Spike had finally made it to the center of the city, and saw the library on the right. However, to the left he also saw that same stand that sold the gemstones he loved so much. He He contemplated buying some gems for himself to snack on. He had to admit, those gems were irresistible. But he had a duty to keep true to. Twilight was counting on him to get that book, and he wasn’t going to let an obsession get the better of him. he had the bits to pay for them, but if Twilight found out he was spending her bits, she would really let him have it.
Spike shook his head. His stomach grumbled, but he remembered he still had that amethyst from earlier tucked away just in case he got hungry, but he figured he would get to that when he and Twilight went to read the book.
He walked into the library. The mare in charge, Kubuya, waved hello to the little dragon as he came in.
“Hello there, little dragon. What brings you here again? Are you here to fetch a few books for your friend, the lavender unicorn?” Kubuya spoke cheerfully, giving off a friendly atmosphere.
“Yeah. I’m just going to find a book about something.”
Spike turned away from Kubuya and headed to the “G” section, hoping to find something on genies. He found stuff on Saddle Arabian games and gems that interested him. In fact, if he weren’t here to find a book on genies, he definitely would’ve convinced Twilight to get that book. He cleared his head of the thoughts, knowing he shouldn’t get distracted.
After that, no book of genies. Spike was now incredibly confused. He looked everywhere on that shelf for something. Where were the genie books? It should start with a G, right? Spike scratched the top of his head in confusion before heading back to Kubuya.
“Uh, excuse me Kubuya, but I’m looking for genie-related books. I looked in the ‘G’ section, but they weren’t there.”
“Oh, genies you say? They are located in the ‘J’ section, for Jinn.”
Spike blinked in confusion. “...What? What is ‘jinn’?”
Kubuya made a small chuckle at the dragon's confusion. “There is more than one plural word for genies. Most ponies would call them genies, but here in Saddle Arabia, where they originate, the plural word for them is jinn, with the singular word being jinni. The manager prefers jinn over genies because that is what they are known to be in the ancient time in Saddle Arabia. The oddest part is that genies were never in the ‘G’ section in the first place. They used to be in the ‘D’ section for djinn.”
“Uh, you already said that.”
“No, I meant djinn, with a silent ‘d’ in the beginning of the word. There are two ways to spell it.”
Spike groaned in confusion while rubbing his head. This was all too informative for him. “Why can’t you ponies make up your minds about these things?”
Kubuya giggled. “I apologize if it is somewhat confusing. “We keep our standards here in this grand city. I will be happy to help you locate the book, as long as you have the necessary bits to pay for them. Are they in your bag--”
She suddenly stopped speaking when her eyes fixated on the tip of the bottle sticking out of the bag that contained Twilight. Kubuya moved around the counter and took a closer look at Spike, but most notably the purple object sticking out from behind him. Kubuya looked left and right, making sure the coast was clear before leaning her head towards him and whispered in his ear.
“Is it true? Are you in possession of a real genie?!”
Spike suddenly felt extremely nervous, especially from what he heard from Malakhar before he left the hut. Spike didn’t want anypony stealing Twilight away in fear of what would happen to her. He couldn’t really deny it; Malakhar did say he was far from being the only one who knew about genies. But he wasn’t going to take any chances.
“W-What do you mean? I don’t have a real genie bottle on me! What could make you think such a thing?”
“Oh, nothing... except your nervousness being a clear indicator. Not only that, but you have a bottle in your bag, and you just happened to ask for a book about genies. You are not very good at hiding your intentions, young dragon.”
He had to admit, she was a very smart mare. Any attempts to convince her otherwise was going to be all for naught. He sighed in defeat as he backed away cautiously. “You’re not going to steal it, are you?”
“Oh, no no no no! I would never commit such an act! It’s just amazing because it’s been such a long time since there were actual real genies around Saddle Arabia. You’re real lucky to have found one.”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly found as she was recently made one.”
Kubuya raised an eyebrow. “Made? Whatever do you mean?”
“You see, the genie in here is my best friend. You know, Twilight?”
