“T-Three days? We only have three days?!” Twilight asked in the most surprised tone she could speak.
“Yes,” Malakhar started, “You have three days to make your decision. After that, you're stuck as a genie.”
After Twilight and Spike collected themselves, they continued to stare at the stallion as if he spoke the most ridiculous story ever. However, Twilight couldn't deny that what he explained wasn't true, as he did know more about genies than what she and Spike read in the book.
“But...” Twilight spoke with difficulty. First she was feeling quite content as a genie, but as soon as the news hit her, she became panic-stricken. “I didn't think we'd have such a short time limit. I mean, three days doesn't seem like quite enough time to make such a big life-changing decision, plus the fact if I don't choose to return to normal within the short time limit, I could not be freed for the next one thousand years!”
Malakhar shook his head in guilt, knowing he was at fault for Twilight's transformation. “This is my fault, Twilight. I have to admit, when I tricked you into becoming a genie, I wasn't thinking straight.”
Twilight narrowed her eyes at the stallion before he continued. “You see, I knew that turning a mortal pony into a genie was possible, and you know that now; not only did you witness it happen to you, but that book you retrieved from the library even explains everything as well. What I didn't tell you until it was almost too late was what I just told you moments ago, which was the time limit. I didn't even consider what you would have to go through for the next thousand years if you were forced to choose within such a short time, and if you didn't choose in time, you would be stuck like this, and would have to face the burdens that came with being a genie.”
Twilight's face lightened up a bit, but she still remained calm, prepared for anything. “Burdens? Like, the cons?”
“Much more than that. I'm sure you know what I'm referring to. You know, those you care about.”
It was then that it hit Twilight like a rock. All the ponies, family and friends she knew, loved and grew up with would probably be all gone before the one hundred year mark would come, excluding the Princess whom is immortal, and Spike who would live for approximately another four thousand, nine hundred ninety years or so. It was a lot of weight to put on a pony's shoulders.
“If you would wish,” Malakhar said as he turned away from them with a blank expression. “I'll give you until the rest of the time limit to decide what your decision will be. I will be quite busy myself. I've caused enough trouble to last one thousand years, so it would be best for me to get out of your mane until it's time to make your decision. Come back when you have. Remember, three days. Or, now it would be two days since about a day has passed since the transformation.”
Twilight gulped in anticipation of the fear she would have to face in pondering about the decision. Slowly, but steadily, she nodded her head and turned around toward the door with a downtrodden look.
“Come on, Spike,” she said to the young dragon as she looked at him. For whatever reason she noticed, he looked quite sad himself. In fact, she didn’t think she had seen him even more sad than ever before. He was looking down at the floor in melancholy, staring into nothing. This was something Twilight had to look into later, but for now, she felt they had to leave.
“Spike, let’s go.” That was enough to wake Spike from his trance, and his attention returned to the lavender mare.
“Right,” he responded as he secured the bag with the bottle inside on his back before following Twilight out. Malakhar looked back at all of the other pottery decorating the room he was in with that same blank stare.
“I hope your decision becomes an easy one, Twilight Sparkle, because once you make it, there is no turning back.”
----------
As soon as they returned back to the streets of Saddle Arabia, Twilight and Spike were once again crowded by the citizens. This tempted Twilight to give a sigh, as she really did not want to deal with this again. Calmly and politely, she had them move aside in the same way as before and moved forward.
All throughout the day, they visited many buildings and shops, same as they did when first arriving into the city. Although they already had a good bucketful of the city’s specialty gems back at the hotel, Twilight bought some more for Spike out of courtesy for his seemingly downed expression. She had to figure out what was causing his discomfort, but she figured to do that once they returned to the hotel.
Interestingly enough, they once again met the guide that first greeted them when they arrived. She was surprised and ecstatic about Twilight’s newfound genie self, same as any other Saddle Arabian, and one long story short was all it took for her to understand fully. Still, she could not comprehend the fact that there was now an actual living genie in the present time, even after hearing the story.
After a farewell to the guide, Twilight noticed the sun setting down behind the horizon. She took that as the cue for her and Spike to head back to the hotel. She offered Spike one of the gems to eat while they traveled, but he simply said, “I'm not very hungry now, Twilight...”
