-The Ardent Survivor, Gene’s room, Gene-
Flotsam had returned and gave me the lamp, I had my idea for three wishes and I looked at Evoker who seemed to stare after Flotsam.
“So… I know one of the wishes she made, what were the other two?” I leaned against the railing and looked at the jungle below, Jacky was flying us south to get a closer look at the ruins Flotsam saw.
“To know a story about a king who rose above it all, much to his detriment really.” Evoker had a small knowing smile on his face. “The other was the chance for all genies to be free of captivity with the caveat that we’ll be held accountable for how we use any magic from then on. Quite prudent considering that our magic can get almost close to being as chaotic as Discord has been known to be.”
“You’re being surprisingly friendly now, especially considering you were rather grumpy with Savannah sitting on her wished for a while and quite impatient with the rest of us after.” I scrutinized his smile slightly. “What changed?”
“I’ve finally figured out that I’ve been a bit rash and would like us to be… friends.” He rubbed at his right elbow while looking to the deck, it sounded like it was hard for him to admit that he wanted friends. Maries really got to him, having a single friend can change anyone’s worldview. “I would like to formally apologize for my attitude.”
“Look, your attitude might have been lousy, but we’re not going to hold that against you if you’re being sincere here and it’s kind of understandable that you’d be sour about how your life is going. That said, I would like to make my wishes now please.” I figured I could be polite to him, he is after all going to be doing me some huge favors. “I’ll make it quick and then I’ll give you over to Jacky for her last two wishes, but I would also like to call you my friend since your already Flotsam’s friend. Let me formally introduce myself, I’m Gene Eric.”
“Hello Gene, your ability to express your emotions is always a bit, shall we say, lacking?” He gave me a curious look. “I don’t think you’re going to make a wish to change that, so what will you actually wish for?”
“Many would say that I’m not much of a griffon because I’m not greedy and or full of myself with pride, griffons don’t actually have a lot to be really prideful about actually. Those that do miss the points where I am truly a griffon at heart, they should be quite wary of me.” I started off, a small grin came to my beak. One of the few times I’ve ever really showed an emotion. “As such, I am not above revenge and or getting back at those who hurt my friends or loved ones for very little reason. Twist the wishes coming to you as you will, because if you can suggest worse I’m willing to hear it. Which is why I’m asking for your given expertise in this.”
“You have my attention, go on.” He raised a brow at me in clear curiosity, I pulled out a sheet of paper and he looked over my first two wishes. “I believe we may be able to come to something of an accord here.”
“Got any suggestions?” The grin and chuckle I received was telling.
“I’m glad you asked.” He conjured a pair of glasses out of nothing put them to his face as he looked over my first wish. “Your first wish is a bit juvenile, but it is completely sound. I would add to it by stating that the targets see nothing as wrong with what is happening to them and add a description to the wish to watch it as it happens. Will it be a temporary thing or is it going to be permanent.”
“I don’t want to kill the guy with concussions, so let’s go with temporary.” Killing was not something I would ever do lightly, I had a sense of morality and would never want to go overboard or that far. That and there were far worse things than death. “That said, I wish that Teatime Clockwork…”
-Mare-akkech, Teatime Clockwork-
I was sitting down to have a spot of tea with one of my associates in a building, a bright grey furred and dark haired earth pony with steely green eyes named Iron Glee.
This was a nice place to get some supplies from and Iron Glee knew how to forge the parts that I needed for my biggest project yet.
After taking a sip of my tea, I had this most oddest of urges.
I held my left hoof up and curled it, then I thrust it straight at my face with a vigorous enthusiasm. Admittedly it was a little odd for me to do this, but I couldn’t think of a reason why I shouldn’t.
“Now why did you go and do that?” Getting confused at what Iron Glee meant, I just had to ask.
“Do what?” I queried confused. Sure my cheek was a little bruised, but I was okay with that.