“Oh! Well... isn’t that peculiar? I bet you’ve never had a friend like that.” She giggled.
“No! I mean she wasn’t a genie up until just recently! I’ve known her all my life and when she went out this morning while I was sleeping, some stallion turned her into one.”
“I saw her this morning, but she wasn’t a genie at the time. It must’ve happened after she left my library. This doesn’t sound good. How could this stallion do such a thing?”
“Well, the guy isn’t actually that bad, even if he did try to hide the fact that he did so at first. When I released her, he told us about the situation and even apologized. He told us to come here and get a book that will help Twilight understand all of this. About being a genie.”
“I see. Well, I won’t delay you any further. Go check the ‘J’ section and you’ll find what you and your friend are looking for. Good luck.”
“I’ll also actually be coming back here a little later anyway. But first I must find that genie book. Thanks for the directions, Kubuya.”
“You’re welcome.”
Spike walked over to the “J” section of the library. He searched high and low of the shelves, paying close attention to each title. It was after about a minute that he found all the genie, or rather jinn, related books. He saw many different kinds, such as folktales that contain genies, some about genie bottle designs, and stories about the real genies that existed millenniums ago.
Eventually, Spike set his eyes on a book that looked just perfect. Container of the Genie – All You Ever Needed To Know About Jinn And Their Bottles.
“Looks like a perfect book to me!”
Spike grabbed the book off the shelf and ran back to where Kubuya watched him from.
“Intuition tells me you found what you have been searching for. Is it correct?”
“Yep, and here it is!” Spike held out the book in front of it for the librarian to see. Kubuya smiled upon setting her eyes upon the cover.
“Ah yes, this old book. It shall make a fine guide for your new genie friend on how the container of a genie works. Bring it to the front so that we may make the transaction.”
Kubuya walked back behind the counter. Spike carried the book with him as he stood in front of it.
“For that book, it shall be twenty bits.”
Spike put down the book and reached back for the bag of bits Twilight gave him to use to pay for the book. As he picked up the coinage, he counted to make sure he gave the correct amount, then set them on the counter for Kubuya to collect. She took the bits and flashed a sincere smile.
“I do hope that book helps out your friend Twilight Sparkle with her dilemma.”
“I do too. Thanks again for the help, and I’ll be back with her a little later, ok? See you later!”
Spike gathered up everything he needed. The book, the bag of bits, and the bag with Twilight’s bottle. With a final wave, Spike left the library and ran back towards the hotel.
Once he made it back, he shut the door behind him and made sure to lock it, just in case. Once he was ready, he took off the bag and set the small bag of bits on the floor. He then took the bottle out of the bag and placed it on the floor before him.
“Alright... how do I open this thing again?” He looked around the bottle, but all he saw was the design and the cap.
“Oh, of course.” He placed his claw on the top, and twisted the cap off. In a few seconds the purple smoke floated out and formed into Twilight again. Spike really wasn't used to seeing Twilight like this, but there were more important things to think about at the moment.
“Phew, I’m finally out of there, though it wasn’t so bad. Quite nice, actually. Anyway, did you get the book Spike?”
“Yep! ‘Container of the Genie – All You Ever Needed To Know About Jinn And Their Bottles’ right here! It looked like the perfect book, so I got it, paid for it, and brought us back here to read it.”
This fascinated Twilight, but one thing stuck out to her. There was a word she didn’t recognize. “Jinn?”
“Yeah, I was confused too. Kubuya told me it’s another way of saying plural for genies around here. Weird, huh? But anyway, let’s take a look at this book.”
“Right. I’m very proud of you for doing exactly what I told you. I’ll reward you later after we get this all sorted out.”
Spike had a wide grin on his face, though it was hard to tell whether it was from Twilight praising him, or anticipation from the reward. “Aww, it was nothing Twi. I’d never leave you hanging.”
Twilight smirked. She knew Spike all too well. “Oh don’t lie to me, you wanted me to inflate that ego of yours and call you my number one assistant again.”
“Well, I am your number one assistant, aren’t I?” Spike put his hands on his hips proudly. Twilight giggled in response and floated closer to him.
