The Magic Lamp

Chapters

The Magic Word
The Plan
2 Weeks Later
The Duchess of the Western Kingdom's
Dinner with the 6 Spikes
Cozy's Storm
The Duchess and the Princess
Barreling through the storm.
Llama Shy
The Week Long Storm

The Magic Word

Celestia yawned as she went to the planning room in Twilight's old castle. Twilight, having long since fully moved into Canterlot for her duties as the full-fledged princess of Equestria. Before Celestia, lay the Cutie map, around it was her team, Luna sat on the opposite side of her, and around the table sat Rainshine, Starswirl, a group of Breezies headed by Seabreeze and Fluttershy, Thorax, Ember, Shining armor, and the now fully grown Princess Flurry Heart. As Celestia walked into the room she found the same argument that always seemed to be happening.

"I've known him the longest," Rainshine said as she and Ember tried to stare one another down "Spike will want to come and stay with me,"

"Well he's known me longer on a technicality," Ember shot back "He'll want to come and stay with me in the Dragon Lands,"

"By the honor of my Ancestors I will see that Spike lives in peace where ever he sees fit," Seabreeze chimed in as he fluttered between the two before going on his usual rant "Spike once belonged to my ancient ancestor, and my family has spent generations trying to find and set him free to repay the debt we owe him, without his magic we Breezie would never have been able to live in peace," Fluttershy beamed at this.

"I agree with SeaBreeze," She said as she stepped forward.

"You always agree with SeeBreeze," Ember sighed "You've been agreeing with him since he joined the search 4 years ago, and you'll keep agreeing with him till the search ends," as SeaBreeze began arguing with Ember on Fluttershy's behalf Both Thorax and Starswirl were busy daydreaming, Luna could sense what they were thinking and chuckled at Thorax's vision of Spike as a Changeling, and of Starswirl having tea and talking with Llama Spike about his adventures since returning to Equestria.

"Order," Shining called out to no avail, followed by Flurry Heart repeating her Father in the royal Canterlot voice getting the attention of the group "Celestia's here,"

"Alright," Celestia thundered as she looked around, she held herself high before asking bluntly "Anyone have anything?" This was followed by a moment of silence before Starswirl spoke up.

"I have found no signs of Spike, his Lamp, or his magic," He replied "I think we might have to face the fact that he hasn't yet returned from your last wishes Banishment," Celestia sighed before looking at the search party

"We must stay vigilant, the day will come when he returns, and a fair number of us are immortal, we will find him, we just have to wait till the one who deserves his power finds him first"

Canterlot was in the midst of a great storm, the harsh winds blowing across the mountain had made even the most devoted of the castle guards run inside for shelter, leaving the gardens empty, among the many decorations in the gardens sat a statue that doubled as a prison for the one trapped in stone, the petrified Cozy Glow stood in defiance, having once been petrified with Tiriek and Chrysalis they had been freed so they could stand trial and in the end, they had all been separated and petrified once again, Cozy glow had no idea where Chrysalis and Tirek had been sent to spend their petrified fate, but she had been put in the Canterlot Gardens, atop a stone Petastool overlooking a section of the gardens, sentenced to remain agelessly petrified until the turn of the next century.

She could do nothing but stare without end at the garden before her, unable to blink, unable to rest, unable to do anything but wait for someone to free her. The only company she had was an odd object that she felt against her leg, It was a mystery that she felt she might never solve, She had felt it seemingly appear against her leg in her first moment of being alone as a statue, but it would disappear whenever any other creature was within viewing distance of her, and return when they had left. She had tried desperately to look at it, to find any reflective surface that might reveal to her what it was, and for the last decade or so it had consumed her thoughts.

"What are you?" She demanded voicelessly, she desperately tried to look at it before crying out into the void of nothingness "I wish I could be free of this prison, if for no other reason other than to discover what the heck is resting against my leg," At once she felt the object began vibrating and her vision was clouded by Purple smoke as a booming voice called out to her.