That surprised the unicorn. Usually, Spike would give anything to eat a gemstone, especially one of the Saddle Arabian variety. There was something going on with Spike, and she needed to figure out what. She made that her priority task before figuring out how to go about her decision regarding staying a genie or returning to normal.
After reentering their hotel room, Spike removed the bag from his back and placed it down on the floor. Using her magic, Twilight removed the bottle from it, being extra careful not to drop the delicate container, and placed it on the table. Even though she made it her priority to talk to Spike, the thought from the time limit entered her mind again.
She paced back and forth around the room, processing the facts of the situation and figuring out how to solve them.
Three days. Seventy-two hours... or however many hours there are left since a day had about already passed since I was transformed into a genie.
She looked down at a hoof, admiring the hoofband wrapped tightly and magically around it before looking sadly at it again, reminding her once more of the situation she was in. She placed it back on the floor as she resumed her worried pacing.
Less than seventy-two hours is all I have to decide if I wanted to be a genie for one thousand years, or if I want to return to a normal, mortal pony. Although there are still a lot of genie magic and effects I want to check out and learn about, and even experience, that would only dwindle the time I have left to place my choice.
Her expression dropped further into a frown as she looked at the floor dismayed. The curiosity was getting to her in a way that was making her lean toward staying a genie.
I really want to see everything there is to being a genie. That would be easy if I didn't have a time limit, because if there wasn't, I could stay a genie for as long as I want, and go back to normal whenever I felt like I had enough fun. I would stay until I at least have tried everything, or almost everything, out.
Twilight sighed, and the difficult thinking was giving her a headache. She put a hoof to her head as she groaned from the frustration.
After removing her hoof, she turned to Spike, her number one assistant turned away from her, sitting at his lonesome, staring down toward the floor. Now it was time to talk to him about his feelings since they received news about the time limit from Malakhar. She couldn't let this go. She needed to see what was up. And she was going to find out.
She cleared her throat, breaking the silence before speaking. “Spike? Are you alright?”
Spike just stood there silently, not saying a word. After a few seconds, Twilight repeated her words, but again, he stayed in his spot, continuing to stare down at the tile floor. She frowned again from the ignorance of her voice, and proceeded to stand directly behind him, lowering her head down so that it hovered next to his ear.
“Spike!”
At that moment, he screamed loudly, falling forward and sending him crashing down upon the hard floor. After recovering from his unfortunate fall, he groaned before standing back up, still facing away from the unicorn. Not even that was enough to phase him out of whatever he was feeling.
“Spike, please turn around and face me. I know something's wrong, and I want to know what it is.”
He sighed, and when he turned around, she saw something even worse than what she saw of Spike earlier in Malakhar's hut. If anything, he had a really depressed expression the likes of which Twilight had never seen from anypony before, except for one time, and that was from Princess Celestia herself. It was then that something clicked in her mind, something that made Twilight exactly sure why he looked like that.
It was the same exact expression she saw on Celestia's face when she was reminded about how immortality hurt her because she witnessed many beloved ponies' lives pass before her very eyes. It was enough to even make her shed tears, the likes which Twilight had never wanted to see.
She knew why Spike was feeling it now. “Spike... this is about that dream you had, and my decision, isn't it?” she asked calmly to the small dragon, to which he nodded slowly.
He was having that nightmare again. The one where he was the big, strong dragon he had always wanted to be. Giant wings, humongous body, and fearsome claws and teeth that could instill fear into anypony that looked at them. It sounded like a nice dream that any dragon his age would love to have. At least, it did at first. However, it hid a deeper meaning. The dragon that was Spike didn't look happy. He was actually rather really depressed.
The setting of his dream was him sitting in front of six tombstones arranged in a hexagon somewhere in the Canterlot graveyard. Directly behind the six stone plates stood a much larger stone plate with a gold plaque that had some very commemorative writing on it.
