Starlight finishes her breather, she had just managed to avoid Discord ruining all her plans due to defending her position in a sort of mock trial in front of the draconequus, and she also very much has Fluttershy's close relationdship with Discord to thank. After one more deep breath, her smug confidence slowly returns as she starts lightly chuckling once more
“Well, I’ll admit Princess… you surely scared me with that last try… To think... if anypony else other than Fluttershy had been genified in that musical chairs game... you might have managed to pull it off... but now that not even the Lord of Chaos will stand in my way… you must know that you truly are running out of options~” Starlight’s smug smirk has fully returned, a sight that Twilight was hoping to never see again.
Twilight sighed before defiantly speaking “I… still have one more wish I’d like to try… I… don’t exactly have as much confidence in them actually stopping you in the way Discord could have… but at the very least… perhaps whatever wise and experienced advice they have may give me what I need to stop you… as they were the ones who first encountered your lamp originally… the Pillars of Equestria themselves…”
Starlight thinks for a moment before nodding “Ah yes, I actually wouldn’t mind seeing them myself, While I was filled in with the power of the genie, I wasn’t like… instantly filled in with the history of the lamp too. So I’m actually quite curious”
Twilight tilts her head in confusion “But… you know when they get here… they’re going to more likely want to stop you first before they ever speak up…”
Starlight raspberries “Please... even if they’re supposedly these legendary ponies. That’s the thing, they’re just ponies. Realistically, they are going to wonder what's going on the moment they're back, giving me plenty of time to assess whether I should retreat or not. The reason I was so worried about Discord is because he would have been a lot more difficult to escape from. But whatever the pillars have can’t be anymore difficult to avoid then what you girls had. If I need to go invisible again, so be it. To be honest, I welcome the return of the pillars. It’s six more ponies for us to transform eventually~. Maybe I should just throw caution to the wind and just genify the six of them mere moments after they get here!”
Twilight grimaces, that’s probably something she should have considered. “Wait! Starlight, before I bring the pillars here… can we make some sort of deal on them… can… maybe we link them to your game?”
Starlight puts a hoof on her chin to think this over, and gets an idea in her head. She nods in approval. “Sure, why not? Might be fun to include a few more ponies to the game, allow me to just write up a little… contract... shall we say... to amend the game a little…”
Starlight poofs up some glasses for herself, along with a scroll and a quill. She writes down an amendment to the current game she’s putting Twilight and her friends through. A few moments later, she’s written down everything, and levitates the scroll to give to Twilight. “There, now all you need to do is sign on the dotted line, and the addition to the game will be complete”
Twilight carefully takes the scroll “Before I do that… I need to carefully read every detail of this… I’m not signing onto this if there’s some little catch you added onto this contract…”
“Fair, go ahead and read every last letter on it until you're satisfied~” Starlight slightly smirked.
Twilight opens up the scroll and slowly goes over the document, making absolutely sure there wasn’t a detail written by Starlight that would inconvenience her, the pillars, or any of her friends. Nothing seems out of place so far, there’s even a detail that seems actually quite unusually generous of Starlight. About how the Pillars would not be allowed to be genified by any other pony other than their respective Element of Harmony counterpart. Twilight’s actually shocked that a clause like that was in there at all, if she acts quickly before Starlight realizes a potentially big mistake, she and the others might be able to take advantage of this by wishing that the same be done for anypony else not a genie yet.
The end of the scroll ends with the statement “I wish this scroll was certified as a part of Starlight’s game” with the word sincerely next to a dotted line where Twilight can sign her name. She gets right to levitating the quill and writes down her name in cursive. As soon as Twilight’s name is fully written down, the contract glows and floats toward Starlight who happily accepts the terms.
Starlight rears on her hindlegs briefly and claps her hooves once “Now that we’re in agreement, let’s bring the pillars back from limbo… you want to make the wish, Twilight?”
Twilight nods “I wish the Pillars of Equestria were brought out of Limbo, and brought here to Ponyville!”
Starlight gracefully poses, floating herself into the air as she spins with magic swirling around her. She’s closed her eyes as she focuses on bringing the legendary heroes of Equestria out of limbo, where they put themselves in permanent stasis in order to seal the Pony of Shadows. Starlight manages to pull the heroes without also bringing the evil shadow into Equestria, perhaps Starlight’s magic made it possible for the Pony of Shadows to remain in stasis despite the now missing heroes. In mere moments, all 6 of the legendary ponies each popped in not far from where the Elements were standing.
Everyone of them is a bit dazed as they all hit the ground prone, whether it’s from the sudden teleport and/or the more then a thousand years of stasis is hard to tell. In time though, they all slowly get up and look around them. They’re most certainly in a place unfamiliar to them, as Ponyville did not exist 1000 years ago.
“W-w-where are we?” Mage Meadowbrook speaks up first, a bit scared to be in a place unfamiliar to her and the others.
“Nevermind that! If we’re out… where in Equestria is the Pony of Shadows?!” Starswirl immediately makes all the rest gasp, and worried that if they’re out then surely who they were sealing was on the loose too.
“There’s no need to worry yourselves, oh legendary heroes from more than a millennium ago~” The pillars hear an unfamiliar and rather sinisterly confident voice..
“A MILLENNIUM AGO?!” Rockhoof reacted in shock.. though he stops himself “Wait, how long is that again, Starswirl? I swear some o’ me brain cells are still frozen…”
The wizard sighs “A millennium is 1000 years ago, what this unfamiliar pony… or well, all these faces are unfamiliar to be frank… means is that we’ve been gone for at least that long”
The rest of the pillars just about gasp, and what that means is noticed all too sadly by Flash Magnus “Then… our friends… our family… my squadmates… they’ve all long been deceased…” That realization hits hard for the pillars. They’ll be surrounded by unfamiliar faces, and at best, they’ll only find descendants of those they knew.
Starswirl himself lowers his head in a moment of silence for the many friends he likely lost over the time he’s been gone, but he determinedly puts his head back up. “We did what we had to do, thanks to us… It seems Equestria has survived for this long. Also, don’t forget… we won’t be entirely without familiar faces. Princesses Celestia and Luna must be still around” The other pillars nod, and are thankful there is indeed someone from their day and age that is still here to talk to.
