//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: I Dream of Twilight Sparkle // by Salnalus //------------------------------// In the dark hotel room, Twilight and Spike were fast asleep, snuggling close to each other for warmth due to the small size of the bed, as well as the blanket that was covering them. How a hotel such as the one they were staying in didn't have bigger covers were beyond them. Perhaps they would ask the hotel management for more blankets in the morning. Most of the blanket covered the lavender mare, and her tail covered the small purple dragon next to her. They were feeling slightly cold, but this would be the last night they would feel that way, as Twilight would make sure to get more coverage for them. For now, all they cared about was sleep. Spike was sleeping comfortably, despite using such a small object like Twilight's tail for a blanket. It must've been the way he was snuggling up next to her like a filly does her mother. Twilight, however, had a different opinion. It wasn't exactly uncomfortable, though considering the small size of the bed as well as the blanket, and the fact she was sharing it with Spike made sleeping on it less than desirable. Being a genie, Twilight also had another resting place, and that was her bottle, her genie container. While Twilight was in there, she felt nothing, yet something at the same time. Her mind was in a state of unconsciousness the first time she entered, so she couldn't feel, hear or even see anything. As such, it felt completely different than sleeping on a bed. It was more relaxing, more exhilarating, more soothing. It felt like the perfect resting place compared to a bed. Though that first time, it was only for a few minutes. If only she was in there for a much longer time. Twilight was sleeping as soundly as ever, until her tail started to wave a bit. Spike could feel it, but stayed completely asleep despite the constant movements of hair brushing against his body. Within seconds, it started to stretch outward in a certain direction, and that direction was toward the bottle. Spike started to mumble in his sleep, but the feeling of Twilight's tail brushing against him didn't even phase him. Her legs then followed the same motion soon after her tail removed itself from her body. By that time, her tail had already entered the bottle. Twilight couldn't feel anything that was currently happening. She didn't have an exhausting day, but how she couldn't feel her body being stretched outward was rather mysterious. She was slipping under the blanket with relative ease. Within the span of at least thirty seconds, her whole body was floating off in midair while connected to the container. Her eyes were still closed. She must've either been too tired to notice her whole body being sucked into the bottle again, she was too lazy to care, or she actually didn't mind, as being inside the bottle was very comfortable. By now, only her head was sticking out of the bottle, but that soon disappeared as it was funneled inside. Once that happened, the cap floated back up to the top of the bottle where it magically sealed the opening. Twilight was now nothing but purple smoke swirling around the inside of the container, resting in there for the rest of the quiet night. Spike, on the other hand, started to feel cold since Twilight's tail was no longer covering his small body, so his hands subconsciously grabbed the blanket and pulled it over himself. When the morning sun rose, the sunlight filled the hotel room. Light peered from the lone window and onto Spike's eyes. He groaned from the sudden brightness, and proceeded to tighten his eyes before opening them. He rose up from the bed, rubbing his tired eyes. It took him a few seconds to gain awareness of his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was that the bed felt somewhat bigger. “Huh, that's weird... feels like the bed isn't as small as it used to be. Hey Twilight, did you make the bed bigger, or something?” He turned his head to the right, only to see an empty spot on the bed. In fact, his body was sitting in the middle of the bed instead of the close left edge where he used to be when he and Twilight started to sleep the previous night. “Twilight? Where are you?” If anything, she must've woke up and left the bed already. A quick glance around the room showed that Twilight wasn't around. “Did she leave again?” the small dragon asked to nopony in particular. He removed himself off of the bed and thought to himself for a moment before a devious grin formed on his face. “I guess while she isn't around...” He turned his attention to the bucket of gems sitting in the corner of the hotel room. “She wouldn't mind me taking another Saddle Arabian gem or two, hehe.” He started to inch his way closer to the bucket, already anticipating the sweetness of the gems in his mouth, their succulent tastes of the various flavors exciting his taste buds. Before he could reach his greedy claws over where the bucket was, his eye noticed something else. Something peculiar was odd about what he saw, even though he saw it before. Twilight's bottle, her genie container, was glowing with a purple mist. It all made sense to the baby dragon now. Twilight wasn't feeling too comfortable sleeping in the bed with Spike that she decided to sleep in the bottle instead. Or another theory was that Twilight was actually nice enough to give Spike a big bed all to himself for once. At least, a bed big to him due to his small stature. “Well, guess it's time to wake up Twilight.” Just he was about to reach for the bottle, something unexpected happened. The top somehow magically popped itself off, though considering how the whole genie thing was weird in the first place, this wasn't exactly surprising, although it did catch Spike off guard. After the top settled on the floor, the purple mist inside started to pour