"Your Wish, Is Granted," Cozy jumped at the voice in shock and fell to the ground and landed in a puddle with a wet smack, she pulled herself up and shook the mud from her mane, looking at her hooves in stunned silence when she felt something metallic land against her back hoof and looked back to see a golden Oil Lamp land on it, a trail of Purple mist trailing around it, she followed the trail and found a Dragon looking down at her, and she stared at him in stunned silence.

"Oh my lord," Spike cried out "I could have gotten stuck to anyone, and I got stuck to a statue," Spike groaned "I guess I wasn't able to attach to you before you got turned to stone because I existed in the time period when Luna was freed and was trapped in Limbo until they threw me into the past," Spike groaned.

"You...you're the Princess's pet dragon," Cozy said in complete confusion.

"Yeah, I kind of got cosmic powers and went ultra crazy, then the princesses trapped me in a lamp and threw me like a billion years in the past, blah, blah, blah, got banished until someone who deserves to wield my power came around, blah, blah, blah, I wasn't able to escape from Limbo cause I existed and had to wait till I was sent into the past and my own existence was assured, then I appeared next to you and got to spend like 16 years against your leg unable to do anything because my magic was sealed off until you rubbed the lamp.

"But I didn't..." Cozy tried to say only to be rapidly hushed by Spike.

"We can either play this out and be happy that the wind and the magic sticking me to your leg resulted in a rubbing motion when you wished you were free, or we can both go back to spending the next century stuck in one spot,"

"So what happens now?" Cozy demanded, "Do I just say I wish and..." Cozy cut off when she heard the sound of many hooves tapping against the pavement.

"Cozy Glow has escaped," She heard a voice call out "Search the sky, put Canterlot on lockdown, and find her before she gets too far,"

"I wish to be far, far away from here," She said immediately, Spike's eyes began glowing and the lines beneath his eyes dissipated a little.

"Your Wish, is Granted," He declared, Cozy felt the world around her warp and found herself in a nice dry cave sitting at a table with a Kirin, a Breezie, and a Llama, along with Spike.

"Well that was two of your three wishes," Spike said simply "If I had to take a guess your third is gonna be something along the lines of being an Alicorn that can't be turned to stone or something right?" Spike was completely prepared for Cozy to take that and send him packing, instead, she looked at the creatures around her and looked questioningly at them.

"Oh those are all me, not everyone is too thrilled to see a Dragon appear in front of 'em, I try to make one for my more notable masters,"

"Well, what do I get?" Cozy demanded indignantly, earning a look from the group of Spikes.

"You know, I did spend 16 years waiting for you to make your first wish, Name your creature, no Ponies though, A Kirin is enough," Cozy looked shocked at how quickly he agreed and looked around quickly before blurting out.

"Uh...um...Diamond Dog, no wait..."

'Diamond Dog it is," Spike declared as a chair formed next to Cozy and a Purple Diamond Dog formed next to her, with a green underbelly, unlike the other Spikes the Diamond Dog had a vest and Collar instead of pants and shoes, though it still had the bracelets.

"Wait no," Cozy said as she tapped the table "Make it a girl, with less of a mace tail and more of a fluffy dog tail," Diamond Dog Spike looked at Cozy for a second before its figure changed to a more feminine one and her tail turned from a mace to a fuzzy one.

"How's this?" She said in a feminine voice making the other Spike's whistle.

"Why didn't I think of that," Breezie said irritably "Gender Diversity is what we've been missing,"

"Oh shut up," Dragon shot back before all the Spikes save for the new one dissipated into smoke.

"Well, props," Diamond Dog Spike said as she patted herself "The Genderswap is a first for me,"

"Oh, well you can give me some more wishes as a thank you," Cozy said sweetly.

"That's not how it works," She replied Cozy leaned in and flaunted Spike a set of Puppy Dog eyes.

"Oh, Pweety Pweese?" Spike was about to snap the rules in when her eyes began sparking without her consent and her eyeliner refreshed itself leaving her with two lines instead of one.