The wizard then turns his attention to the pony who spoke to them first. He looks at Starlight, obviously noting her attire... though he at first thinks nothing of it. Perhaps that’s just the current fashion trend, at least in this part of this “future” Equestria. He also notices they are surrounded by many other ponies with similar such attire. Although, Starswirl knows this isn’t exactly an entirely new form of fashion. As he’s seen garments and rings for hooves like it in places such as Saddle Arabia, and even occasionally from Somnambula’s homeland.
Though, the group does notice that not everyone around them is wearing such attire. There’s another group of 5 ponies who are entirely clothes-less. Even in the Pillar’s time, this was a pretty common norm, though each of the pillars have their own sets of clothing to help identify them further. Starswirl can’t help but see what he first believes is a normal unicorn who looks nervous but also excited at the same time in Starswirl’s presence.
Starswirl raises an eyebrow at the pony staring at him awkwardly “May I… help you?”
Twilight’s pupils and irises shrink, in her sheer glee that one of the most renowned wizards in all of Equestrian history is speaking even one word to her. Even just the fact he said as little as four words to her is almost enough to make her feel like fainting like Rarity. But she tries her best to keep up any sort of composure she can muster. Even as she’s fangirling to unbelievable levels inside her mind.
She takes a deep breath before finally addressing the legendary wizard. “Uh… h-h-hi… Starswirl… my name is… t-t-Tw-Twilight Sparkle… I… or well… we... summoned you and the other pillars back because we have a really dire situation… that we hope you have some kind of secret solution to… especially since this is one that you’ve dealt with before.”
Starswirl nods “I see… and what is th-“ Starswirl then finally realizes something about the lavender mare in front of him. He gasps as he sees a pair of large wings on her side. Twilight sheepishly grins as she flaps them open briefly. This mare wasn’t just some unicorn, she was a young Alicorn. “Wait… you wouldn’t happen to be a family member of Princesses Celestia and Luna in anyway would you?”
Twilight raises an eyebrow “Well… no… why do you ask?”
“Then how in the world, are you an alicorn if you aren’t a direct descendent of them?” Starswirl stood there confused
“It’s… a bit of a funny story…” Twilight’s about to get into telling Starswirl about how she ascended after completing an unfinished spell of his before Somnambula nudges Starswirl.
“Explanations can come later, I think we should stop this “dire situation” that Ms. Sparkle mentioned.” Starswirl is obviously still curious about Twilight’s alicorn status, but he realizes his fellow pillar is right. From the sounds of it, the pillars were their last hope. So it was appropriate that the very bearer of hope gets them back on track. “You’re quite right, Somnambula. Apologies, if you went so far to summon us from Limbo... then Equestria must really be in dire straits”
“Oh you bet it is! The problem happens to be surrounding us right now…” Twilight pointing a hoof then going in a circle to get Starswirl paying attention to the group of ponies all around them
Though the old wizard seems rather skeptical. “These aren’t just regular ponies in fancy desert dancer wear?”
Starlight just shrugs and chuckles “I guess it isn’t too obvious without a little proof that me and the others in this attire aren’t anything more then costumes… but since you are the pillars of legend… perhaps I should help remind you of what I really am~”
Starlight poofs up her dark-colored lamp to her hoof and smirks “Does this look familiar?~” The moment the Pillars see the lamp they all collectively gasp, and each of their faces go a little pale.
“Oh no… no no no no no NO! Who dared to even so much as TOUCH the cursed Lamp of Catrina?! Was it you?! How did you even infiltrate the archives?!” He points to Starlight, while at the same time Twilight just lowers her head and backs away. Knowing full well she was the one who activated the lamp.
“Believe it or not, Starswirl the Bearded… while I did infiltrate the archives when all the royal guards, Celestia, and Luna were all… occupied. It was none other than your #1 fan here who was so desperate that she used it on me~” Starlight devilishly smirks as she metaphorically twists the knife of Twilight getting the ire of her historic idol.
Immediately, Starswirl turns around and has a very stern face as he stares down Twilight. “How… how could you have done this?! Do you have ANY idea what you’ve just done?! We put a VERY strict message that the lamp should not be used again under ANY circumstances! Can you not read?!”
Twilight’s eyes water as she struggles to respond “I… I… I…”
“HEY!” Rainbow flies up to the stern wizard to defend Twilight’s honor “Twilight’s the readiest pony you’ll ever know! She was just looking for a solution to defeat Starlight while at the same time the Princesses were kidnapped by the Storm King!”
“She activated an artifact that could very well place Equestria in a far WORSE position than whatever this Storm King was about! The real life genie that Catrina became was no joke!” Starswirl gritted his teeth responding to Rainbow. “I’d tell the story about Catrina, but I’m not even sure this genie will even let us have the time to…”
Starlight shrugs “Oh… go on ahead, I’m as curious as any pony else about the origins of my lovely lamp~”
“Even if you will let me tell it, why should we let you listen in on this, you wench!” Starswirl fired back
Starlight laughs some more “Well, if you’re not going to tell me. Maybe I SHOULD just overwhelm you with my power~” Starswirl grimaces, it’s either tell the story while the… “successor” of Catrina hears it or they’ll be fighting her straight on without any of their items.
“Fine… you can listen on in…” Starswirl taking a deep breath before explaining the past he and the pillars had with Catrina.
“Ahem… to get the obvious out of the way. Catrina was an evil sorcerer that was a menace to her home nation of Abyssinia, a nation home to this world's anthropomorphic cats. She used her magic for all sorts of misdeeds, Catrina wasn’t the strongest magic user in the nation, but she knew enough to be quite slippery from evading justice. Besides magical prowess, she was pretty nimble with her paws. A real jack-of-all-trades that was frustrating to contain regardless what kind of law enforcement came for her. Though her deepest desire was to break far past her limitations in use of magic. As she was quite jealous of any magic user stronger than her. She had dreams of becoming the most powerful sorcerer/sorceress in the world.
One day she used her skills to sneak into the forbidden section of the largest library in Abyssinia. Where she’d find information about a magic that was considered ancient by thousands of years even as far as back then. The source of this power was supposedly in a large temple in the middle of the Abyssinian desert. Though everyone in that nation knew how treacherous such a trek would be, enough to give even the normally daring sorceress pause about even trying. There wasn’t even too much evidence yet of this ancient magic being real either, so for a time, even Catrina wouldn’t risk her life for something that might not even exist.
