//------------------------------// // Chapter forty-three, Wishing Wisely: Jumping over. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -The Ardent Survivor, one hour later, Maries- Genies were said to be enslaved beings as far as Gene could explain it to us, they get stuck in a lamp and are given incredible power to aid others who beckons them forth to grant wishes. Said genie could eventually be set free by a wish, but at the cost of a large loss of power as a result. Their incredible powers to grant wishes comes with the captivity of the lamp, once free they are slightly more capable than a unicorn and keep some of the power that was given to them in turn for their servitude. This Evoker wasn’t exactly endearing himself to anyone to be set free later and someone could make a wish that would be highly detrimental for him. We could be the ones to do that, we knew exactly the kind of wishes to say to make the rest of his existence go poorly. That we’d be getting some wishes out of this job is a nice bonus, but what to wish for? “So thanks to Nefer’s wish, we are well within our rights to respectfully demand that you fulfill the minor requirements of it by giving us the ability to actually help him.” We commented idly as one, then Marie added. “Mostly by getting the paperwork and the utensils needed to work on said paperwork Mr. Genie.” “Why should I bother giving you three what you need?” This Evoker wasn’t very bright for a genie and he didn’t’ seem very willing to be helpful, so we should spell it out for him. “If you don’t, then the wish never actually fully completes if we have to get some other lawyers not summoned by the wish in on it and you will still owe Nefer two wishes. Gene told us about that alongside the things you can and can’t do.” We were not idiots, that’s why we took the griffon off to the side to ask him a few questions about our client, the genie and the wish that was made to summon us before actually confronting the genie. Mara decided to growl out something to help this along. “Also if you don’t cooperate, we will start making wishes that will doom you forever.” “What possible wishes could you make that would be that horrible?” Oh you have no idea Evoker. We could do what we were about to tell him, but we were still only going to use three wishes. “Well for one, in theory we could wish that we were three separate entities giving us eight wishes to crush your very soul with and then use the ninth wish to return us to normal which would mean that we would still have the two remaining wishes we started with left. Of those two we would still have a wish for ourselves as one combined being and the ability to ultimately tear you apart with our final wish should we choose to.” That’s the opening explanation for what we as Maries could do and he didn’t seem too impressed quite yet. We were done explaining it to him and as such we continued on as one, there was no doubt between our three minds on what we could do to him. “Among the wishes, we’ll make sure one of them will be that you will immediately lose your powers upon someone making a wish to free you while they are in control of the lamp, therefore you’ll lose the magical power to grant any wishes with magic and will become stuck as a genie unable to ever actually become free of it. Not only that, you will still have to work towards fulfilling wishes. You’ll just have to do it without the magical genie powers you used to have for the rest of your existence and will actually have to break a sweat in life.” All three of us stared a furiously sweating Evoker down. “That sounds really mean though.” Our client Nefer was somewhat innocent kitten, we’d defend someone like him with our lives. “If he is an irredeemably bad person, would it really be so wrong?” Marie asked and Nefer seemed quite conflicted about it. “You are our client Nefer and you will have our services free for the rest of your life for the payment we’re getting out of this. It’s only fair to you since you’re paying us way too much up front, even if it is not necessarily money.” “We know the laws you are working under Evoker, so you are definitely asking for it with the attitude you are showing us.” Maria proclaimed to the completely pale Evoker. “We’re going to be the better beings here and not do any of that though, but any of us could if you get bad enough.” “So please… don’t tempt us into making the rest of your existence completely and endlessly miserable.” Maria followed up next to me huffing out a bit of flames and smoke. There was a bright fanged smile on Mara’s face as she continued. “We absolutely know how to do that.” “Right, the paperwork and utensils to do it with… do you want blue pens or black?” Evoker