"What the...?" Spike demanded as she rubbed her face, Cozy just cocked her head at it.

"What was that about?" She asked in confusion.

"You just....got another wish?" Spike said in confusion "No one's ever done that, I can't even do that, What did just you do?" The Look on Cozy's face indicated she was just as baffled as Spike.

"I...I just said Pweety Pweese and then you..." Instantly Spike's eyes began sparking and her eyeliner was fully renovated," Spike and Cozy just looked at each other in silence.

"That's it?" Spike demanded, "That's all anyone had to do to get more wishes, ask nicely in a cutesy baby voice?"

"Yes!" Cozy Cheered "How many more Wishes can I get like that?"

"I dunno," Spike replied with a shrug "That's not in the rules,"

"Well, whoever made the rules must have left one out,"

"No one made the rules, they just appeared,"

"Didn't you say the Princesses trapped you in that lamp?" Cozy asked, "Doesn't that mean they made the rules?"

"Well...technically they tricked me into agreeing to it with a magical contract,"

"Well, then it probably says something about that on the contract,"

"Well I can't read it, the contract turned into my stupid lamp so..."

"I wish for an exact copy of the contract you signed," Cozy said instantly, Spike's eyes began glowing and one of his lines dissipated.

"Your wish is granted," she declared as a scroll appeared in between them,"

"It works," Spike said in shock, What's it say, what's it say!?" Cozy looked at the contract and read over it for a minute or two before smiling and saying aloud.

"In the event somepony who is or was the Genie's master says the phrase, Pweety Pweese, the Genie must grant that person an extra wish, even if that person has already used all their wishes, this can be repeated infinitely!" Cozy looked at Spike with a shine in her eyes and she just stared back dumbfounded.

"Oh," she said "She must 've intended to use that to wish me free," she said in realization "Man that's stupid, Why would she select that as the magic word? She's picked something so...oddly specific,"

"I got it!" Cozy declared with a smile "I wish that when the Princess first made this contract she thought up the phrase Pweety Pweese as the code word for unlimited wishes," Cozy laughed and earned a laugh from Spike as her eyes sparkled and the second wish line dissipated.

"Your wish is granted," Spike noted through Cozy's laughter "Oh man, that explains it," Spike sighed "Welp, uh...now what?"

"Now?" Cozy asked with a grin "Now I make my ultimate plan for power, but first..." She looked Spike over with a glint in her eyes "I have a few personal wishes to make,"

Author's Note

Why Cozy Glow? Why not Cozy Glow?

The Plan

Cozy and the many version of Spike all sat around a table as Cozy explained her epic plot in great detail, a plot that failed before it could even begin.

"What do you mean you can't?" Cozy demanded as Diamond dog Spike and Breezie Spike shrugged at her.

"I can't," Spike replied simply "I was imprisoned with Alicorn Magic, as such I am bound by Alicorn Magic, meaning that Alicorn Magic can defeat me and, more importantly, that I can't recreate or mimick it, as such I can't make you an Alicorn,"

"That's not fair," Cozy whined.

"Oh please your gonna get more than three wishes, that's more than any other creature in history has ever gotten, nothing about any of this has been fair for either of us,"

"Alright," Cozy grumbled irritably "Then we'll just go with Plan-B!" Cozy paused dramatically for a moment, then it became slightly less dramatic, then Llama Spike spoke up.

"There was no Plan-B was there?" He asked casually.

"Shut up," Cozy shot back as she looked around the cave, trying to come up with a plan, After another short silence she hit her hoof on the table and declared "I Wish for the perfect plan, Pweety Pweese,"

"Your wish is granted," all the Spike said in casual unison as a scroll appeared in front of Cozy, she grabbed it with her hooves and unrolled it. The Excited look on Cozy's face slowly melted into a shocked one.

"What kind of plan is this?" She demanded of the Genie.

"I dunno," Kirin Spike said with a shrug "you wished for the perfect plan not for me to make you a plan, my magic made that not me,"

"Ohhh! What's it say?" Llama Spike asked as Breezie Spike perched on Cozy's shoulder and read it around.