“Well I’m going to do more then that, my number one assistant.” She lowered her body down to his height and gave him a friendly kiss on the cheek, which caused a noticeable redness to form on his cheeks.
“Aw stop it Twilight! You’re making me blush redder than Applejack’s brother!”
Twilight floated back and gave a sincere smile. Spike noticed her happiness almost immediately.
“You know, for not exactly being happy with being a Genie. You seem plenty happy now.”
Just like that, her smile vanished, though she still felt content. “Well, I can’t just make myself depressed about it. I’m a genie for now and might as well try it out like Malakhar said. I’ll make the most of it until we possibly find a way where I can return to normal.”
“Good thinking. Well, let’s start reading. I’ll just set the book down here and you just float next to me.”
“Ok, but we don’t have too much time to read the entire book. We own it now since you bought it, so we can always see the whole thing anytime we want. For now, just get to the more important stuff first. What are the conditions in which a Genie can use magic?”
Spike picked up the book and set it down in front of both of them before flipping through the pages for an answer to the aforementioned question. It only took about a minute before he found something.
“Ok, here’s something, in Properties of a Genie’s Magic. It says here that a Genie’s power is totally dependent on their master. Whomever is the master can decide what the Genie is able to do and can also get wishes from the Genie.”
Twilight frowned in disgust. “Ugh, I don’t like the word master. It just makes it sound like I’m basically a slave.”
“Well, it would be cool to have somepony that does your bidding... but I would never do that to you. You’re my best friend, almost like a big sister to me.”
“Aww, thanks Spike! But I’m curious. What defines a master? Is there anything about that? Malakhar isn’t my master simply because he made me a Genie is he?”
“Let’s hope not. Let me see here. Masters... masters... masters...” Spike kept skimming through the text, only finding what he needed on the next page.
“Aha! A genie’s master is anyone who released them from the bottle the first time. I guess that makes me your master since I opened the bottle.”
Twilight sighed in relief. “Oh good. As much as I’m no longer as mad at that stallion as I was, I wouldn’t never want somepony like him to be my ‘Master’.”
It was now pretty obvious by her facial expression that Twilight was still noticeably disgusted at this sort of word use.
“Well, that’s still a good thing. I’m just wondering how this will affect us. I mean, does this mean I, you know... own you?”
“I’d prefer if you didn’t think of it that way, despite what that book says.”
“Fair enough. Well, we might as well try it out. What would you like first? I don’t want to be all selfish or something and just have you grant a lot of wishes for me. I want to first test this and see if it works. Besides, you’d need some comfort in this since you didn’t expect this in the first place. I mean, I’d like you to get some more convenient stuff done for yourself, because I don’t think I could resist giving you some awesome genie eye-laser powers or something.”
Spike laughed a bit while Twilight raised an eyebrow. She rolled her eyes at him before thinking about what she wanted.
“Right now, all I want are my hind legs back. I’ll admit that it’s a bit cool that I can float around like this, but I’d like to have freedom from the bottle, even if it’s limited.”
“Alright, but how do I make the command? If it just appeared when I said it, you’d have those eye lasers already.”
“Well, when all else fails, look it up.”
Spike nodded, and searched more for another answer. Conveniently, it was the next section in the chapter, Genie Wishes.
“Reading through here, it says all I have to is add the words ‘I wish’ to the sentence of the command.”
“Well that’s easy. Go ahead and try it Spike.”
“Alright then.” Spike cleared his throat. “I wish you had the ability to form your hindlegs whenever you wanted.”
After Spike spoke his wish, Twilight waited, but nothing happened.
“It didn’t work. How could it not work?”
“Try using your magic after I grant the wish, then. Let’s try it again. I wish you had the ability to form your hindlegs again.”
After giving the wish, Twilight’s horn glowed. Some of the smoke that formed her tail started to shift back behind her. It started to turn dark until it was the color of her hair. The streaks then appeared as the shape formed her real pony tail. The smoke separated from the body and separated into two more shapes. She was being brought down to the floor as her front hooves touched it. A smoky silhouette of her flank formed itself while her hindlegs finally came to shape and they settled themselves on the floor.