She would soon however face perhaps one of her most humiliating defeats, she narrowly escaped an ambush by the authorities that was complemented with the nation's top sorcerers that would have most certainly brought her to justice once and for all. She had decided she had no other choice. For if she didn’t find a way to break her limits as a sorceress, she was soon going to find herself in prison. The sorceress determined she’d rather die trying to be something, then rot away in prison for the rest of her days having never achieved her dreams.
So she went along with the trek, the journey there being about as tough as she could expect. There’d be skeletal remains that became all too common the closer she got to where this temple purportedly was. While those corpses could have been there for any other reason. Inside her mind she was certainly thinking that many of these victims were others seeking the same ancient power she’s looking for.
Somehow she managed to reach the temple with plenty of energy and determination left. But what she found in the temple was a more harrowing sight than any dangers the desert brought. As the temple quite literally was filled with the smell of death. Inside the temple, she already saw more skeletal remains than she did throughout her entire trip to the desert. It seemed a majority of those that seeked the power did indeed get to the fabled temple. But with most of them likely having been exhausted by the trek through the desert. They were either not prepared, ill-equipped, or just unable to avoid the many deadly traps, and architecture that’d require a world-class parkour athlete to traverse across. Many areas in the temple had such perilous design that a single misstep would lead to falling down into inescapable spike pits.
Strangely however, the fact this all existed actually gave the sorceress more determination. As this power must really exist if so many had tried. Not to mention the civilization that built this place must know what kind of magic they sealed within the temple if they went this far to protect it. And luckily for Catrina, not only was she nimble enough to maneuver through the temple. She was smart enough to get an idea of how each of the temple's victims failed, and adjusted accordingly to avoid making the same mistake.
The sorceress eventually managed to find what everyone else that perished was trying to get. It was, of course, the very lamp that Starlight is currently holding. However, all those acrobatics left Catrina exhausted. She knew that if she tried trekking through the desert to take the lamp back with her. She was most certainly going to die, Catrina cursed the ancients who thought so far ahead that even if someone eventually got the prize inside... they might still not be spared from death. Up until after an apparent accidental rub, where magic smoke swirled around her, a voice within her mind asked her for a desire. At that point, Catrina’s strongest desire was getting back home safely.
Within a blink of the eye, she and the lamp together were transported to her secret hideout all the way from where the lamp was in the temple. Shocking not just Catrina herself, but her assistant. Who had thought that Catrina was certain to be dead by now, as they too were very aware that no one ever returned from seeking the artifact Catrina was after. Once Catrina replenished her energy with some food and a drink, the sorceress laughed maniacally as she triumphantly found her way to prove herself. She and her assistant slept that night, just itching for tomorrow for when the sorceress would begin her conquest.
Upon the next morning, events happened that the sorceress was not prepared for. When she rubbed the lamp to begin her conquest the next morning, the lamp’s magic swirled around her again to seek her deepest desire. That of course was to be the most powerful magic being possible. The lamp obliged, by sucking her completely inside. The sorceress purportedly scared for her life as it brought her slowly in, though some purportedly a really strange mind change happend as soon as her what was her feet was siphoned in that only got more and more intense until she was fully inside the lamp. Her assistant frantically went to get her out, which was done with yet another rub.
When she came out, she was no longer the mischievous sorcereress she was before. She was something far more monstrous, a genie bent on putting everyone standing in her way under an iron claw. As she desired, she was most definitely the strongest magic user in her nation, and quite possibly the world. The Abyssinians trying to resist Catrina had to reach out for outside help. And that’s where me and the rest of the Pillars came in. At the time.. our Elements of Harmony were renowned as world savers, though the magic of the elements were relatively new. Not even we knew the limits of it's power yet. We knew however that if Catrina took over all of Abyssinia she’d seek to expand ever further, so we agreed to make the long journey to deal with her before she could ever get to Equestria. We also had to be extra careful, as with the kind of power Catrina had. It was going to be difficult to find a good spot to hit her with the elements.
Though thankfully, Catrina proved too cocky for her own good. We weren’t able to sneak up on her as we hoped. But instead of seeking right away to stop us. She laughed us all off, and dared us to blast her. Admittedly, we weren’t sure if it’d even work. It was as much of a shock to her as it was us that we successfully broke off her connection with the lamp. Flash Magnus used his speed to make sure Catrina couldn’t genify herself again. Though she certainly still lunged at him trying to get it back through whatever means. She went absolutely bonkers once she was mortal again. She even begged us to please let her be a genie again, and tried to bargain with us by promising she wouldn’t try to take over the world again if we allowed her to get the lamp back. We called her bluff and refused. It wouldn’t be long til’ local forces arrested Catrina, having to put her in a strait jacket as she persisted to try to get the lamp from Flash Magnus’s hooves in continuously desperate measures.
After which, we were thanked by the leaders of Abyssinia for subduing Catrina. We don’t know what became of Catrina afterward, though from what I hear, she was never the same again. Serves her right however, for her evil deeds…
As for the lamp, the Abyssinians felt the lamp would be best under our protection. Aside from what happened with Catrina, too many living beings have died on their soil in pursuit of this one lamp. We worked together to cover up as much as we could about the lamp, the Abyssinians destroying any mere mention of either the lamp or the temple it was in from any remaining sources. And while we put warning labels for the lamp for the archive, we kept the name of Catrina a secret. It didn’t really have an official name beforehand, but for those allowed to be in the know. We called it the Lamp of Catrina, but the hope was we’d never have to actually explain this ever again…
Which is why I’m so disappointed in our newest… “princess” that she allowed this to happen…”
Twilight lowers her head again in shame, as Applejack pats her on the back and sternly looks at Starswirl for knocking Twilight down while she’s already feeling awful enough for how things have escalated. Starlight chuckles a little after hearing the story of her 'predecessor'. “So... the previous occupant of the lamp before me was a literal catwoman, huh? I guess that explains all that cat food in the kitchen~”
As miffed Applejack is with Starswirl, she sighs and knows they kind of have to depend on him on some level to reverse all this. “So… uh… Starswirl, Ah don’t suppose y’all have the secret t' defeating these genies?”
“Well it’s as simple as… wait a moment, did you say… genies… as in PLURAL?!” Starswirl and the pillars once again all go wide eyed.
“Uh… duh! What did you think the other oddly dressed ponies were? Backup dancers?” Rainbow responded in an annoyed tone.