"Marry into Royalty and become an Alicorn through marriage," the Spike's were silent for a second before Diamond Dog spoke up.

"Wait...does it work like that?" She asked in confusion "Wouldn't Shining be one then?"

"Why are you asking me?" Dragon Spike demanded, "I'm you, if you don't know why would I know?"

"Maybe she's crazy," Llama suggested, earning a smack from Kirin.

"Same logical flaw moron," Diamond dog Spike said as she leaned back in her chair "if one of the uses is crazy, then all of the uses are crazy,"

"Wait what?" Breezie asked in confusion, before this could continue Cozy Glow spoke up.

"Can I maybe just have one of you right now?" She asked "This is hard enough as is without you constantly arguing with yourself," without a word all the Spike's stuck their tongue's out at each other before all but the Diamond dog dissipated.

"Alright," Spike said seriously as she got to her feet and made her way over to Cozy "Serious time, the sooner you get your wishes, the sooner we can get out of this cave," Spike looked at the plan and found that what Cozy had read was all that was on the scroll. "Typical magic," She groaned as she tossed it away "always a pain to deal with, Alright so we need to figure out how we get you hitched with an Alicorn I guess, and taking in your age and other things Princess Flurry heart is both our best and only bet,"

"The Baby?" Cozy demanded with a slack jaw.

"You were on ice...or on stone, I guess, for well over 17 years Kiddo, that baby is in her early twenties about now," Cozy stared blankly at Spike for a moment before rubbing her hoof over her face and fluttering her wings.

"That's not fair," She whined.

"You could just wish to be older," Spike replied casually.

"What and deal with old pony problems like back pains and taxes and hating music?"

"Then....then why are you mad about it?" she questioned in confusion "And either way you have wishes Galor just...wish for eternal youth or something, besides if you become older you'd look different, and looking not like you means ponies probably won't notice your Cozy glow, the criminal who's probably super wanted right now," Cozy muttered as she got out of the chair and began pacing around the table.

"Just...give me some time to think up how I ever go about doing this," Diamond dog Spike said nothing and instead began flowing Cozy in her pacing, with each lap around the table another version of Spike appeared in a conga line behind the Diamond dog.

There were many Guards patrolling the Canterlot gardens as Twilight and Cadance investigated the spot where Cozy had been. As the two inspected the area they were arguing in their normal talking voices. So as to avoid making a scene in front of the guards.

"...look say what you want," Cadance said as she ran her hoof over the pedal stool that once held Cozy and used a spell to inspect her hoof for anything out of the usual "But there had to of been a better punishment for such a young filly other than turning her to stone for a hundred years,"

"She's been here for over a decade and you've never once made any notion of being against her punishment," Twilight replied as she scanned the ground "And besides, her Punishment was Luna, Celestia, and Discords desition,"

"You mean the same trio that threw Spike into a time tunnel instead of trying to help him?" Cadance questioned with a raised ear.

"You know as well as I do that not doing that would have caused a Paradox,"

"Either way," Cadance said as she found nothing "I'm not saying I don't trust Celestia, but I am saying her punishment for certain crimes aren't something I agree with,"

"Well regardless I don't know how to undo a petrification spell without the Elements of Harmony, and they're not exactly around anymore," Cadance took that in as Twilight informing her that she had come up with nothing.

"And yet someone did undo her petrification spell," before either of them could begin bouncing theories on what had happened the bright light of a teleporter shone between the two

"Not just any old someone," Starswirl declared, making them both jump and turn to the old magician.

"Starswirl," Twilight cheered when she saw the old Sorcer "What are you doing here?"

"If my tracking spell is correct, I am here for Spike," he said simply as the bell on the end of his hat began glowing, the old Unicorn took his hat off and set it on the ground, the bell of his hat unlatched from his hat and rolled across the ground, coming to a rest at Cozy's vacant pedestal before rolling to a little ways towards a puddle and then returning to the hat.