swallowed loudly and clamped his hands in front of himself while smiling weakly. The centaurs smiled was odd, but we’ve properly spooked him. -Another hour later, Jacky- We saw The Ardent Survivor come into view and I could have cried. “Did you have to use that poor pangolin as a shield again?” Sending a bland look to Savannah, I sighed and rubbed at my head. “Look, it was better than being hit with all that stuff and I’m not the only one that used a creature as a living shield.” Though I did leave behind a highly traumatized pangolin, I didn’t get hit by anything horrible personally and it wasn’t like I got it seriously hurt. Also, I left it next to an ant mound in the hopes to make up for my actions. “Hey, that jackass penguin had it coming to her!” We didn’t say anything about Flotsam’s defense or her resulting vicious slap fight with a jackass penguin after using it to block several unsavory things. “Gene we’re back, lower the ramp!” My first mate swiftly lowered the ramp and as I got up onto the deck, I saw some familiar faces. Bloody Maries to be exact, my possible sisters-in-law… ouch that double entendre. “Well there’s a sight I haven’t seen in a while, how are you three doing?” “A chi-… a chi-chi...” It seemed like Flotsam froze up upon seeing the chimera on the ship’s deck. She pointed her left hoof right at Maries. “Why is there a chimera on the ship?!” “Nefer made a wish.” Gene stated idly. “So Maries showed up to fulfill it, Maries say hello to Jade’s old kitten sitter Savannah and our favorite sea pony, Ms. Flotsam De Brie.” “I’m the only sea pony you guys know.” Flotsam crossed her legs and looked upset with us. Savannah and I hugged her immediately and got a small smile out of her. After Nefer was done with his wishes today, it would then be her turn to make some unless Maries wanted a crack at some wishes too. “Er… hello?” “Hey there!” Savannah waved cheerfully to the three, she didn’t seem particular worried about Maries and even seemed to be interested in them. “We are pleased to meet you.” Marie said as she lifted her head up from behind her two sisters. Maria followed. “Any friend of Jacky’s is a friend of ours.” “What kind of wish did Nefer make that summoned Maries here?” I was quickly told that Nefer wished for some really good lawyers, I snickered and even eventually burst out laughing. After the kind of day I’ve been having, that was something that cheered me up by quite a bit. At least we knew the location of the book was not north up the river… it was more likely to the south or near another nearby river. The place the book was at is supposedly near a river, like the one we parked next to. “Thought that would tickle your funny bones and it’s nice to hear your laugh Jacky.” A quiet smirk appeared on Gene’s face. So a scratching post and a lawyer to legalize the family bonds between him and Flotsam. So what was the third wish? “So if you’ll come with us Ms. De Brie, we’ll see about making Nefer your little brother by law.” Despite her nervousness, Flotsam followed Maries because she trusted that the chimera was a friend of ours. -Ten minutes later, Maries- “Before you sign this one last thing, which would finish our wished for help here and make us go back to Canterlot, we need to help everyone else with their remaining wishes.” We seemed to make the sea pony nervous and we understood clearly, we were kind of scary thing to come across. This was our first time seeing a sea pony despite being told numerous times that, yes, they existed. “First we’ll be making three wishes ourselves once we’re done help our client with his third wish.” “Can I be there with you when you discuss his third wish?” It seemed like Flotsam didn’t trust us to be alone with Nefer. “Of course.” We didn’t see any reason why the older sister should be incapable of listening in, family was not always by blood and it seemed she was protective of the strange looking cat. -Some time later- “Your wish is granted, I personally wish that genies could never grant wishes that summon lawyers.” Evoker’s chances of messing with Nefer’s last wish was properly detained by us. Nefer’s last wish was made and we all turned to Flotsam who moved around the deck at a walking speed that could match the rest of us. A second later she started to really move across the deck as if she were running and I even saw her smile. The wish didn’t actually change anything about her at all, but the effects were quite clear. Flotsam quickly moved over to Nefer and brought him up into a tight hug. Our client, Nefer, nuzzled up against her and started purring. Yes, we could certainly see that they cared about one another like siblings and were happy to work things out between them from a legal