“Oh this is bad… this is really bad… this isn’t something Catrina did at all… she kept all that power for herself…” Starswirl frowned. One genie was bad enough, waking up to a scenario where there's more starts to wash the color from the wizard's face.
“Hehe… it seems Catrina was not as forward thinking as I~. Sure, I get having all this power on your lonesome would allow you control over everything… but I think giving every pony the same benefits I enjoy is far more beneficial~. I’m not putting ponies under an iron hoof, I’m only allowing them to achieve all of their desires and more… is that really so wrong?~” Starlight smugly grinned
Starswirl grinded his teeth “How many have you transformed, you demon!”
“Oh just a few friends & allies here and there… but also the entirety of the Crystal Empire, I assume the bulk of the Royal Guard in Cloudsdale, at least some of Manehattan, and I even got Princesses Celestia and Luna taking their fair share of orders from me~” Starlight smirks deviously once more
“WHAT?! NO!” Starswirl is shocked that even the alicorns he knew have fallen to Starlight’s notorious genie plan. “Curse you, Starlight… no… not just you actually… curses to you too for letting it get this far!” He points a judgmental hoof right at Twilight
That's where Rainbow swoops down in defense of Twilight once more “That’s enough out of you, I don’t care if you’re some legendary wizard of the past. Twilight’s our friend, and we’re not going to take you disparaging her lightly!”
“Ah concur with Rainbow, our enemy is Starlight… not each other. Whether Twilight played ah role in the current situation is irrelevant, so long as Twilight’s actively tryin' her best t’ fix her mistake. Frankly, ah’m not sure y’all would have been able t’ do much better” Applejack raised an eyebrow.
“I’d beg to differ… but fine, I suppose accountability can wait until this situation is dealt with…” The stern wizard gives Twilight a not-so-subtle cold shoulder.
Rainbow growls “Screw you and your accountability! If it weren’t for Twilight, you six would already be getting consumed by genie bottles this very moment! She made a deal so that Starlight would not transform you all shortly after bringing you here!”
Starswirl admittedly had glossed over the fact that they could have simply been transformed into genies this very moment. “Is… that… so… well… I’ll at least tip my hat in gratitude for your thoughts to protect us… though I must ask if there was a catch to this… there’s always a catch to making deals with villains like these…”
“Well… just to get some of the context… Starlight’s forcefully putting us through some kind of game. Where she’s letting us have any wish from her and her alone, with some notable restrictions… the problem of course being that if said wish can be at all interpreted into a genification… that will be the default interpretation by Starlight. But uh… we reached a deal where as long as one of us is not a genie, our counterpart of the Pillars can not be genified”
“I see, well... that should give us plenty of time to seek out each of our mystical items then and begin reversing all the genifications. As long as you and your 4 other friends don’t make any foolish wishes that is. But regardless, come on my friends. We must retrieve our items from our homelands!” The pillars start walking together to go on their long journey of seeking out their items.
Though one of them is suddenly distracted by an interesting sight. Meadowbrook is startled as she comes across what seems to be a flash bee. Though it looked different from any flash bees she’s ever seen. The bee was of a paler yellow then usual, and the stripes that were normally an electric blue were now a light pink. Not to mention it had a more lion-esque mane that was also colored pink.
“Oh hello there, little flash bee! Ah suppose y’all don’t know that ah’ve taken good care o’ y’all ancestors t’ make mah medicine. Y’all stings surely hurt, but y’all really helped out with healthcare fo’ all pony kind and ah can’t thank y’all enough!” Meadowbrook smiled, while the little flash bee seemed to… chuckle?
As Starswirl walks away he notes something to the other 4 that weren’t being confronted by a flash bee. “We should be slightly thankful that Starlight can’t count it seems, there’s only 5 of Twilight and her friends and 6 of us. So even in the worst case scenario where they’re all genified, there will be at least one of us to try to set things right!”
Though Twilight just manages to hear Starswirl confidently saying that, while grimacing knowing where all of a sudden this was going. She turns over to Meadowbrook’s position and gasps as she sees the flash bee of an oddly familiar color scheme. “MEADOWBROOK, LOOK OUT! THAT’S NO ORDINARY FLASH BEE!”
“Huh?” Meadow brook turned to react to Twilight’s words. Then the flash bee quickly zipped around the mage, flying beneath Meadowbrook’s green dress and stinging her twice, once on each of her hindlegs. Meadowbrook yelps in pain and jumps backward landing on her back. As she winces from the pain, she instantly lifts her dress to inspect the pain of the stings. Strangely, she saw no inflammation, nor was there any electrical shock that was normal for flash bee stings. Though Meadowbrook still didn’t feel right, she begins to feel woozy before she focuses and shakes her head, it takes a minute before the mage of legend begins to fear the worst.
“Oh no no no… was that some sort o’ new poisonous, even mo’ aggressive type o’ flash bee that’s evolved in the past 1,000 years?! Quickly! Get me t’ the nearest hospital, who knows how potent the venom is!” Meadowbrook pleaded to everypony nearby, scared for her very life. Although her body’s reaction is actually rather inconsistent with cases of deadly venom she’s had to treat before. But she couldn’t exactly discount the possibility that the venom itself has evolved itself in the time she's been trapped in Limbo.
Then a voice unfamiliar to her, but comfortably soft replies to the mage’s pleas for help. “Don’t you worry Ms. Meadowbrook! Your life is in no danger, in fact, soon nothing will ever endanger your life ever again.”
“W-w-w-who said t-that?” Meadowbrook turned her head from side to side quickly looking for the pony who just spoke to her. The only living thing in her sight that could have been close enough to speak to her from where she could hear the voice from was the same flash bee that had just stung her. But the bee couldn’t have talked… right? Now she was afraid that maybe her life isn’t in danger, but somehow this new flash bee is capable of a type of venom that puts her into some sort of high, and she’s now suffering some pretty heavy hallucinations.
Then the flash bee popped into a puff of smoke that got larger, startling the mage. The smoke then started taking the shape of a pony, as the smoke condenses and color fades in. The true identity of the flash bee is revealed, it was Fluttershy who had transformed herself into a flash bee.