“This.” He stood up and sent his right hoof colliding with the left side of my face, my world exploded in quite a bit of pain. I eventually found myself sprawled out on the floor, but I was otherwise alright with having my face used as a cleaning towel for his hoof.
“That’s not what I did, I did this but with my left hoof.” I curled my right hoof and smashed it against my face making myself quite dizzy and I believe my nose was dripping blood, this was quite painful and I was only going to explain this to him once. “This is what you did.”
I grabbed his left hoof and forced my face into it. The pain was quite excruciating, but my actions made clear sense as I had to explain to him the difference
“I made you smash your face on my left hoof?” Iron Glee sounded confused.
“No you smashed my face with your right hoof. I just happened to smash my face into the left as a demonstration, but with more momentum on your part.” I likely now had the imprint of a hoof on my forehead, but it was worth it to teach this individual what was what here. “I say, the room is spinning quite thoroughly. Do you think it’s the multiple bruises or the blood loss?”
“Maybe a bit of both and the head injuries.” He giggled out a bit.
My word, getting hit in the head hurt quite a bit.
“Quite, what were we doing again?” We sat down for tea, we were about to discuss his services and then I just felt like putting my hoof to my face. Like right now for instance.
“Discussing why you did this.” He clobbered me with a good right hook, which sent me flailing to the floor and spilling piping hot teat all over my unmentionables. I was in so much pain right now, but I had to persevere as I had asked him.
“No what I did was this.” I thrust my own hoof towards my forehead with all of my strength.
-Later at a hospital-
“Excuse me nurse, but could you beat me within an inch of my life?” The nurse rolled her eyes at me.
“Sure, but it’ll cost you extra.” I gave it a lot of thought, did I want to be pummeled unceremoniously by a nurse.
“Yes, please do, at your earliest convenience even!” She leapt upon me and started pummeling my face black and blue, she stopped when the doctor arrived.
“Stop, stop that right this instant!” The nurse pause and looked to the doctor that rushed in. “Did he actually ask for the masochist package? Also does he have insurance?”
“Yes.” The nurse pony said calmly. “To both of those.”
“Well then, you may carry on, but I can’t let you keep bashing him in the skull like that. As a doctor, I would like to say that this is quite unhealthy for him.” The doctor looked particularly proud of himself. “No more head injuries nurse, the poor guy can’t take much more of those. Start hitting his chest and barrel instead. No broken bones though, they changed the policy on that recently and we can only do heavy bruising and minor bleeding now. When you think he’s just about had it, we will knock him out with a right painful smash to his sheathe and I’ll even hold his legs open for you. Most of these kinds of stallions enjoy that for some weird reason, what strange ponies these masochists are.”
“I miss being able to wear the maid outfits.” The nurse whined.
“Yes, yes, I too miss the ability to wear my sailor’s outfit, but rules are rules you know! No more casual dress during work hours.” The doctor stated while waving a hoof in the air. “We must have at least some sense of decorum and we must be properly clothed for our work, we are medical professionals after all.”
The nurse went back to beating me black and blue, but she avoided hitting me in the head at least. These people were really quite nice about everything and I hadn’t the heart to tell them I wasn’t a masochist.
I had actually asked for this, so I can’t really say I blame them for thinking that.
-The Ardent Survivor, Gene-
“Okay what do you think for my second wish?” I asked after seeing Teatime knock himself out while with his friend.
“Good, but if you want karmic retribution, then may I tell you a few of my ideas?” It looked like Evoker and I would be good friends.
“Sure, I really want to get the most out of this one.” My second wish was going to be for the assassin that went after Jade.
-Horsolulu beach front, Obelus-
Ah, this was the life! Sipping mango juice and just relaxing on a sandy beach in warm weather,
It felt like my vacation could go on forever with all the money I had made. Suddenly something placed a shadow over me. I opened my eye, the other one had an eyepatch ever since my altercation with that Abyssinian, and looked to see if it was some idiot that thought they could take me.
All I saw was a single cloud hovering above me.
