Twilight woke up from the deep slumber she had in the bottle after the smoke making up her body exited it, and formed into her physical being. Though she felt refreshed and ready for the day, her thoughts felt otherwise. She thought that after a good night’s sleep, she would be in the right mindset to think about everything that could affect her decision.
At least she was alone, so that gave her peace and prevented any sort of distraction from interrupting her thoughts on the subject.
She walked over to the window, and as a flicker of magic escaped her horn, the clear glass opened and welcomed Twilight with a dose of fresh morning air. It felt relaxing on her lavender fur, and calmed her a bit. As she looked outside, she saw the beautiful early sunrise the Princess of the Sun brought up, and it brought a smile to her face.
But soon afterward, her smile faltered as she looked down at the streets. Her mind was still filled with thoughts ever since that talk with Malakhar and Spike the previous day. She thought about all the events that happened in the past few days. There were Twilight and Spike enjoying the sights, the tour on the first day, learning about the culture of the city, the gemstones Spike loved so much, and even visiting Saddle Arabia’s library.
But the biggest had to be the thing that was on her mind since it happened, and that was when Malakhar transformed her into a genie by tricking her into opening an enchanted bottle. Now she had to face immortality, superiority, and even potential unwanted attention because a stallion wanted to fulfill a family dream.
“Hmm...” Twilight pondered. A stray thought had gone through her mind, one completely unrelated to her situation. “I wonder if I can grant wishes for myself. Just because I’m the genie doesn’t mean I can’t grant wishes for myself, right?”
She wanted to test the theory, so she walked away from the window, and closed her eyes to concentrate. “Alright then, I wish for a balance scale.”
Her horn glowed, but the ruby on her forehead didn’t. Seconds passed, yet no scale appeared. When Twilight realized this, she shut off her horn and scratched her chin in thought.
“I guess genies can’t grant their own wishes. I suppose it makes sense, because if there ever were evil or corrupt genies, they could grant their own wishes that could cause some sort of horrible disaster. I’m sure nopony would’ve wanted that. So if I can’t do that, then... hmm...”
Twilight made her horn glow again, and a large, virtual grid appeared in front of her. Horizontal and vertical lines crossed each other on the grid before what looked like a balance scale appeared in the middle.
“Alright,” she began, “time to weigh the pros and cons of this whole genie experience. Pros on the left, cons on the right, with pros bringing me closer to my decision to stay genie, and cons being what would drive me to go back to being normal.”
She took a deep breath before she began. “Let’s start with immortality. On one side, we have the fact I’ll outlive all my friends, and everypony I’ve come to know and love. That includes even my brother and my parents...” Her ears drooped a bit from the revelation if this choice was chosen, as she loved her friends and family very much. Nonetheless, she kept focus on the task.
Her horn continued to glow to hold up the grid. While doing so, a number appeared over the con side of the scale, showing a one as that side of the scale lowered, making the pro side raise.
“On the other hoof, I’ll be able to live with Spike for all of his life, as well as the Princesses, even with my immortality.”
A number one then appeared over the pro side, balancing it out again.
“Even so far, but what else was there... oh! The whole genie powers were fun. At least, after I got used to them. It made a lot of things easier. One thing was the fact I could use advanced spells without tiring myself out, as well as getting to learn almost any spell without having to try and learn it. It also made my magic much, much stronger, meaning my magic could rival even that of Star Swirl the Bearded, or even the Princesses!”
With those, the pro side’s number raised to a four. At this time, there was a one over the con side, and a four over the pro side.
“With that, I could even help out a lot of ponies in Ponyville if they so desired any assistance with anything. Then again, if that were to become a habit, that could make things stressful for me...” Twilight shook her head. “I don’t think I want that.”
She tapped her chin in thought, trying to come up with more things to think about. “Well, even with the whole genie thing, I still don’t gain any more knowledge out of it, unfortunately, not counting any sort of knowledge I picked up about genies from those books. I’m thinking of things in general. Then again, there’s still a lot I need to learn, and hey, being a genie could potentially create more opportunities for lessons to learn!”
Twilight looked toward the window once more, but didn’t move from her position. She stared out, watching the city beyond as thoughts crept through her mind.
“The immortality of a genie would let me learn not just life lessons, but also about the whole land of Equestria as a whole. That could take a very long time, but with me being able to live forever, I could do it without a problem. In turn, my mind would be filled with so much wisdom that I could possibly be a walking, talking library of information.”
The numbers on the scale changed as Twilight raised an eyebrow. The numbers favored her being a genie rather than transforming back, as the pros far outweighed the cons. But she still had more to think about.
“Well, let’s think about my friends back in Ponyville. Hmm... are there any other downsides to this? I mostly see good things coming out of this. I suppose there could be bad ponies that, if there even are any, might try to take advantage of my power to wish for bad or selfish things. Of course, I could always refuse to grant such wishes, but that still definitely counts as a con.”
She turned her head back to the scale. “And back to the whole immortality thing. I’ll still have Spike, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, but what of friends? And my family? I know they’ll soon grow old and be gone while I remain young and unaged.”
Twilight lowered her head and her ears folded back solemnly, the weight of the possibility of losing them heavy on her shoulders. “I could always make new friends in the coming years, but the same thing would happen again. They will eventually grow old and pass on, and the cycle will repeat over and over...”
The con side’s number raised by a few units this time. “That would also bring about another hard choice: if I ever decide to have children or not...”
Twilight blushed a bit, feeling flustered from the thought of how foals were even made, which even included falling in love with a stallion. Nowadays, the thought had never crossed her mind.
“If I ever do, that would mean witnessing more family members and/or loved ones move on while I remain living. If I don’t, then I would never get to experience the feeling of even being in love and having a family in the first place... it would be a lose/lose situation in that regard.”
With those melancholic thoughts leaving a horrible image in her mind, she raised the number on the con side more. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to go back to being a normal unicorn and forgetting this whole genie thing ever happened.
“Wait...” Twilight spoke, taking a brief pause before looking over at the small bucket of Saddle Arabian gems. Just then, the thought of Spike entered her mind, and everything that lead up to this moment.
“Spike... throughout this whole thing since I turned into a genie, he had always been there for me. He was very concerned for my well-being, and was with me the entire time supporting me. He had never done nearly as much for me before this whole genie experience, and I could legitimately see he really cared about the situation at hoof. Though, if he wanted me to stay a genie just because I could wish him whatever he wanted to, which isn’t exactly true considering I can refuse wishes, then he’s doing a good job of hiding it. But no, he really was there for me the entire time.”
Twilight stood up from her spot, and started to pace around the room, her mind wrapped around her number one assistant.
“Why should I go back to normal if he put all that effort into helping me adjust? If he showed this now as young as he is, then I wonder how he’d be if I could live alongside him as he grew up into the big, strong, and mature dragon he always wanted to, and eventually will, be. And the only way to do that is to stay a genie, because if I didn’t, well... I’d barely live long enough to see Spike grow to even half his full size. But ultimately, it’s just his caring for me that is making me think of staying a genie. He... he must really care for me if he was willing to go through all that he did to keep me going, and even considering all that he said back before we were with Malakhar.”
She stopped her pacing, and lowered her head with a sigh, her horn shutting off as she did. The virtual grid dissipated as she closed her eyes. “I know what must be done. I know what the right decision is now. I still have a bit of time before my decision is final, but at least now I know what I want.”
She raised her head back up with a determined expression. “And I know I won’t regret it.”