A flowing slurry of emotions slowly drains out of Trixie. The memories she had uncovered from the colt fade away from her consciousness like a fleeting dream and she is finally waking up. (Speaking of which...)
Awkwardly, she rubs away her tears, unsure of why she cried in the first place. She has no special attachment to her new master, but, rather, linked to his inner turmoil and experienced it for herself. It was more than just reading his mind.
Clearing her throat, and straightening her mane, she looks at the colt who is doing the same. "What's your name?" she asks.
"Silver Streak... heh, I thought I forgot all that. It happened so long ago. I don't know whether to thank you or smash your urn."
"He can try..." Ure says to Trixie who is the only pony that can really hear him.
Silver Streak continues, "But you reminded me of why I am fighting... You ready to take my wish?"
"I suppose," says Trixie standing to her hooves, "but I can't take Tricky's life like you want me to. Why not wish for Tricky's alicorn powers to be stripped away from her?"
"Why can't you kill her?" Silver Streak says while looking at the ooze devouring the other ponies and steps away, either to get a better view or avoid being sucked in himself. No visage can be seen coming out from the ooze, and, with a slight impulse, the black blob begins to shrink, apparently done with its job.
Trixie isn't connected to his mind anymore, but it's obvious they share the same careless attitude toward what used to be ponies but are now emptiness. She flips her mane to get it out of her eyes. "There are three rules: you can't wish for more wishes, you can't wish for death upon another pony or give life to a dead one, and you can't tamper with a heart--"
"You'll see; after your fifth master, these rules will be quite a bore." Ure's voice cuts in.
"--um, yes. Other than that, you can have whatever you want." Trixie walks to the window her urn was under. Besides, the new hole in the glass casing on the pedestal that was holding her urn, not much has changed inside the artifact room, if the collecting dust is ignored which is dark enough to count as dirt. Outside is a different matter.
"Uh, Silver Streak?" Trixie asks.
"Huh, what?" Silver snaps out of his thoughts.
"How old are you?"
"Thirty-two, why?"
"What?!" Those memories... in those memories, Silver Streak was only a foal. If Tricky took over Equestria during his foalhood, that means thirty-two years have already passed while Trixie was in the urn. But she didn't feel even a day pass in there. It felt more like, at most, half an hour.
"You seemed surprised," Ure says.
"What's going on? What did you do, Ure?!" Trixie screams out.
Silver raises his brow at Trixie. "Um, who's Ure?"
"Me? Not a thing," Ure continues talking to Trixie. "Unless you count controlling time as something; in that case, I did something."
"Why would you do that?" Trixie steps away from the wasteland just outside the window.
"Merely to speed up your servitude. You don't want to be here, and your intelligence is below desirable levels, so I can't hope to ever have a decent conversation with you. And, so far in, all you do is yell."
"That's not true!"
"Ah, yes. It must be some other voice in my head, but, you know what, I don't have a head. So it must be you. But don't take it as a bad thing; you're only a stage magician. You need to have presence. Ponies need to know you are there. But you stopped saying your name. Is it because you aren't on stage? Or because you don't know who you are after having your sister manipulate you, and, ultimately, imprisoning you?"
Trixie gasps. "Did you go through my memories?"
"Do the math: one million wishes is about 333,333 masters. It took you thirty-two years to get your first master. If I can't have a conversation with you that will entertain me, I have to find another outlet for my boredom. It's too bad you were only eighteen at the time of your djinnification. I've already went through your lifetime a dozen times over. So, now I'm going through the memories of ponies you've met. So far all of them are--boring. Except for this one pink one. Her mind is so... intricate. There is always something new in there."
Trixie slumps down on the floor after doing some math. "Won't I die before I grant even one hundred wishes?"
"Please, I've made you immortal. You're welcome."
"I don't want to outlive everypony I know?!" Trixie yells at the air in front of her.
"You already did--except for Tricky."
"What..." Trixie sheepishly says.
"But, you won't stay immortal forever. I'll take it back, and your wish-granting capabilities, once you finish your servitude. Again, you're welcome."
"Am I missing something here?" asks Silver Streak up against a wall.
"Tend to your master," says Ure. "He already thinks you're crazy, and you have some wishes to grant."
"I-I can't..." says Trixie. "Everypony... dead? Why bother... with anything?..."
Silver Streak stomps on the cold ground causing a clacking sound to hit the walls with full force. "No! Don't give up! I finally have a chance to fix everything."
"Fine," Trixie says somberly. "You want Tricky to lose her power, just say the word. It won't change a thing. Not for me anyway."
Silver smiles, but his muscles are still tense, unsure of the sanity of his genie. "I wish Tricky isn't an alicorn anymore."
Almost unconsciously, Trixie lets loose her magic and grants the wish. A burst of light as bright as a dying sun explodes outside, illuminating everything inside the artifact room until white is the only visible thing. And, just as fast, the light vanishes. Trixie sighs. "One fallen alicorn, ready for the pit. If you need anything else, just do whatever you did to get me out the first time."
Silver, from his wide smile, looks back at Trixie. "I rubbed your urn."
"Whatever..." And Trixie disappears, turning into smoke and running into her urn.
The number, still a miserable red, reads 1,000,999.
"Trixie?" asks Ure.
"What?"
"There's a reason why time-traveling wishes are not against the rules. There are ways to go back in time without causing a paradox."
"How?..."
"What fun is that? Figure it out for yourself, you have plenty of time to do it."
Trixie sighs again. "Great... I thought you were here to help."
"I am. You, and every master you will have, need to learn that to get what you want, you need to work for it. Not have some magical being, or anyone, do it for you. But, while working for it, you have to really question: Is it worth it? Will, not only I, but everyone--or everypony in your case--benefit from this? When the answer is yes, the desire becomes a mission, a goal to strive for which will end up bettering you as a person--pony in your case--and make the world easier to live in.
"I plant the seed that there is an all-powerful being that will grant any wish. The weak will be destroyed--Tricky--and the strong, those who work to get what they want--Silver Streak--will carry on."
Trixie looks up at the number. "So, there is a way to fix all this?"
"I'm not going to give you the answer. Simply, look for it. But I'll give you a courtesy. Before you have to grant your second wish, I'll show you have to control how fast time passes in this urn. That'll give you a better understanding on how time works. And, one other thing. You should go back to that third person persona you had going. It was rather amusing, and it will certainly help you manage the stupidity you will deal with in future masters if you treat your servitude like one of your shows."