out. The room in that corner of the room looked misty for a while until the smoke formed into the familiar pony shape Spike was used to seeing. However, the formation was getting closer to him, almost looking like it was going to reach out and grab him. At this point, all the small dragon could do was back up in fear. He tripped up on his heels and fell down on his rump. As the smoke fully formed, he had a shocked look on his face. Twilight had finally appeared from the smoke, appearing to be rather happy. Her expression showed the widest of grins, almost rivaling those of Pinkie Pie's. “Good morning, Spike!” Twilight greeted in almost a loud voice. If it wasn’t enough that her wide grin showed how happy she was, her current form of greeting was. “Hey, Twilight...” Spike, said, trying to manage recovering his breath. “Why are you so happy? And why did you go back into the bottle? Was it getting too cramped on the bed?” “Oh, much better than that, Spike. When I was in this bottle earlier when you left Malakhar's hut to get that book, I felt pretty good being in this bottle. It was a pretty comfortable feeling. But last night, I felt pretty tired. The bottle must've sensed this somehow and sucked me in without my knowing. I thought it was strange at first, but that was before I knew what effect it had!” While Twilight was speaking, Spike took the time to get up from the floor and brush himself off. Spike had to admit, he was also getting more and more curious about all of these things Twilight was experiencing as a genie. “Apparently, the longer I'm in this bottle, the more relaxed I feel. I'm willing to bet that genies only need to sleep for about the same time as average mortal ponies do. I tell you Spike, being in there for a few minutes is good, but being in there for hours is just amazing!” Twilight threw her hooves up in the air in joy. “Seriously, it's like being released from the bottle after being in there for that long gives you a sense of euphoria. I'm so full of energy now that if I wanted to, I could bounce around like Pinkie Pie!” Spike sighed. The last thing he wanted to see was another Pinkie Pie. “Well, I'm glad you feel happy Twilight. A bit too happy... but still happy.” Twilight giggled in response. The back half of her body slipped out of the bottle, and in a few seconds, her hindlegs and tail reformed themselves. “I'm guessing this is why Malakhar didn't want to release me minutes after he had tricked me into opening the bottle. He wanted to give me time in there before seeing me again. That way, I would've been in a good mood when he had a good time to release me. Of course, this worked in our favor, seeing as you were actually the one to release me instead of him.” A light bulb lit itself in Spike's head. “Hey, does this mean you're not mad at him anymore? I mean, you seemed pretty peeved at him for doing this to you, but now that you're all giddy and happy...” The unicorn stared at him blankly. He really did have a point, and now that Twilight was experiencing the positives of being a genie, she was starting to like it. “To be honest, right now I don't mind. This whole genie thing is very complex, but I'm learning things about being one the more things like this happen. Maybe I am contemplating forgiving him.” “We could go now. He did want us to be back at his house after we got that book.” Twilight put a hoof to her chin in thought. “He did, didn't he? I don't see why not. He does know more about genies than we do. You think you can carry my bottle for me?” “Aww,” Spike complained. “Why do I have to carry the bottle?” “You have claws, remember? You can hold it while we walk.” “Oh, wait!” Spike turned around and walked up to the small bag that Malakhar gave him earlier, showing it to Twilight. “Malakhar gave me this bag to hold your bottle in so I don't have to carry it. Put it in here.” Twilight nodded her head. Her horn glowed, as so did the bottle. It guided its way into the bag, which Spike then swung over his back and strapped around his torso. “I think we're ready to head back to his hut now. Let's go,” Twilight said before she opened the door with her number one assistant in tow. As they left the hotel, Spike's stomach grumbled. He knew he should've taken a gem or two before they left. It wasn't even fifteen seconds before a couple of ponies started to approach the unicorn and dragon duo. Soon, many of the Saddle Arabian citizens were standing around them, staring at them with awe. They were looking particularly at Twilight with no concern to her dragon companion. “Twilight,” Spike asked. “Why are all these ponies looking at you like that? Did you do something else while you were busy being geniefied that made you popular with the Saddle Arabians?” Something clicked in Twilight's mind, and it was something that she remembered Kubuya telling her once about genies during one of their chats. “I think I may know. Apparently, genies are a popular folklore here in Saddle Arabia. Basically, the ponies that live here worship them like a deity.” “That must explain why some of them are bowing in front of you,” Spike pointed out to a few ponies that were bowing as if Twilight was the Princess herself. Twilight had to get through these ponies. She gave a poker face as she tried to move in between them. To her surprise, they actually moved out of her way to let her pass. She smiled and nodded at them as she went on her way, Spike walking next to her. Much to their chagrin, some of the ponies started following them. Not wanting to be a mean pony, the now-popular genie turned towards them. “If you don't mind, me and my assistant here have something to do, so would you all kindly let us go on our way?” A loud “aww” was heard from the group of ponies following them before they dispersed from the location to go about their own businesses. Twilight and Spike both sighed in relief and smiled to