Spike reveled in the fact that Twilight now had her hindlegs again, but something seemed off about them.
“I can’t believe how much I missed my legs and my tail.” She did a little kick with each of her legs and shook her tail, making sure she had control of them again. She didn’t when the bottle sucked her in. “Thank you for wishing for that, Spike.”
“You’re welcome Twi. Just, what’s that around your hindlegs?”
“Huh?”
Twilight looked back at her reformed hindlegs. Around both legs were two pairs of Saddle Arabian leggings that were transparent and of a light violet color. At the top and bottom of both were gold rings similar to the bracelets on Twilight’s forehooves and the headband on her forehead.
“I suppose this is old Saddle Arabian attire that genies had when they grew their legs back. Speaking of which, what does the book say about this attire?”
This time, Twilight flipped pages looking for information on the strange jewelry and outfit that she had on.
“Here’s another section: Genie Attire. There’s actually a different one depending on the gender of the Genie. On males, they still have the bracelets but instead of those hindleg things, they wear a vest. They also have a second pair of bracelets on their hindlegs. Also, they have a turban with a gem encrusted on the forehead much like the headband on females. And obviously we already know what’s on females because of what’s on me. A headband and leggings. I’m not much of a clothing mare, especially with these on.”
She shook her hindlegs to indicate the leggings. “But what do they all mean?”
Spike read on. “They’re just symbolic attire that’s magically attached to the genie. They’re suppose to give genies a sort of mystic look. The gold tip of your horn is part of the attire that’s specific to unicorn genies. On pony genies that were pegasi, they wore golden wingtips. on their wings. The magic would come from them when the wings were flared out. For Earth ponies, their magic came from their hoofbands, which they would either hold out or stomp to activate their magic. Also, no matter what you do, you can’t take them off. They’re that tightly fit around you, but it doesn’t hurt the genie in any way.”
“So technically, these aren’t as much clothes as they are practically part of my body as a genie.” Twilight tested the theory by pushing on one of the bracelets on her front hooves. They didn’t budge even a millimeter.
“As nice and decorative as this looks, I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this. I’m sure Rarity would adore this, maybe.”
“Think about it, Twilight. You’ll look pretty attractive, like Rarity. She’d love looking like that. Makes you look a bit sexy, actually...”
“Well, I’m not Rarity!”
Spike reeled back in response to Twilight’s yelling. It was pretty obvious she did not want to think of herself as being too attractive to the extent of actually looking sexy.
“Sorry, Twilight. I won’t mention it again, I promise.”
Twilight sighed. “Oh well. I suppose I’ll have to live with it. I just hope I don’t gain unwanted attention from wearing this.”
Spike decided it would be best to change the subject. “Hey Twilight, I wonder if you can change your back half to the smoke tail again and reconnect it to the bottle at will. Do you think you could try that? I think it said earlier that when a genie has a skill made from a wish, it would then have the ability to turn on and off whenever the genie wants. You should now have full control with how you want to move about. It also makes sense because of the wish I made.”
“Why not? I’ll give it a try, but as soon as it’s shown to work, I’m forming my hindlegs again. Rarely do I ever want to be transported through that bottle again.”
Twilight would’ve made her horn glow, but something unexpected happened instead. While she wanted to form her tail again, it seemed to start working before her horn even radiated its magic. She started to float upwards into the air. Her tail disconnected from her rump and formed into smoke as it waved itself into the bottle. Her hindlegs started to merge together while her flank became shifty and turned into the smoke. It extended back toward the bottle and the end of the tail entered the top of the bottle until Twilight became connected to it fully.
“There, looks like it worked.”
“Ok. I just wanted to see for sure.” After all was said and done, Twilight used her new power to disconnect herself from the bottle and form her hindlegs again. She felt much better after having finally been freed from her container.
“Is there anything else I should know that’s in the book, Spike?”
