laughing nervously.

"Now come with me, my dear, so we can get you settled." Blueblood said as he levitated the mare off of the floor with his magic and took her away from the King.

So, that very night, Minister Blueblood took the terrified Starlight to a room filled with straw. But just before he locked the door to the room, he rudely sneered at her.

"Alright, missy, here's what we are going to do. If you spin all of this straw into gold by morning, you're free to go. Do you understand?" He asked.

"Uh... yes, I agree." Starlight said nervously.

"Very well. Oh! And by the way. If you can't do it, you and your mother... will be sentenced to death. And one more thing: you can't use magic to cheat your way out of this. Understand?"

"...Understood, Minster Blueblood."

"There's a good filly... Good luck!"

Minister Blueblood then shut the door with a deafening slam, locked it tight, and left Starlight to her task.

Starlight looked at the straw piled up in front of her and the spinning wheel sitting in the middle of the room with wide eyes. What was she going to do? Starlight knew her mother's foolish boasting had gotten her into this mess, but she also knew that she couldn't give up, so she decided to give it a try; she knew magic couldn't help her here. She tried her very best to spin the straw to gold, but after countless attempts she just couldn't do it. So she began to cry.

"Ugh, I'm never going to get this! I'd give anything to spin this into gold!" She yelled before bursting into tears.

Then she heard an unfamiliar male voice say, "Would you really give anything?"