HERE LIES THE FORMER ELEMENTS OF HARMONY
Though he was a big adult dragon, he still felt like the small baby dragon he is now. Deep inside that big heart lied his smaller, younger self. He felt alone. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and even Twilight, would all have passed away long ago by that time. For thousands of years, he would be looking at those tombstones, and reminding himself of all the best times of his life with all of his friends, especially Twilight. Despite his massive size, old age and developed maturity, he would still cry his eyes out.
Unfortunately for the depressed dragon, the nightmare wasn't easy to forget. Surprisingly enough, the Princess' younger sister, Princess Luna, didn't appear to help Spike get through his depressing dream. Not only that, but the dream only showed his older self. In reality, Spike was still his young, immature baby dragon self. Because of this, he hardly knew about the complete understanding of the cycle of life yet, and the fact that it could become a reality based on Twilight's decision scared him even more.
Throughout all the time Twilight had been processing all of everything Spike was going through at the moment, sad, scared and terrified, she had come to the conclusion of his true feelings. But she had to be one hundred percent sure. “Spike... you don't want me to change back, do you?”
“I'm sure you thought well about it...” Spike responded in a monotonous tone. “But yeah. I know that, when I grow up, all of my friends that I've grown to know and love won't be there with me. However, if you stayed a genie, you would live for at least one thousand more years, and I wouldn't be alone.”
“Oh, Spike,” Twilight moved forward and wrapped a hoof around him, pulling him into a tight hug, to which he returned, wrapping his arms around her as much as he could. “You wouldn't be alone if I did choose to go back to normal. You would still have Princess Celestia there with you.”
“True...” he muttered while trying to fight back tears. “But if there was anypony I would want to grow up with for the rest of my life, it would be the one pony that hatched me at birth and made me her number one assistant, the one pony who would be there for me no matter what for my long dragon lifespan. You, Twilight. Not the Princess... you.”
He held on tighter, and the more he did, the more Twilight's heart wrenched.
I... I don’t know what to say. I’ve already had enough pressure being put on with this decision, and now Spike’s mood is now going to be affected by all this. This is, no doubt, going to be the absolute most difficult choice I’ve ever had to make in my entire life. Do I stay a genie just for the sake of making Spike happy for a thousand more years of his long life, serving Celestia for an eternity, seeing Spike grow up to full size, and not get one day older as I watch my friends and family pass away? Or do I go back to normal, disappointing Spike, dying at around the same time of my friends, and dooming Spike to essentially the reality of his nightmare he’s been having?
After what seemed like a few minutes of embracing each other, Spike finally let go of Twilight, wiping a bit of shed tears out of his eyes. “I'm sorry if I'm pressuring you with my nightmare, Twilight. I don't want to influence your decision too much and end up having you make a decision you'll regret later. If you really want to go back to being a normal pony with no genie powers, then I'll wish for it. I want what would be best for you, and I don't dream of a reluctant Genie Twilight for the next one thousand years. That would just be conceited of me. I dream of Twilight Sparkle, the one pony who would be ultimately happy about her decision.”
At that point, Twilight gave him a heartwarming smile. “Thank you Spike. I'm proud of you for telling me all of this. Yes, it'll give me a lot to ponder about when making my decision. But, it'll make things better for the both of us, I assure you.”
Before she could say more, she emitted a deep yawn that could compare to the queen of naps herself, Rainbow Dash. “But I'll have to think about that starting tomorrow. For now, all I dream of is rest in the bottle.”
“Alright, Twi. Guess this means I have the bed to myself for the night,” he chuckled as he turned to look at said bed. After climbing on top of it, he attempted to make himself comfortable within the sheets, and placed his head on the fluffy pillow, now finally comfortable from the amount of space he had.
“Goodnight, Twi.”
“Goodnight, Spike.”
In an instant, the young dragon began sleeping peacefully. Though those thoughts were still haunting his mind, he felt comfortable knowing Twilight didn't judge him because of what he wanted, and not what she wanted. Twilight yawned herself, and after a long day, she closed her eyes.
The process of the bottle sucking her up began, turning her tail into the smoky fog, then her body, and finally her head, all of it flowing into the bottle until she was completely contained in there before the cap sealed itself onto the top.