Starswirl cleaned off the bell before placing the hat back upon his head. "If Spike's word is to be believed I owned his lamp longer than any other, save my students, who tragically left him in my old shack in a misguided attempt to protect the lamp from thieves using my old protection spells," Starswilrl lit his horn and he and the two Princesses were bubbled and in a flash, they found themselves in what looked to be the past.

"Whoa," Twilight said instantly "Wait, we can't use..."

"This is not Time Travel," Starswirl assured her "This is a Time window, I am simply using It to show you that," Starswirl pointed to Cozy's statue and the two Princesses looked at Cozy's leg, where Spike's lamp lay at rest,"

"Spike," Twilight and Cadance said in unison.

"Spike," Starswirl agreed, he approached the lamp when it began violently shaking and billowing purple Smoke, Starswirl took a step back and watched as Spike emerged in his Dragon form, his eyes glowing as he declared loudly.

"Your Wish is Granted," at Once Cozy transformed from a statue into a real girl and instantly jumped only to flop onto her face. Cadence looked at the young filly and frowned as she looked at her own hooves in shock when Spike's lamp fell onto her leg and she looked up at him. The group saw their mouths move but heard no sound and noticed that the spell was failing.

"Spike was always a hard creature to eavesdrop on," Starswirl said with a sigh as the spell shattered "Still if the residue I was able to track is correct, Cozy glow used her second wish as well, most likely to escape, we must simply wait for her to use her third and from there I should be able to find Spike in a matter of days," Starswirl turned on the spot before looking back and adding. "I'll inform you of the location of Cozy's third wish once I find it," he tipped his hat to the Princesses and Teleported away, once he was gone Twilight and Cadance looked to each other.

"You know," Cadance said "Spike's spent a long time trapped in that lamp, maybe he should be the one to pick Cozy's sentence, I feel he's most likely to judge her fairly,"

"I can't promise that," Twilight said before smiling "But I can promise to not turn Cozy back to stone at the very least,"

Cozy and Spike made their way out of the cave and looked at the jungle-like area they had arrived in, having decided it was best to keep on the move in case the Princess had a way to track her, Cozy had a saddlebag on her back with the lamp tucked safely inside, having wished for it to be so only she could open the bag, she had a sunhat on with her mane tied up in a bun to hide her curls, and a small dress to hide her cutie mark. Cozy herself was sitting comfortably on the back of Llama Spike, who was very visibly overjoyed to be allowed to walk with her instead of being crammed back into the lamp.

"Oh, I haven't gotten to go on a walk in what feels like an eon!" He cheered as she skipped merrily through the dense foliage surrounding them, Cozy looked at the map she had wished for and began talking to it.

"Show me where I am," The Map shimmered and she was shown the image of the Undiscovered West "Well that's less than helpful," She muttered as she rolled the map up and stuffed it into her saddlebags "I wish to go to a small town where Twilight won't find me, Pweety Pweese," Cozy felt a small burst of wind as Spike declared her wish granted and the two were walking down a plain-looking road to a small town. Cozy frowned at the sudden heat as she looked at the desert that suddenly surrounded them. "where are we?"

"No idea," Spike replied happily, As the two got close they were spotted by some of the locals, both Spike and Cozy noticed that they looked more like Horses than ponies.

"Is that a Llama?" one of them asked in shock "I thought they were a myth!" Spike stood his ground as the locals approached and declared loudly and with pride.

"I have no idea where we are," he said looking back at Cozy who groaned.

"Why am I not surprised?" She said as some of the locals approached them.

"Welcome," One of them said "it's not often we get visitors to our quiet little corner of Saddle Arabia, especially a creature such as yourself,"

"Saddle Arabia," Cozy cried out "Why are we in Saddle Arabia,"

"I dunno you're the one with the magic map," Spike shot back "How was I suppose to know?"