Today was supposed to be a completely clear sky and there weren’t supposed to be any…
The cloud discharged lightning into me and it barely gave me any time to recover from that, because it soon started firing pointy shards of hail in my direction seconds later that shredded my beach blanket.
I tried to run from the odd weather phenomenon, but it was actively giving chase to me!
I’m starting to think I really shouldn’t have hit on that one Pegasus stallion’s sister.
-The Ardent Survivor, Gene-
“Yeah, that should do it.” I nodded to Evoker and he smiled back at me fondly.
You never know when someone will get a genie, so never be cruel to anyone in life or else they may just get revenge in the most horrible way possible if they ever get one good wish off on you.
“I think I actually enjoyed granting that one.” Evoker state cheerfully. “What’s your final wish Gene?”
“Please, call me Generic. As for my final wish…” I had to think on this one, I could feel the ship settling against the ground. Looks like Jacky found a good landing spot near the ruins Flotsam spotted. I think I had a good wish. “I wish that we can eventually make modifications to The Ardent Survivor successfully without ruining any of the woods current durability or the ship current ability to function as a whole.”
“That seems fair for a final wish and I’ll surely grant it, but what kind of modifications do you plan on making?” All Evoker would receive from me is a faint smile, he raised a hand and the magic filtered into the ship. “You can now make changes to the ship without ruining its structural integrity, you’ll know how to do so once you figure out what it is you want to change about the ship.”
“Eh, Jacky has been studying some golems and she’s been getting ideas about making something, so I figured that she might want to change some things about the ship.” She’d now be capable of doing that without ruining the ship. I got up and left my room to go give the lamp to Jacky to finish off our remaining wishes.
As we got onto the deck, Flotsam came over to us while closing her book.
“Hey Evoker, getting those final two wishes out? Jacky says she already knows the wishes she wants to make.” Flotsam said cheerfully as Jacky came over after having deflated the balloon, I could look off the side of the ship and see the ruins that Flotsam spotted.
“Yes, I am Flotsam.” Evoker looked around at all of us as I gave the lamp over to Jacky’s talons. “I would like to apologize for my behavior towards all of you and thank you for being so friendly. I would also like to thank you for that wish Maries.”
“You’re welcome.” They all stated in unison.
“My second wish is this, I wish to know exactly what you will eventually do if I wished for your freedom.” Jacky looked into Evoker’s eyes and he simply held up his left hand and snapped his fingers, no smile or frown present on his face. Jacky stared off into the distance for a few seconds before gaining a small smile. “Well now… that’s interesting…”
“What’s interesting?” Flotsam asked as she looked to Jacky with some worry. “He’s not going to go on rampage is he?”
“Evoker, I can’t make my last wish yet.” Okay, what did Jacky know that we didn’t that cause her to have that reaction? “Maries, Flotsam needs to finish signing that document before I can make my final wish or else she could get stuck with us.”
“Of course, we have the paperwork right here.” Mara produced the paperwork in her paw, had Flotsam sign the last bit of it and then they suddenly disappeared.
They probably went back to Canterlot to file the paperwork and make it official.
“Okay, now I can make my final wish. Evoker, I wish that you were free of that which binds you.” The manacles on Evoker’s arms shattered into bits of light and a magical torrent surrounded Evoker until he stopped having a ghostly tail. He certainly looked like a centaur now.
“Thank you, it’s been so long since I’ve felt my four hooves. I’ve got some things to go see and do with my newly found freedom, I hope you understand.” The centaur held up a hand. “I can't thank you enough for that wish Captain Blackcap.”
“Goodbye Evoker.” Flotsam calmly stated.
“Goodbye Flotsam, Generic, I hope we shall meet again and that I get the chance to actually know all of you properly when we do.” With a snap, Evoker also disappeared.
“Okay, let’s go hunt for this ‘book of curses’ in those ruins!” Jacky was already at the gangplank.
It seemed everyone was eager for trouble, as we all followed after our captain.