“Well how about this tidbit?” Spike traced his finger across the page as he read the words written inside. “Genies are immortal and eternally young. Under no circumstances are they able to die nor do they age unless a master wishes for them to be able to change their physical appearance so as to look a different age. They can undergo physical harm, but in no way can a genie pass away.”
“Oh my, that’s a huge bonus. Rarity would ever be so jealous of me never having to worry about aging. You know how she is about her looks.”
“I think everypony would be kind of jealous because there’s no possible way for you to die. You could serve Celestia as her student for all of eternity!”
Twilight wasn’t sure what to think about this. True that immortality meant she could live forever, and that she could spend the rest of her life with the Princess. However, that also meant she would outlive her closest friends, and everypony in Ponyville. It was different for Spike, though.
Dragons lived quite a long time, though he didn’t like to talk or even think about it much because it saddened him every time he did knowing he would outlive everypony much like Princess Celestia. But he knew someday that Twilight would grow old, and she’d pass away and so will all the rest of her friends when he would far outlive them. They’d eventually just be memories and gravestones.
But with Twilight as a genie, he’d at least have her always by his side, and better yet, she wouldn’t age. So things wouldn’t change so often for the exception of Spike getting bigger and bigger. He’d miss the other five of course, and he’d imagined Twilight would too but having the one mare who’s been there, and even hatched him for the entirety of his dragon life would be a dream come true for the little dragon.
But as much as he was now starting to personally want Twilight to want to stay as a genie forever, he didn’t want to force her into it. He’d like to spend his entire life with Twilight, but not a depressed one that didn’t want to be a genie forever in the first place and a Twilight that mourned her friends every day after their time has passed while she can’t die nor can she age as a genie would just be sad to see. He unknowingly stared blankly at empty space while he was thinking this.
“Is something wrong Spike?” Twilight asked him. He snapped awake and shook his head.
“Yes, I’m fine. Just thinking about some things. Let me read on.”
Spike proceeded to read more to get to another subject. “Here’s some more info, this time it’s The Genie’s Container. However, it’s never a good idea to lose the genie’s bottle in a place where a mortal would have trouble getting it. If a genie doesn’t go inside his or her container for an entire week, he or she will be forcibly teleported to where the lamp is and sucked inside. Also, it doesn't harm the genie if the container is broken; however, genies can't get the rest that they enjoy without their usual containers, and this could lead to weariness and a tired state, leading to wishes being not granted to their full potential or in extreme cases, the wish being granted to absolute extremities. So it was best that the bottle be safe anyway.”
“That wouldn’t be a good thing at all... wait, Spike. Can you flip to anywhere that might give info about wishes? I remember having some genie stories that were even back in the library in Ponyville where the genie granted three wishes and then went back into the bottle and disappeared. I’m afraid that the two wishes you made means you only have one more wish before I’m forced back into the bottle. I know Malakhar said this wasn’t true, but I really want to be sure.”
This worried Spike. If there was indeed such a limit, so much for Twilight spending time with him for the rest of his life. He nervously looked for the page, and when he found something, his heart thumped. The title read Properties of Wishes. When he found the information, he let go one huge sigh of relief.
“No, not at all Twilight. It says here that contrary to popular belief, genies aren’t limited to only three wishes per master. Old folktales used the three wishes rule to make things more interesting for their stories, whereas in reality genies only said there were three wishes because they usually didn’t want to spend too much time with one master.”
After hearing that, Twilight wiped her forehead and breathed a sigh of relief.
“However, if a genie wished, they could be a master’s genie for the entirety of the master’s lifetime. It didn’t happen that often, but there were cases where a genie became attached to their master as best friends or in even rarer cases... the genie fell in love with his or her master.”
“Well that’s good. And falling in love... that’s pretty surprising.”
“Yeah, very. The book also says there are indeed cases where genies have been with one master for the rest of their lives when they’ve come to like them as friends. I think you know already how close we are even before you became one. The book doesn’t seem to have a definite length of wish terms, though.”
“You mean like limitations? There should be. I mean, there was a section for wish properties. There must be one for limitations too.”
Spike was looking out the window from where he was standing. He saw a bright orange sky decorating the outside view.