Starswirl turned to Twilight. “Who is this pony? You seem like you know them…”
Twilight just frowned and lowered her head “That is Fluttershy… she… is the friend who was genified not too long ago. She is the Element of Kindness. But now that she’s a genie, she doesn’t want to bring things back to normal… as somehow she loves it too much… and judging by the process of comparing each of our elements with those of you and the other pillars… she’s also Meadowbrook’s counterpart”
Starswirl’s face goes pale “Please… tell me that your friend isn’t counted as part of this “game” is she?! We can’t reverse things as easily without Meadowbrook!”
“I can ask… but… I have a feeling you won’t like the answer” Twilight approaches Starlight “Hey! Starlight, you genified Fluttershy before you even started this game. Wouldn’t it not be fair if you allowed her to genify Meadowbrook when this game didn’t even apply to Fluttershy’s genification?”
Starlight devilishly smirked before giving her blunt answer. “Nope! This. is. fair. game~”
Starswirl acted quickly “Then I wish for an amended rule to give us another chance! if we’re as much as part of the game as the others then you’re bound to grant our wishes too!”
Starlight just chuckles “Not necessarily~”
“WHAT?! What do you mean?!” The wizard frantically replied.
“I’m afraid there’s some fine print that Twilight missed upon SIGNING OUR CONTRACT herself!” Starlight grinned
“WHAAAAAT?! Fine print?! I didn’t see any fine print, Starlight!” Twilight insisted that she saw nothing of the sort that indicated the Pillars did not apply to the “cannot refuse wishes”.
Starlight poofs up a pair of glasses and floats them onto Twilight’s eyes. “Take a look through these, they’re microscopic glasses. You’ll find the related text just below your signature~”
Twilight takes a look at the area of the contract, she ignored it the first time because from appearences it just liiked like 3 lines and figured that was just Starlight testing if her quill was working. But as she looks with the microscopic glasses, ehr face goes pale as she sees there was indeed more text that she had missed.
There were 3 things listed:
The first being that the Pillars are not participants on the same level as Twilight with the rest of her friends. They are linked to their counterparts for when it’s time to genify them. But they are by no means given the same rights to ask for wishes. They may give suggestions to the 5 actual players, but only through those said players will the wish be granted for
The 2nd was while Fluttershy’s genification took place before the game was settled. She’s still as much retroactively a player as the rest, meaning her counterpart in the pillars is allowed to be genified by Fluttershy mere moments after their arrival, if she so chose to.
And the last one which sank Twilight’s heart more than anything. She and the others aren’t allowed to give the same sort of protection offered to the pillars to anypony else. Starlight was aware of the potential loophole all along, Twilight fell for her trap hook, line, and sinker. Thinking that Starlight had made a mistake, when in fact she was only giving Twilight that hope, only to secretly hide the detail closing such a loophole. And Twilight had already signed off on it.
Twilight just took the glasses off, sat down, and lowered her head in despair.
Meanwhile, Starswirl acts quickly knowing full well Twilight’s expression means Meadowbrook is in the sights of being genified. “Come on! We must save Meadowbrook before it’s too late!” Much like how Twilight and her friends acted to try to save Fluttershy, the Pillars quickly ran up to try to help Meadowbrook. Though this time something very different took place. As they get close to where Meadowbrook is, a magical shield pops around them, created by Starlight. Resulting in all of them bumping into the sudden magical wall that now surrounded them. They don’t give up however, Starswirl and Mistmane try to break through with their magic. Somnambula and Flash try many repeated kicks using however much speed they can muster with flight within the small space. But given not even Rockhoof’s fabled strength is making any sort of crack. It seems unlikely they will be able to even get the chance to try to save Meadowbrook.
Meadowbrook herself became distraught seeing her friends unable to help her. She whimpers in fear of whatever Fluttershy has in store for her. “W-w-w-wh-what are y-y’all going t’ do t-t’ me?”
Fluttershy gently smiles “Nothing you should concern yourself over, I promise you. Just the permanent empowering cure for everything that plaques a mortal life. Certainly as a legendary icon of healthcare, you might be curious what it might be…”
“W-w-w-wh-whatever this is… t-this has t’ come at a t-tremendous p-p-price!” Meadowbrook interjected
“I not too long ago thought the same, but I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised~” Fluttershy lifts a hoof up, charging some magic, soon poofing a rather different item than expected. Instead of the typical vessel that Starlight’s used for most ponies, what Fluttershy has in mind for this famed pony of healthcare, is connected to her most well-known story.
She had poofed up something resembling a flash bee hive. It’s a little smaller than most hives are, as many grow about to be as huge as a pony could be. But as a vessel it serves just fine with the opening serving as the entrance.
“A… a… a… flash bee hive?! Ah thought y’all said this is something not t’ be concerned over! Even normal flash bees can be deadly if too many sting ya at once!” Meadowbrook was suddenly scared that Fluttershy intended to kill her.
“Sure, it looks like a Flash Bee hive. But I promise you there are no flash bees inside! It’s not the bees that’ll be the main occupant of this little hive anyway~” Fluttershy smirked
The mage was confused “H-h-huh? What else w-w-would occupy a b-b-bee hive other than… w-well… b-bees?”
“I’m glad you asked~, because… it’ll be none other then… YOU!” As if on cue, Meadowbrook’s pony tail started to wave and stretch towards the nest’s entrance.
The mage screams “NO! NOOOO! NOOOOOOOO! LEMME GO!” She quickly tries to drag herself away from the hive, though her hindlegs are still a little numb from the stings Fluttershy did while she was still a flash bee, so she can only manage some crawling with her forelegs. Soon her movements slow ever further as gradually she has no hindlegs to drag anymore, they and the bottom of her green dress start moving towards the nest vessel’s entrance. She is even lifted up in the air, where all she can do is flail her hooves and whimper as nothing will block her inevitable slide into the beehive.
As the Pillars still try their hardest to try to break through Starlight’s shield, they notice that Twilight and the others are not surrounded by the shield. Yet all they’re doing is comforting the distraught Twilight while just behind them, Meadowbrook is being brought into the vessel. This makes Starswirl nearly pop a blood vessel in his head. “What are you 5 doing?! You’re not behind this shield! There’s still time to save Meadowbrook! DO SOMETHING!”