"Ah," The horse who had started the conversation said "You are lost travelers, you are quite lucky to have found us then, the closes settlement is over a week's travel from here,"

"We'd have been fine," Cozy said with a determined smile. "We have tons of supplies," The Horse looked at her, then at Spike.

"But you seem to have nothing on you save your saddlebags,"

"It's stored away with magic," Spike said simple "easier to carry, lot less likely to be stolen out from beneath us, common Trader trick,"

"Traders?" The Horse asked, a spark of excitement in his voice "You must be on your way home from the Traders market in the capital!"

"Yeah," Cozy said, using the opportunity to fabricate a false backstory "We kind of...got lost,"

"We maybe if someone had a map of Saddle Arabia we wouldn't have gotten lost," Spike snapped back.

"You're the one who forgot to pack it," Cozy shot back.

"You're the one who didn't wanna go back and get it,"

"I was not gonna cross the ocean just for a stupid map," Before Cozy and Spike could continue trying to think of a way to blame the other the Horse interrupted it.

"Well I have a map of Saddle Arabia, If you'd be willing to set up shop in our town for a few days while you rest from the heat I'd be more than happy to give it to you,"

"Deal," Cozy decided "Do you deal in Currency or item trades?"

"Oh don't worry, just like the capital we'll offer up both," The Horse made his way into the town and the duo followed their guide, Spike still ecstatic just to be out of his lamp.

2 Weeks Later

Spike and Cozy looked at the stall they had been given for trading, it was an absolute mess and the location was terrible, being perfectly positioned to catch all of the suns heat but catch no cooling breezes. Spike and Cozy where given paper work to sign that Cozy had Spike magically complete, and the two where now sitting in wait, hating the stall they where in.

"I hate this," Cozy declared irritably.

"Your the only one of us with any say so, we can just leave, don't really need his map, could just wish one up,"

"No," Cozy shot back "We'll stay a while, I wanna see who's going to be tracking me, that way I can plan my schemes accordingly while also throwing them off trail,"

"look I'm just saying," Spike said as he leaned his neck down and whisper to her "One wish to be an adult and they'd never know it was you, I mean your gonna have to do it anyway if the plan to marry Flurry heart is to work, doubt she'll be willing to get it on with you the way you are now,"

"Shut up," Cozy spat at him "I wish for this broken down stall to be fixed, and alluring to the towns people so we can get to business. Pweety Pweese. Spike smiled and reeled his neck in and gave his nose a bop, Cozy watched as his eyes spun like a slot machine and Landed on 7's with one glowing on his forehead.

"Your Wish, is Granted!" Spike cheered as neck popped out like a jack from a box and the stall around them swirling around them and in the blink of an eye was embellished with fine silks and furs, spices and exotic fruits where set up in front of them, and a set of magic fans where set up on display and blasted the duo with cooling air.

"Alright where all set up," Cozy called out loudly, the stall very quickly attracting a crowd "We sell, we buy, and we trade! Please speak to the Llama if you have any questions about merchandise we don't have on display, And to me about making purchases, selling goods, or potential trades,"

"It's strange," Starswirl said as he and his team looked over the cave that Cozy and Spike had once been housed in "no...it should be impossible," Starswirl looked back at his team, consisting of Ember and Rain Shine, both of whom where giving each other the dead glare instead of scanning the cave like they had been asked to. "I can't say how, but it would seem that Cozy has not only used all three of her wishes but exceeded them,"

"What do you mean exceeded?" Rain Shine demanded, losing interest in her squabble with Ember "Spike can only grant three wishes per master, I tried desperately to get just one more so I could keep him and we found nothing,"

"Well, it would seem that Cozy Glow has found a way around this, although how she has done so is beyond me, I had Spike for years and failed to find any way to exceed the three wish restriction, I wonder how..."

"Who cares," Ember cut in abruptly "It doesn't matter how many wishes she has so long as we find the lamp and give it to Luna or Me, or any of his other none masters, infinite wishes won't mean a thing if Spike is freed from his enslavement," There was a moment of silence before Starswirl nodded.

