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// Spike, The Genie of the Lamp 
// Story: The Genie 
// by Silver Butcher 
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It started out like any other day, Spike and Discord were sitting in the castle while Twilight helped Fluttershy find a book, Spike had been tasked with keeping Discord company while Fluttershy was busy and the two were now playing what Discord called 5th-dimensional chess.
The chessboard was like a cube missing two sides and they both had 67 different unique pieces with different movement patterns. Spike was lost beyond measures trying to play the game and had instead chosen to argue with Discord about how the rules seemed to be changing constantly.
"I just saw you move your Multi-Penguin Orc this way why can't I?" he demanded as he failed to make the piece move.
"you can only move the Multi-Penguin Orc on an even turn with the number 2 or 8 in it," Discord replied with a chuckle.
"That is stupid," Spike retorted as he tried another piece and found it didn't respond to his touch "On come on this one's  just a Knight why can't I move it?"
"That's a Griffin Knight, you can't use it until you take my Griffin Knight,"
"this one," Spike attempted as he failed to move another piece.
"The Cosmic Owl can't be used unless you have cosmic powers,"
"Alright that's it," Spike said as he got up "This game is rigged and I refuse to take any further part in it,"
"Oh, don't quit, it was just getting good," Discord whined "I was about to use my Randomizer Dolphin to make all our pieces move at random,"
"I refuse to play a game that has a piece I can't interact with in any way," Spike spat back as he pointed to the Cosmic Owl, "I can deal with a lot of stupid rules but not being allowed to use a piece because I don't have cosmic powers is the dumbest thing I've ever heard,"
"Oh fine, I'll give you a tiny amount of Cosmic power so you can play," Discord said as he snapped his fingers, Spike's left arm from just above the elbow turned black as the night sky and seemed to have starts sparkling in it. Spike looked at his hand dumbfounded and looked at Discord slack-jawed.
"isn't this kind of dangerous?" Spike asked as he moved his hand away from his body "Like...like the most dangerous?"
"Relax I'll take it away after the game, now let's play!" Spike moved forward and reached out with his star hand, only to find he still couldn't move the owl, "Cosmic owl can also only be used after the 15th turn,"
"I actually hate you right now," Spike said irritably as he continued trying to find a piece he could actually move, both he and Discord failing to notice that the black stary night on Spike's left arm was slowly growing larger and crawling up his arm



Fluttershy and Twilight made their way out of the library almost a full hour later, Fluttershy had several books in her saddlebags and Twilight had a few levitating around them.
"Are you sure you don't want any of these," Twilight asked "There the Prequel books to the series I just gave you, and this one has interesting bits of lore for the characters and some of the monsters in the series,"
"Maybe next time," Fluttershy replied politely "But I'm almost finished with the first book so I wanna finish the main series before reading the prequel books, especially since they were written after the main-Discord," Fluttershy's tone did a full one-eighty when she looked at where Discord was sitting on a chair, soaking in sweat and hiding his face behind an upside-down newspaper, the room around his was in pieces, and there was a large hole where the door had once been "What did you do?"
"My home!" Twilight yelped in shock as she looked at the destruction "Discord it's gonna take Spike and me weeks to clean this up, you snap this all back together this instant," Discord didn't reply and instead continued pretending the read the newspaper.
"What did you do?" Fluttershy repeated, Discord peaked at her over the newspaper.
"Your gonna be mad," he whimpered as he slid back beneath the paper.
"Discord," Fluttershy repeated, sitting back on her back hooves and crossing her front one "What.Did.You.Do?" Discord groaned and pointed to the now-destroyed 5th-dimensional chess game.
"Well Spike and I were playing a game of 5th-Dimensional chess, and then he got mad cause one of the pieces can only be moved with cosmic power, and he didn't have cosmic powers, so I gave him some to play the game, then he mad with power, beat me in the game, then beat me against the wall's, floor, and ceiling, then blasted the front door and left to go be a crazy cosmic being," Discord coughed into his fist and looked away from his shocked friends "You know typical Tuesday," Before either Twilight or Fluttershy could even try to figure out how to process that they heard an explosion and Spike laughing like a maniac in the distance.
"Fluttershy stay here and...chastize him like no tomorrow, I'm gonna go get my brother before he destroys the town," Twilight rushed for the hole that had once been her front door and took flight, very easily finding Spike as the center point of what looked to be a tornado forming around him in the sky, Spike's entire body was black with sparkling stars dotted across his body, his only remaining feature where his now pure white eye, even without a visible mouth he was still able to laugh as he held on hand up and formed the storm above him.
"So much power," He laughed merrily as he used his other hand to make the ground below him begin to swirl like the clouds, causing houses, businesses, and ponies to start to sink in the now liquid-like earth. Twilight lit her horn and shot a stunning blast at Spike, when it hit him she expected him to turn to her or at least react in some way, instead he continued laughing as the blast went completely unnoticed by him. "I can shape this world to my will," Twilight tried again and after failing several times to get Spike's attention with magic she changed her tactic.
"Spike!" She called out, Spike looked down at her and his face showed no emotion as he spoke.
"Ah, Twilight I almost forgot I'd better put you and the others someplace safe until I'm done," Spike waved his hand and Twilight found herself in her castle's main room, now full of her friends and family along with a few others.
"What?" Thorax asked in confusion as he looked around the castle, the others equally confused.
"Why are we in the castle," Applebloom asked as she turned to her fellow crusaders, Scootaloo looked dizzy and Sweetie Bell was tapping her horn.