Twilight sheds tears from her eyes “I’m sorry Starswirl, but no… there is no time…”
“What are you talking about?! She’s right there! There’s still hope in all of you to save her!” Somnambula insisted
Pinkie turns toward the bearer of hope “I’m afraid Twilight’s right… we tried our best to do the same for Fluttershy when she was being genified… even if all 10 of us were to work together… it’d be futile… there is no hope...”
“You can’t possibly know that for sure!” Rockhoof replied
Applejack takes off her hat and puts it on her chest to signify sincerity “No… ah’m afraid we do… no feat o' strength, magic, or any other kind o' effort t' will work… Ah’m still ah little sore from exerting so much o’ my might trying t’ save Fluttershy… but it was still all fo’ naught…”
“You could at least still try anyway! Show us that you care about saving the world!” Flash Magnus commanded
Rainbow snapped back “Fluttershy was my friend since childhood! If you don’t think I didn’t try my very hardest to prevent this, then you don’t know me or my friends at all!”
Mistmane and Rarity don’t even say a word to each other, Rarity had been the one to resign to Fluttershy’s fate just as she and Twilight were the last line of defense. Mistmane is the first to realize that these ponies probably did try their very best, but with it being so recent. And how they likely know more about the power of these genies more than even the pillars do at this point. She sighs and stops herself, too.
Meadowbrook continues to try to struggle, but there’s nothing to hang onto, nor is there any pony trying to slow her descent. Her full tail is already in the vessel as now her hind legs and green dress merged into a curvy, smoky tail just inches from the nest’s entrance. For poor Meadowbrook, it was like a less dirty slow descent into a murky bog from the bayous she lived in.
“p-p-p-pl-Please! Somepony h-h-help m-m-m-me… a-a-AAAAH!” Her extending lower half finally reaches the opening of the beehive she was slowly being dragged into. Upon that moment. Meadowbrook could only compare her feeling to a miracle cure beyond anything else she’s ever had.
Within just seconds, her fear and apprehension is replaced with a more calming and relaxed feeling. While an ebbing flow of sheer pleasure flows through her body. She still felt like she was sinking, but she wasn’t reacting like she was sinking into cold, deep mud that would drown her. More so a type of mud that’s more controlled, warm, and more therapeutic. She felt much safer under this sort of embrace, Her cheeks were blushing as her eyes went half-lidded and she managed a smile.
Even the other pillars from behind the shield could see a drastic shift in Meadowbrook’s reaction. “Huh? What in Equestria’s come over her?! She was fearing for her life just moments ago… why does she seem… happy now?” Somnambula asked in her confusion
Star swirl shakes his head. “This must be strongly influencing poor Meadowbrook’s mind… there can be no other explanation for this… we’re losing her…”
“NOOOO! Brook! You have to fight it! You’re stronger than this!” Rockhoof yelled out
The viking’s words however fall on deaf ears, as she doesn’t respond. She just coos and moans as more of her body enters the hive.
"There, that's not so bad is it? Genification is truly the cure-all for everything... you're the Element of Healing, you must truly feel the true nature of this magic. Nothing hurts right? And how about your mental health? Tell Dr. Fluttershy what's on your mind~" Fluttershy softly talks to Meadowbrook, who may as well now be a really relaxed patient right now.
"a-a-a-ah f-feel... a-a-am-amazing... h-How... i-is this p-possible... Ah'm being fitted into this h-hive... b-but... it doesn't h-h-hurt... and mentally... ah'm not sure... as ah've never ever f-f-felt quite like this b-before... but somehow, ah mean that in a g-g-g-go-good way... Whatever y'all doin' t' me... p-please... don't s-stop..." Meadowbrook sighs in deep pleasure, she puts her hooves to her sides so they go in faster.
By now her hips have entered, her dress fully within the hive. She sighs deeply some more as her moans get louder and more intense as she’s whittled down to her neck, then the rest of her head waves and shrinks to fit into the hive, one more long moan is heard that echoes throughout the area, that becomes muffled, and then silent as the rest of the mage is brought fully into the vessel.
The rest of the pillars just about cry out in despair. Though Starswirl quickly turns his sadness into utter anger at Twilight and her friends for doing absolutely nothing during the mage's slow transformation..
“I hope you’re proud of yourselves… you ruined everything with your apathy! Now our most effective way of defeating these genies is gone! What kind of princess are you that just lets this happen… whoever you are, you are no leader… especially since this was ALL. YOUR. FAULT!” Starswirl banging on the shield to put emphasis on how much he’s blaming her now.
The princess' eyes well up in tears in seconds, already having seen so much happen in so little time. Before this genie crisis even started, she and Equestria had been on edge with the Storm King's abduction of Princesses Celestia and Luna. Her very desperate move to use the lamp as a quick fix to deal with Starlight so she could focus on the Storm King, many of her closest friends including some very important figures such as her brother, Princess Cadence, and Princess Celestia already genified by the time she met again with Starlight, Fluttershy's genification in which her and the others were powerless to stop, all three of her ideas for wishes countered by the genies in one way or another. And to top it all off. now her longtime historic idol is tearing her a new one.
She runs away, heading towards her castle, sobs and whimpers are heard from the lavender princess as she seeks to get herself some space from this terrible situation Equestria is now in. As Twilight runs away, Starlight deactivates the shield separating the Pillars from the Elements.
“TWILIGHT!” All of her friends call out to her as she runs away. The rest of her friends sternly turn towards the famous wizard. Rainbow Dash just about sets up to pummel the wizard for daring to make Twilight upset, before a cloud of yellow smoke stops her. Followed by a yellow hoof that boops Rainbow on the nose. “Let me deal with him…”
“Fluttershy…?!” Rainbow still is not quite used to her childhood friend taking charge more often. Though this attitude from her childhood friend was somewhat familiar, having remembered when she stared down a giant dragon. And with Fluttershy being far more confident, she probably should have expected her to more quickly turn her ire towards Starswirl for his attitude towards Twilight. Not to mention Starswirl’s no dragon, and Fluttershy’s genie abilities means she outmatches any sort of magic that even this legendary wizard could perform. Rainbow nods to let Fluttershy give Starswirl a piece of her mind.