each other. Since they now had breathing space, they continued their trek toward Malakhar's hut. Their small journey still came with various stares, but they eventually arrived with no problems. Once they entered, they looked around for the stallion, who was nowhere to be seen. Twilight stepped forward to look in a little more. “Malakhar? Are you here? We're back!” she yelled, hoping to get a response. Drowsily, Malakhar slowly but surely walked out of the next room to answer the call. “Who would be here this early?” He rubbed his eyes. When his vision cleared, he saw Twilight and Spike standing in front of him. “Oh, you two are finally back...” Malakhar said, his words accompanied by a yawn. “Excuse my tiredness... I'm not used to waking up this early.” At this point, Spike got an idea. He whispered something in Twilight's ear, and she smiled and looked back at Malakhar. “Alright, we'll fix that little problem of yours. Spike, go ahead.” Spike nodded his head. “Twilight, I wish Malakhar was wide awake.” “Excuse me?” was all Malakhar could say before Twilight's horn started glowing. A small puff of smoke appeared from the stallion's face, and his mind felt a bit more clear and aware of his surroundings. “Huh... looks like you figured out about the wishes. Thank you much for using one to make me more awake. I needed that.” He stretched his limbs out, and an audible pop was heard. "You're welcome. I thought it'd also serve as something apologetic for treating you harshly, even if I'm still a bit miffed you tricked me in the first place... in any case. I can't quite place my hoof on it, I'm actually kind of liking being a genie..." At this shocking development, Malakhar raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really?” “Yeah,” Twilight reassured him in a calming tone. “The whole time, I was seeing some of the things genies can do and the references to the history of past genies, plus some discussion with Spike made things a little interesting.” He looked at Spike, who simply nodded in agreement. He then looked back at Twilight. “Then I suppose you figured out that your little firebreather friend is basically your master.” Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Malakhar, I'd rather not think of Spike as my 'master'.” “Oh, my apologies Twilight.” Twilight nodded with a smile and continued. “Now I think I know why you wanted us to find out ourselves through a book rather then you telling us. You were afraid that if I knew, I’d ask Spike to give me some sort of fire blast or anything else in revenge for placing me in that bottle.” Her face then shifted into a devious smirk. “And I guess at one point, back then with my mood and all, I would have done it too.” Malakhar laughed nervously. “Heh, yeah... I had figured that.” Twilight shook her head with a smile. “Well, I’ll let you know that I don’t have any hard feelings anymore. I almost want to thank you for actually doing it because it was fun.” “Very interesting. I suppose I could give you a very awkward you're welcome, but there's something else I totally forgot about when I decided to do this whole thing. It is very problematic, actually.” Both the mare and dragon looked at him with anticipation. “Yes?” they both questioned simultaneously. “You do have a choice if you want to remain a genie or not.” Now, both Twilight and Spike looked at Malakhar with surprised expressions. “You don’t have to decide now. But if you wish to go back to being a normal pony, all Spike has to do is wish you free. And that’s it.” At this point, the lavender unicorn beamed. “That’s it? Seriously?” “Yes,” he simply answered. She just facehoofed at the sudden realization. “Why didn't I think of that?!” Once she removed her hoof, her expression then went down. “So, that means...“ He only nodded. “Yes. If you are wished free, you will no longer have your genie powers. You will be as you were before you became one. Not only that, but the bottle will no longer be magical. It will essentially be a normal bottle if you are freed. The freedom wish can happen anytime.” Her eyes were a bit wide now, and so were Spike's. There was even more information that they were getting that the book didn't explain. “Well gee, that’s quite a decision to make.” They all stood in silence for a few seconds. Twilight had that amount of time to collect her thoughts and process everything the beige stallion told her before looking back at him. “Let me see if I have this right. Based on my decision, I can either remain a genie, or go back to my normal life as a mortal unicorn. It’s a really tough decision. The book showed all the pros and the cons of being a genie. But at the same time, I really liked my normal life too. I suppose I could still be a librarian even as a genie, even if I got odd stares because of the attire I have on.” “You don't have to be so quick about your decision of whether to stay as a genie or not,” Malakhar reassured. “You can take a little time to think about it--” Spike interrupted him. “Well, that makes things even better! That means you can stay as a genie for a longer time, and get to enjoy it even more, so when you do decide to choose, you'll have a better idea! I say you should stay like this for a pretty good amount of time so you can get the full joys of being a genie. Besides, it's not like you have a time limit to decide, right?” Malakhar just shifted his eyes, and Twilight noticed this easily. She could sense that something was wrong. She gulped and asked nervously, “There is a time limit, isn't there?” He sighed in response. “Yes... there it is. And it's not a very long time. Twilight Sparkle, you only have three days to make your decision. If you do not wish yourself to be turned back to normal before then, you're stuck as a genie for another thousand years.” All Twilight and Spike could do at that moment were widen their eyes and drop their jaws.