"Hm?" Celestia muttered as she raised her sunglasses, "Guess somepony didn't get the memo that I'm retired,"
"Princess," Twilight said before shaking her head "I mean Celestia, Discord turned Spike into a crazy cosmic being," Twilight, once again, was denied the reaction she expected as Celestia looked to Luna with a stern expression, who was looking back at her sister with the same look.
"Don't worry Twilight," Celestia said with a smile "As luck would have it my sister and I know of an interesting story about how to defeat a Cosmic being, you stay here, Discord, come with Luna and me," Discord took the change to escape Fluttershy's scolding without hesitation and snapped himself and the two princesses outside the castle where Spike was waiting, he had made a small chart and was apparently making sure he had everyone he wanted in the castle before going back to what was probably a plan born from Madness, a common ailment of Mortals turned into gods without much preparation.
"Did I get Twilight Velvet and Night Lite?" He muttered before noticing the trio before him. "Oh yes I figured someone would come to fight me, I'd better freeze you three,"
"Now, now Spike," Celestia said calmly "but I'm afraid we have already beaten you,"
"No, you haven't" Spike shot back "I'm still doing what I was doing, you just showed up, and nothing has happened to stop me,"
"Well, Luna and I wished that your plan would fail, there for you lose,"
"Wish?" Spike asked with a chuckle "Like on a star?"
"No, on a Genie," Luna replied calmly, Discord raised a brow curiously at the two as Spike scratched his chin.
"Hu...you wished I would fail with a Genie, then all I need to do is undo the wish,"
"To bad you lack the power to do that yourself," Celestia said happily "And because Genies are more powerful than you, I'm afraid you can't just make one appear, you could spend the rest of forever trying to find it, and you won't cause we wished that you would never find it,"
"Oh son of a-" Spike angrily muttered as he scratched his chin "
"Oh yes," Discord added, doing his best to improvise on the spot "While I said I gave you Cosmic powers It's more accurately that I gave you nearly cosmic powers,"
"I will end you," Spike said irritably to the Draconequus who held up his hands and backed up when Celestia added.
"How about a deal, you don't destroy Equestria, and I'll give you Full Cosmic powers," As Celestia held Spike's attention, Luna lit her horn and a scroll popped into Discord's hands, Discord read it, went slack-jawed at it then rolled it back up and snapped his fingers, offering the scroll to Spike.
"Just sign the scroll and you..." Spike ran his finger across the scroll and his name appeared, "...are Insane," Celestia said with a sigh as the scroll swirled in onto itself and snapped into a golden oil lamp, Spike grabbed the Oil lamp and looked at it for a moment.
"This is cosmic power?" He asked as he tried rubbing it, to no avail, as he inspected the lamp his black stary skin began cracking off, leaving him looking like his old self, around his bottom eyelid a Black eyeliner substance appeared and left three Black lines beneath his eyes, all he was wearing was a simple pair of blue pants with a red cloth belt and curly end shoes. Spike had failed to notice any of this as he was now shaking the lamp. "What is this?" he demanded angrily.
"A trap," Celestia and Luna said in unison as Spike began glowing and he dropped the lamp as two Golden Cuffs appeared and snapped onto his wrists.
"What the?" Spike cried out as he looked at the golden cuffs, his lower half turned into a light purple whispy tail leading to the lamp. Spike felt The Lamp pulling him in and he tried to resist only for the cuffs to force him forward. Spike let out a scream as he was sucked into the lamp, once inside his voice could be heard echoing from within it. "Let me out!" he demanded.
"Now I know I'm not one to talk," Discord said as he looked at the lamp "Seeing as I started all of this, but why was turning him into a genie your instant plan?"
"I'll explain it to you and the rest later, but first we have one last thing to do," Celestia lit her horn and a scroll appeared in front of them, Discord looked at it and shook his head.
"And this is?" he asked.
"A modified version of Star Swirl the Bearded's time spell," Celestia looked over to Discord and added "Starlight wasn't the first one to meddle with this old spell of his, but if Starswirl's stories of the past are anything too go off of, a lot hinders on me doing this," Celestia lit her horn and the time spell was activated and turned into a portal, through the portal all Discord and Luna could see was sand, lots of it,"
"Goodbye Spike," Luna said as she tapped the lamp, taking great care not to rub it, "We will do our best to try and find your lamp in this time period, sadly we were telling the truth, there is no magical way to track it so we'll just have to hope whoever finds it uses it publicly enough for us to find you and see if a few thousand years helps reform you," without another word Celestia tossed the lamp through the portal, Spike still screaming to be let out, his cries cut off as Celestia closed the portal and the scroll burned into nothing.
"Now them, Discord you can tell everyone what happened, Luna and I have a Lamp to find before we can return to our cozy retirement,"



Spike was unable to see anything but the darkness of the inside of the lamp, after a moment he realized he had cosmic powers and made himself tiny so as to fit easily inside the lamp, another snap and there was light without a source inside it, it was simply the inside of the lamp, Spike made a B-Line for the front nozzle and, once he got to it, hit a magic wall face first. his cuffs immediately flung him to the opposite side of the lamp, Spike turned his lower body into mist and tried going for the upper lid, and found that he wasn't able to so much as budge it. After a few attempted teleports Spike let out a cry of frustration "Trapped," Spike banged his fist futility against the bottom of the lamp as he came to the realization that he had, quite literally, signed up for this "I should have read the fine print,"