"You're not wrong, and once he is free we can always ask how she did it," Starswirl looked around the cave in silence before nodding "Ember, Rain Shine I need you both to examine the area surrounding the cave, see if Cozy walked out or if one of these wishes was used to take them to a different location," The Duo split apart from one another, neither wanting the deal with the other as they began slowly scanning the farthest reaches of the cave. Starswirl sighed at the two's behavior before turning back to the unnatural table donning the center of cave and scanned the area where Cozy had made multiple wishes, trying to figure the number of wishes and see if any had been to keep her hidden from being tracked.

Cozy yawned as she lay on the bed, leaving a hefty coating of sand on it as she did so, she quickly wished the room clean with a pweety pweese and was content to enjoy the bed as Spike jumped on the other and split into all his forms, all forming a dogpile on top of one another. The Dragon, Kirin, and Llama all crawled under the covers in different positions, now wearing Nightcaps, and instantly fell asleep, the Breezie and The Diamond dog both lay atop of the sleeping Spikes and began casually playing the most confusing looking game of chess. Cozy had several questions to ask the Genie and had indeed already asked a few while they had spent their day in the Saddle Arabian traders market.

"You really can't fully fall asleep?" She asked.

"Trust me," Breezie said as he moved a piece across the board with all his might "I have tried so hard to slip fully into unconsciousness, it would have made those centuries in the lamp slightly more bearable, but the best I can do is to split my mind and leave some of it to sorta rest,"

"You should probably get some rest, aren't you antsy to fall asleep for the first time in over a decade?" Diamond dog asked as she moved a piece using only her left foot.

"Are you...sure your still one person?" Cozy asked, ignoring the Diamond dog's notion of sleep and instead looked over at all the different versions of Spike "Cause...you argue about some of the weirdest thing,"

"No idea," Breezie replied casually before licking one of its pieces and leaving it to move of its own accord. "I've spent countless centuries with nothing to do but...well, play this stupid game with myself, and talk to my self I guess, nothing much else to be done," Cozy watched as the two versions of Spike played their odd game of chess, exhaustion slowly gnawing at her before Diamond dog gave a sigh.

"Cozy you have been in a constant state of awareness for 16 odd years," She said as she got to her feet and made her way over to Cozy, the Breezie following after her as the chessboard melted away, The Diamond dog took a seat on the edge of Cozy's bed and the Breezie getting nice and comfy on the bed frame. The look on Cozy's face was all Spike needed to figure the problem.

"Listen Kiddo," Breezie said as he pointed at himself "If you're that concerned about Twilight tracking you down, or that Princess Luna will find you in the dream world...just wish that she can't, or wish for something else just as good, you got yourself a loophole, ain't got to be picky choosey with your wishes so long as you use the magic word,"

"Exactly," Diamond dog said as she picked up Cozy and carefully tucked her into the bed "and besides, you got all of me watching over ya, and so long as I'm out of the lamp I can do a lot of things to stop most creatures from messing with you,"
Cozy looked at Spike in silence before replying.

"I wish to be safe while I sleep, Pweety Pweese,"

"Don't worry kiddo," Breezie said as he fluttered down and patted her head as Cozy let her exhaustion take her to the dream world "Your wish is granted," They waited until she was sound asleep before getting back up and jumping back on top of themselves and continuing their game of 5th-dimensional chess.

"Well that was sweet," Breezie said to Diamond dog, "aren't we just a sweetheart.

"So?" Diamond dog shot back "almost 2 decades trapped in stone, she's probably gonna have nightmares for the rest of her life at best,"

Spike and Cozy waved their latest customer good bye as the sun began setting in the sky, it had been 2 weeks since their arrival in the town and thus far they where a hit. The two had noticed the Horse who had first met upon entering the town talking with some rather regal looking horses, and had yet to receive the agreed upon map of Saddle Arabia from him, Much to Cozy's irritation. She'd made a quick wish for Spike to keep an eye on him and had left it at that.

