A strange magic

“Root of Honesty?” He asked, stunned. His eyes darted between the hologram and the root. It did look like a root, albeit one of pure crystal. “Is this connected to the Tree of Harmony?”

“Sure is partner," Hologram Applejack replied. "There's one for each of the elements. All that there magic that fuels each element flows through these here roots. Honesty for this one, an' there's one for the other six too.”

“Huh, neat,” Spike said, not quite sure what else to say. “Maybe I should show the others this place."

"I'd think you'd want to hold off on that, partner. This place ain't no tourist destination," The hologram answered. "By being the first to arrive here you’ve been granted a special magic power.”

"Err, I have?" Spike asked, looking at his hands. Now that she mentioned it, he felt a little tingly, like a spell had been cast on him. It was so subtle that he hadn’t noticed it. “It’s not dangerous, is it?”

“Well, that depends on how you use it,” The hologram replied, then she pointed to the gem bag. “Hey, how 'bout I show you? I see that gem bag of yours is lookin' a little light.”

"Huh?" Spike looked to his bag. "Oh yeah, I guess so. I haven't had much luck finding gems.”

The hologram smiled. “Then why don’t I help with that? Ask me if that bag is filled with top quality rare gems.”

“Err, why? It’s clearly half empty."

"Just trust me."

Spike shrugged, and sarcastically asked "Is my bag filled with top quality rare gems?"

"Yes," the hologram replied and suddenly, Spike felt his bag get much heavier. Peeking down at his bag, he saw it was now weighed down by a ton of mouth-wateringly expensive gems.

“How?” He gasped, eyes darting between the bag and the hologram.

“It’s the magic. Now Spike, listen here 'cause I reckon what I’m about to tell you is the most important thing you'll hear in your life. From this point forward, every yes or no question will be answered with a hearty ‘yes’ and it’ll be the truth, even if reality must change to make it so.”

“What?!” Spike shouted, dropping his bag of gems. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”

“Sure do, partner. Even before you asked that question, I knew. With one question, you could make yourself king of Equestria, or you could cause a disaster. But don’t be too scared, whenever you screw up, you can just ask a different question to fix it," the hologram suggested, calming Spike a tad.

“Can’t I just get rid of it? Perhaps if I asked… Erm...” He said, struggling to word the precise question he needed.

“Fraid not, buddy. Only thing it can't affect is itself or the root, since it's the source of power. But hey, no one says you need to be selfish about this. Maybe make some of your friends' dreams come true?”

Spike’s mind thought to Rarity, with her gorgeous purple mane, generous spirit, and hard-working attitude. She was so ambitious and dedicated and Spike would love nothing more than to make her every dream come true. He could imagine her face of delight as he treated her like the princess she was.

"Will ponies be a- no, wait... What will happen to the memories of the ponies after I ask a question?" Spike asked, being careful to word his question right.

"Nice catch there, partner. Now don't y'all worry, they won't remember there being any difference unless you ask them whether they'd notice a difference."

'Okay let’s see how this goes,' he thought to himself. "Er, do you know the way back to Ponyville?"

"I do now, but you're not exactly taking full advantage of your power there, are you?"

Spike thought about it. "Is there a shortcut back to Ponyville?"

"Just take a little left near the boulder."

Spike nodded and made his way back to Ponyville, finding the trip back unnaturally short.

"Okay, let's do this."