Fluttershy teleports once more, straight in front of the wizard with a determined and focused angry stare. The wizard just slowly lowers her head to look eye-to-eye with the genie pegasus. “What do YOU want? Genie scum…”
Fluttershy spit takes to the side while still keeping an eye on Starswirl. “You know, Twilight had so much high praise for you… she’d tell almost every story there was about your heroic exploits and talent in magic. She made you seem like one of the most righteous ponies that has ever lived… but clearly you’re the kind of pony that gives credence to the 'Never meet your idols' phrase. You have no idea how stressed Twilight’s been this past week, not to mention she already knows full well that she bears some responsibility for what’s happened. She doesn’t need a snob like you in her face about it!”
“Why do you care?! You’re not even on her side anymore!” Starswirl snapped back.
“You’re not as wise as you look if you think this is about ‘sides’. Sure, we now disagree about this whole genie thing, but I am still her friend. And as long as that is the case, I shall stick up for her from stubborn ponies like you!”
“Baaaah! I refuse to take your word for it, you crammed Mage Meadowbrook into that beehive and have turned her into one of you. Why should I believe what you say?!” Starswirl raised a skeptical eyebrow
“Well, perhaps you should see how she herself feels about all this then...” Fluttershy lifts up a hoof and floats the hive that had not long ago sealed Meadowbrook inside. She gently rubs the hive, beginning a magical reaction. The hive shakes almost as if hundreds of flash bees were about to come out and overwhelm the wizard. Initially, the Wizard actually raises up a magical shield in case flash bees are in fact going to rise out and attack him. But there’s no buzzing from the hive, the hive simply spins around and pulses as the genified mage is bound to make her dramatic re-entrance. The hive compresses briefly before…
FWOOOOOOOOSH!
A cerulean column of smoke pours out of the hive’s opening, with light red and green sparks popping around it swirling all above the hive, coming to a stop a few feet above the hive, where the end of the smoke condenses into the silhouette of the legendary Mage. She fully fades in, her green dress and brown bracelet and necklace are gone. But she now has a green veil and leggings on her forehooves.
A relaxed and extended sigh could be heard from the newly refreshed and awakened genie.
“Ooooh~. Mah gosh, is this how Catrina felt? All o’ a sudden ah understand why she was so desperate t’ get this power back… it’s absolutely intoxicating! Ah don’t want t’ part with this feeling ever…” Meadow brook puts hooves on her cheeks with stars in her eyes. She then flies gleefully to approach Starswirl.
“Starswirl! You have no idea how wonder-“ Starswirl cuts the genified mage off, as he backs away “SHUSH! Get away from me! You’re not Meadowbrook!”
The mage genie gasps “h-h-h-Huh? What do ya mean? Ah’m still very much mah self! And ah’m still ya friend!”
“No, we’re not friends. Not anymore...” Gasps are heard from the rest of the pillars, as well as the currently still present members of the Elements.
Meadowbrook herself just about looks heartbroken “y-y-Y’all are abandoning our friendship… all cuz o’ something that wasn’t mah fault?!”
Starswirl doesn’t budge and drives the point bluntly. “Yes, because I told you… YOU. ARE. NOT. MEADOWBROOK!” Starswirl turns to the rest of the pillars “And I urge you all to avoid speaking to her, she’s just another enemy right now… anything she tries is purposfully trying to prey on our empathy for Meadowbrook...”
In a desperate move, Meadowbrook floats closer to the other pillars, she knows how stubborn Starswirl is when he gets a certain way but she tries to get through to the others. “Please! Listen t’ me! Ah’m still myself, and your friend! Rockhoof and Flash, ah’ve healed your combat wounds, Somnambula... ah’ve made your favorite tea that ya drink before every meditation, and Mistmane… the many plants from your homeland have been essential t’ some o’ mah best medicines”. To her credit, the rest of the pillars don’t react as coldly to her as Starswirl just did. But they either lower their heads, or just look off to the side to avoid eye contact. They want to believe that this genie Meadowbrook is still her, but a combination of not knowing quite enough about how much the transformation affected her mind, plus Starswirl is certain to be very stern with any one of them that tries to communicate. They just stand there, not saying a word.
Meadowbrook’s lips quivers, and her eyes flow with tears at the response from her friends. She sniffs and sobs. “f-f-f-f-fi-fine t-t-then… a-a-a-ah g-guess ah’ll j-just go back into the b-b-beehive…” The newly genified mage whines and whimpers before flying back into her vessel, muffled cries still being heard as her face enters.
Just seeing Meadowbrook cry like that makes most of the pillars worry about her, at least one or two of them think about rubbing Meadowbrook’s hive to get her out to apologize. But Starswirl speaks up first “C’mon, we’re leaving this place. We’re going to look for our magical items even without Meadowbrook, and maybe see if there’s some other solutions we can count on. Because it’s clear that our so-called ‘successors’ aren’t going to do anything about it…” Growls could be heard from Rainbow Dash and Applejack as he trailed off on the last sentence.
The Pillars walk off together, some of them take brief moments to look at the hive vessel Meadowbrook went back into. But nonetheless, they follow Starswirl’s lead to leave the area. Some of the Crystal Ponies talk to Starlight on whether they should do something about them. But Starlight tells them to let them through, as they are of little-to-no threat to Geniequestria in her view.
“Girls, I think I’m beginning to understand why that spell book that Twilight completed before she become an Alicorn wasn't complete in the first place…” Rarity notes once the Pillars are far enough away to not hear her.
Fluttershy then returns to face the group. “The four of you should head to Twilight’s castle to comfort her, she needs all of you right about now.”
Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, and Rarity concur. “Yeah, what Starswirl said t’ her was uncalled fo’.”
“Though what will you do, Fluttershy?” Rainbow curiously asked.
“I think I’m going to speak to Meadowbrook and cheer her up, I was the one that genified her, so I’m ultimately responsible. She herself got a rough tongue lashing from Starswirl too. She just got abandoned by her friends. She deserves to know that she shouldn’t feel ashamed for feeling great about becoming a genie. Even if I know you girls probably don’t want more genies to deal with…”
“Eh, honestly the way Starswirl treated Twilight and his supposed friend, I think this is a case where I’m actually rooting for you to help her out. Even if it means another genie is on the loose, because frankly I’m starting to feel like I’d rather not owe that jerk any favors should he somehow save Equestria without us…” Rainbow pouted
“Now Dash, if he turns out t’ find the solution t’ all our problems... we’ll have no choice but t’ have him help. Starswirl’s definitely not the type o’ pony Twilight builded him up t’ be. But if he’s anything like the legendary wizard that Twilight’s said, he may very well be one o’ our last means o’ returning Equestria t’ normal. Even if ah would not look forward t’ him lording that over us either…” Applejack clearly still a bit irritated with Starswirl.