“Hey Twilight, shouldn’t we be heading back to Malakhar’s hut pretty soon? The sun’s going down.”
“We should, but not until tomorrow. Let’s stay here for the night. I want to see a few more things from this book before we head back. Let’s see if there are any limitations and rules of all kinds. I have this feeling that there has to be something that’s limited, like perhaps overpowered wishes like immortality for mortals, or wishes that make someone automatically the ruler of the world. Or perhaps just as bad, violent and... I’ll say ‘naughty’ wishes.”
Spike raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean by naughty wishes? Like, a filly causing trouble or something?”
Twilight’s pupils shrunk. She could not, under any circumstance, let him know about that kind of material at such a young age. “Oh nothing, nothing at all! Just forget I mentioned it.” She made a less than inconspicuous grin. Spike blinked at her reaction.
“Ok... if you say so.”
Time to move on. He kept looking through the book until he found a section titled Wish Morality.
“Ok, it says here that wishes such as immortality, or something similarly as powerful, both for the master or anypony else the master wants the wish to affect, are forbidden wishes. They technically can still be granted, but in Saddle Arabian law back when genies were still around, the punishment could be very fatal to both the genie and anyone who was made immortal. For examples, see page... ok, skip that part. We’re only reading some more basic things.”
“Spike, it could’ve shown some more important details.”
“We really can’t be bothered to look through the whole book in one sitting. We’ll only need to figure out the basics, and you even said yourself, we can look at the book anytime we want. Besides, this whole genie thing just happened recently. It’s just still weird for us.”
“This all sounds weird...”
“Actually, considering this whole genie thing is weird in the first place Twilight, I’m not really surprised.”
Twilight felt slightly dumbfounded. “Good point.”
“Moving on... ruler of the world wishes are also forbidden wishes. Those who used those kinds of wishes had to be stopped by bearers of the Elements of Harmony in that time and after a few incidents, they pressured the authority of Saddle Arabia to crack down on it.”
“Well, this is awkward considering I am one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. I wonder if I’m even able to still wield my element as a genie.”
Twilight put a hoof to her chin as she looked up to the ceiling in thought. After a few seconds of passing, she looked back at Spike. “Actually, nevermind. I’ll think about it later.”
“What else, what else... oh. Wishes regarding violent means like physical abuse, or even...” Spike paused to gulp nervously. “...murder, are sadly not as forbidden as some would like. Luckily, genies are actually the judges of choosing whether or not a wish is granted, so it is totally up to the genie to grant wishes or not.”
That may have been just about the best news Twilight had heard from the book. “That is such a heavy relief. I can choose whether or not to grant a wish.”
“There’s more. This is a relieving case for the genie since there would very rarely be a sort of perverted masters who would--“
Before he could continue reading, he suddenly found himself pinned to the ground by Twilight’s hooves.
“Are you sure you should be reading that part?!”
Spike coughed a bit from the impact. After hearing the unicorn standing over him, he rolled his eyes. “Oh please, I know about that kind of stuff already.”
Twilight’s eyes widened in shock. “Wait... really? How?!”
He shrugged his shoulders. At least, as much as he could from them being held down by hooves. “It was simple, really. One time while I was cleaning around the library, I found some drawer that I’ve never seen before. I was curious, so I opened it up. I thought it was just going to be filled with extra quills or papers or bookmarks or something. Inside were a few books all about that kind of stuff.“
Twilight looked at Spike angrily. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You found the adult drawer?! Ugh!”
“Chill, Twilight. I didn’t see anything that was real offending. Some of the stuff was even kinda funny.”
Twilight’s face flustered a deep red shade. She tried to hide it by facehoofing in disappointment. “Fine... go ahead and read it. Best to be prepared anyway.”
“Well, I would if you got off of me...”
“Oh, right.” Twilight lifted her hooves off of him. He rose to his feet and dusted himself off. He walked back over to the book and cleared his throat.
“As I was saying... there would very rarely be a sort of perverted masters who would wish for intercourse with the genie, or anypony else. The genie can outright refuse to grant such wishes like that if they occurred as genies didn’t want to face the burdens of being the reason somepony died or themselves or anypony being violated in such a manner.”