standpoint. We silently extended the free services we gave to Nefer to his older sister. “Thank you, this makes things so much easier for me!” The sea pony, Flotsam, should appreciate the wish Nefer just made for her. Flotsam took up the lamp and then held it out to us. “You get your wishes before I get mine for helping out Nefer with that last one.” We took the lamp in our two paws and looked at it, the genies ownership was now transferred to us. “Now, as for our first wish, we wish to have several life sized snuggle toys that are…” Mara started us off and then went into a pitched description of what we wanted in great detail, no loopholes whatsoever. Seconds later we were now the proud owners of a series of stuffed toys with the trademark Airship Mauled symbol on them, which is a crashed airship split in half with an ‘X’ over it in a circle. We also had all the licensing rights to them, we know matriarch Kuril would certainly appreciate having these and could even market smaller versions to children. “Okay, I’ll bite, why does my lifelike plush toy look like a mummy and comes with plush crutches?” Did Jacky really have to ask that? Jacky was almost always one step away from being in constant traction, it was to the point that Dr. Bones was actively preparing for the day that Jacky returned to Airship Mauled and had multiple protocols with anyone like Jacky in mind just waiting to be used. Needless to say Dr. Bones was getting really good at preparing for unexpected happenings, the hospital would survive a level two cataclysm and was repaired enough that it could actually float on water again. “You can’t say that it’s not lifelike or even accurate to you Captain Blackcap… now I kind of want one.” Snorting at Flotsam’s word, we turned back to the genie. It was so nice to be here with friends old and new. Canterlot is not our favorite place, but we do good work there and right now we were currently on a free paid vacation to Zebrica. I wondered what the hunting around here was like. “Our second wish…” Even as we started into our second one with Maria taking the lead, we pulled the Fizzle and Jade toys into a tight hug and nuzzled them. It just wasn’t the same without them actually being here, but it did help us cope somewhat with them not being in our lives currently. We missed them dearly, we would never love any others. “We wish to know the name of the leader of an organization called GODLESS, the same organization that we are currently thinking of.” “Your wish is… huh I can’t grant that one.” Evoker seemed perplexed. Darn it, we really wanted the name of the pony we could maul without regrets. “Whoever they are must be under some incredible magical protections and our magic can’t pierce it to find that out, they have to be really powerful. That leaves you still at two wishes.” “Well there goes one of my ideas.” Gene was going to wish that as well? It would have been a good wish had we not shown up. “We wish for three copies of a comprehensive list and information of all the members who are a part of an organization called GODLESS that once sent assassins after Jaded La Perm that was born within the last twenty years. We want this list to be as complete as it can get, the lists will all contain the same information and members will be sorted by…” Marie started going into the finer details now. If this genie couldn’t find the leader, then we’d just find those who were part of GODLESS that weren’t protected and knock out the organizations supporting base one piece at a time until the organization topples. We’d give one list to Celestia, one would go to matriarch Kuril and the last list… we’ll let Jacky keep it. “Your wish shall be granted!” Evoker snapped and three large scrolls appeared after we finished listing off every single sordid detail or things that we wanted to go into it. Things like those who didn’t know they were helping the organization incidentally, those who didn’t understand what they were supporting and some more like that along the lines to avoid going after anyone that’s innocent. We passed one list off to Jacky to make sure it’s authentic in its information, she started looking through the scroll and started muttering to herself. “Top, Billion, Teatime, I’d say this is an accurate list. Don’t honestly know some of these ponies… like Shocking Awe or Dispel Grace.” She read over the information. “Wow… even Caballeron shows up in here as a hired mercenary. In fact, most of these guys sound like mercenaries.” “Our final wish is this… we wish that you, Evoker, will at least make an 'honest' attempt to make some friends.” We turned away from Evoker to go discuss wishes with Flotsam, with Marie finishing the wish. “You only have to try once...”