“Let’s go see Twilight as Fluttershy suggested. I may still blame myself a little for what’s happened… but Twilight should know that we still stand behind her!” Pinkie said in determination
“Right! Let’s go!” Rainbow starts flying to the castle. Applejack, Pinkie, and Rarity begin to follow. Though then a yellow poof suddenly appears in front of Rarity.
“Rarity, could you stop for a moment?” It was from Fluttershy
“Yes…? Fluttershy, darling?” Rarity is quite curious what Fluttershy specifically stopped her for.
“Once I’ve cheered up Meadowbrook, I’m probably going to go transform some ponies I personally know for a little bit. But when I get the chance, I’d like to speak to you privately, if that’s ok with you” Fluttershy whispered
“I… suppose that’d be alright… where do you want to meet up?” Rarity asked
“Just come to my cottage when you’re ready to speak with me. I’ll soon take my vessel there, chances are I’ll be inside when you decide to come by. You’ll just need to lift the top open. Deal?” Fluttershy gently smiled
Rarity nodded “Deal, I’ll see you later then!” Rarity waves as she leaves to trail the others that went to comfort an upset Twilight. That only left Fluttershy, Starlight, and the crystal pony genie army. Starlight admittedly can do nothing but blink having just seen what happened.
“Well uh… that was a thing… huh…” Starlight certainly scored her victory over Ponyville today. Though there were certainly a few parts of this she wasn't expecting to see or feel. Such as a little pity for Twilight the way Starswirl berated her.
“Starlight, tell me. What did you think of Starswirl’s treatment of Twilight and Meadowbrook just now? Just warning you now,this is very important to me…” Fluttershy sternly asked
“Well… I would be lying if I said I didn’t find it a little funny at first the one pony Twilight historically looked up to was taking her down a peg… but even I’m feeling like maybe he went a little far there at the end… of course… don’t expect me to go with your other friends and cheer her up myself…” Starlight lifts an eyebrow and crosses her hooves. "But the way he spoke to Meadowbrook, rubbed me the wrong way more... his accusation of brainwashing is WORSE then Twilight's. He thinks we're not even the same pony we are once genified! UGGGGH, I almost regret letting the Pillars only be genified by their counterparts... the moment he said that, I felt like slamming down a vessel straight on his head..."
Fluttershy just smiles “That’s good enough for me, you’re proving you still have some form of morality despite that crystal of corruption in you. And if you still have morality, you can be taught some things. Hey, do you want to join me to go see Meadowbrook in her vessel? Could be some solid experience for you!”
Starlight rolls her eyes on the subject of being taught “No, I have some things to do. I’m curious to see see how much of Canterlot, Manehattan, and Cloudsdale is currently genified. And then I'll return to Ponyville, maybe get pampered by this town's spa, and genify a few other select ponies here and there. Which reminds me…” Starlight turns toward her genie army.
“You all may disperse and do whatever you want now, I mainly brought you all as a way to make things difficult as Twilight and the others still had the elements at their disposal. Now that the elements are no longer a problem, we can relax and do whatever we want. Have some friends here and there from outside the Crystal Empire you’d like to genify? Go for it, or if you’d like to simply go back up north to the Crystal Empire or at least in your respective vessels to relax. That’s just fine too, there’s no rush to genify every pony right this second, or even by the rest of today. What you do with your genie powers is your choice, I’ll at least recommend keeping away from some ponies that are known to have strong association with any of Twilight and her friends as I would like to leave them something left to genify themselves once they’re genies. But otherwise, go nuts~” The entire army bows and proceeds to either disperse around town, head into their vessels, or teleport far away.
“Ok Starlight, I’ll catch you later.” Fluttershy gently smiled once more
“Heh, I’ve already caught you remember… in a manner of speaking~. That phrase may apply more to your friends.” Both Starlight and Fluttershy chuckle a little
“On that subject though, I do really sincerely thank you for turning me into a genie. There’s still some things I want to work with you as we get to know each other better. But I will proudly tell you that you were right, my genification was certainly one of the best moments of my life. And I have a feeling much of what else you said to me during my transformation won’t be too far off the mark either” Fluttershy nods her head in thankfulness
“Heh, you’re too kind, Fluttershy. You surprised me when you denied my order to spy on your friends,, but I’m at least happy to have you as a somewhat willing ally when it comes to genifications. Speaking of which, how did your first one feel when you were transforming Meadowbrook? I’m quite curious about your opinion~” Starlight raised an eyebrow curious how the kind pony might take forcefully transforming some pony.
“I’ll admit a small part of me was kind of concerned at the beginning with how ponies aren’t normally willing to such a process, but it does get better as the transformation gets further along. I’ll admit being on the other side of a genification feels sort of exhilarating… I felt like I was in charge for once in my life while transforming Meadowbrook… while at the same time I know I’m helping ponies by giving them the kindest gift I know I can give them! I can’t wait to show my family and a few friends I know the way of the genie~” Fluttershy grins proudly
Starlight claps her hooves “Very nice~. Maybe I’ll pop in a few times to see a few more of your genifications if I can”
“I’d be more than happy to have you around for some of my own genifications, for now though. I need to go comfort Meadowbrook, I’ll get her in a much better mood. And soon you’ll have none other than a legend of healthcare to spread the word of Geniequestria!” Fluttershy does a flip to start flying in the air with her wings and then she zooms and shapes herself to enter the hive.
With that Starlight smirked, and expressed a deep, and long satisfied sigh. This trip to Ponyville went about as well as she could have hoped for, even if there were a few scares or unexpected moments here and there. With the Elements of Harmony out of the way, and not even Discord or the Pillars to be much in getting in the way of the spread of Geniequestria. Starlight could now afford to take things at her own pace and let things fall as they go. Now every subsequent minute, day, week, and month brings Starlight’s dreams of a genie utopia closer to fruition.
_____________________________________________________________
MAIN STORY
START FROM THE BEGINNING
PREVIOUS
NEXT (TO TWILIGHT’S CASTLE)
SIDE STORIES
FOLLOW FLUTTERSHY INTO MEADOWBROOK’S VESSEL
FOLLOW STARLIGHT TO THE PONYVILLE DAY SPA
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