“Oh, thank Celestia! Not that I would think you’d even want to wish for that sort of thing. Just, if I ever somehow ended up in the possession of someone who would wish for that, I’m glad I wouldn’t have to grant it.”
“There’s some more about the overpowered stuff. A genie could perform necromancy with their magic, but it was also forbidden. That is, they can’t bring someone back from the dead without those same consequences. One thing that was also forbidden was the ability to use genie magic to heal major sickness or injuries, as it would’ve been unfair to mortal ponies whose special talents revolved around taking care of patients in need of medical help. It would’ve made ponies whose occupations were doctors and/or nurses feel useless.”
“Nopony wants that. I’ll be sure about not having to ever do that, no matter how tempting it is.”
“Let’s see... oh, there were ponies that thought they could use prolonging somepony’s life as a way of having a loophole around the whole immortality thing. If it was attempted after the third wish, the genie usually wouldn’t like the greediness of the master even if the intentions were for a loved one that they really want to live longer. “
“So basically, if it’s their time it’s their, well... time, even with the power of a genie.”
“You know those cases I told you about where the master and genie fell in love?”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Yes. Why?”
“Well, as you know, genies are immortal and the master still gets old. The genie in the relationship would sometimes convince his or her master to wish to be a genie with them in the same bottle so they may be together forever. It says here that in a majority of cases, they did in fact do so. But sometimes masters didn’t want to be a genie and it made the genies in the relationships upset. Some of them got desperate enough to trick their masters into becoming genies with them, which didn’t end well because for anyone who found the bottle with the couple inside they’d have a constantly arguing and unhappy duo of genies.”
Twilight frowned from the thought. “Yeah, that would be a terrible feeling. And is the one major downfall to living forever is, if you ever love someone., they’re not guaranteed to be with you forever...”
Twilight turned away from Spike with a saddened look. He looked concerned, and was about to say something until Twilight spoke.
“When I was a filly, and you were sleeping, I once asked a personal question about that to Princess Celestia, because you know... young fillies, especially one like I was, liked to asked all the curious and personal questions. I just innocently asked, ‘Princess, what is it like to live for a long time?’ without expecting the response I got. Celestia just looked at me all quiet-like and then stared at the horizon, then the sky, and she even drooped her head while exhibiting a rather depressing look. It was one of the few times that Celestia actually went quiet when I asked her a question, and it was a whole new side to her that I rarely saw and one probably nopony ever sees in public. A moment later, I walked away, and I swear, when I was just about to leave, I heard a faint dripping sound. We were next to a fountain so I suspected it was just a random drop that fell. But now I think I asked a question that was a little too personal and made her cry. I never asked her any questions like that one ever again.”
Spike looked at Twi intently, listening to her story as if it hit a vibe with him. His eyes were more watery than they’ve ever been. It really wrenched his heart to hear that. But it wasn’t just the immortality thing and passing away of other loved ones.
And Twilight noticed his downtrodden expression. “Spike... are you ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine...” His voice didn’t really hide the fact that he was deeply saddened by the story. Spike could relate to Celestia in this one. Dragons weren’t immortal, but their lifespan ran up to more than five thousand years. At least with this story, he now knew he wouldn’t be alone on feeling this way. Celestia had lived for millenniums, but the fact Twilight told him she would still tear up when she was reminded about the one downside of immortality doesn’t really help. As it seemed, even somepony who has lived as long as her doesn’t truly get over it. He wiped his face but tears were still forming on the bottom of both of his eyes.
Twilight felt like she had to do something. “Let’s call it a night. It’s getting dark out, and we’ve done enough reading for one afternoon. Let’s just go to sleep.”
“Yeah... good idea.”
Spike wiped his eyes. Twilight used her magic to lift up her bottle, and placed it on the table by the wall. They walked together to the bed and laid down on it. In the same manner as before, Spike laid close to Twilight as she covered her tail around him. The covers then wrapped around herself.
“Goodnight, Twilight.”
“Goodnight, Spike.”