"I think we've fallen for something," Spike said as he scratched his chin "We have less coin then we did yesterday, some of the furs are missing, and someone nicked my Favorite fan,"

"What more no Equestrian Search parties have come searching for me," Cozy said with a groan "Spike I think it's time we packed up and split," Before Spike could agree, He suddenly with stiff and his eye's began glowing and he spat out a small crystal ball with the horse who had brought them into town laughing as he took a sack of gold coins and passed the regal horses from a few days prior some papers.

"Pleasure doing business with you, you'll find them working the stall down the lane, A Equestrian Pegasus, either a child or short no one's sure, and the agreed upon Llama," Spike gasped as the crystal ball evaporated.

"We're being slave traded!" Cozy said angrily as she spotted a set of horsed in armor making a B-Line for the stall "Spike set the stall on fire and lets scram," Spike hocked a loogy that caught on fire and Cozy jumped on his back as he jumped the stall, the two rushed from the now flaming stall as the Armored Horses rushed after them.

"Halt in the name of the Duke of the Western Kingdom's,"

"I don't live here," Spike called back as he high tailed it down the towns pathway "Call me when a Princess is involved," Spike continued running as the Guards gave chase before looking back at Cozy "Why are we running exactly?"

"Eh, no drama in life if we just poof away from every problem, Spike I wish that guy in the lead would trip, and the one next him would have their armor fall off.

"Your Wish, is granted," Spike reapplied, The Two watched as the guy tripped and his spear slashed his fellows armor, The guards armor fell apart and reveal a Horse mare who skid to a halt and let out a scream as she tried to cover her shame for some confusing reason.

"Never understood why ponies do that," Spike said as he turned his attention forward "Like we're not all running around naked at all times," The two continued running as Cozy wished a comedic fate upon any of the guards in her line of sight, from getting smacked from a granny horse, to having a flower pot fall of their head and make them lose balance. The two's fun was abruptly cut off when they took a turn and Spike ran full throttle into a shield barricade of guards. Cozy and Spike lay sprawled on the ground, Cozy sporting a bloody nose and Spike's neck being full of kinks with his eyes spinning in their sockets. The two where lassoed together and dragged across the ground and tossed before the Horse who had sold them, and another fabulously dressed horse whom they assumed was the duke.

"Damaged goods," The Duke said, snatching his bag of coins back from the Slave Trader "We'll have to negotiate a new price, Sets of spears where pointed at the Horse, who shook before them.

"It's...it's not my fault they ran, there was no way for them to know!"

"I want my map," Spike demanded "Or so help me I'll...do whatever she tells me to do!"

"He'll do it," Cozy threatened "he's crazy," The Duke waved to his guards.

"Have the short one's wings clipped and put her to work in my kitchen, Send the Llama to my tailor, I want a lavish new cape this time next week,"

"Your gonna skin me," Spike demanded "Dude that's messed up, Llama's are like endangered or something cause I'm the only one I've ever seen, and I've lived a long time believe me," As the Guards began dragging them away Cozy smiled.

"Hey Spike," She said as she looked at all the guards, obeying the duke without hesitation or question.

"Hm?"

"I wish to have the Duke's title, power, and all that comes with it, Pweety pweese" Spike smiled as his eye's began glowing.

"Your Wish, is Granted," He declared merrily as Reality began shifting around them.

Author's Note

Luna does still have one wish left.

The Duchess of the Western Kingdom's

The sands of Saddle Arabia filled the air as winds blew around a small town that was in the middle of a celebration, on the outskirts of the town Shining Armor, Flurry, and Starswirl were making their way towards the town, all wearing protective clothing to both shield themselves from the sandy winds and to hide their faces from Cozy, Starswirl looked at the map he was holding in his magic before looking back to the Saddle Arabian town before them.

"This is the place, Cozy's last wish was made here about three days ago,"

"So she's most likely hiding out here with Spike," Shining said as they entered the outskirts of the town.

"That or she noticed she was being tracked and has already gone into hiding, planning her next move,"

"For someone who says they specialize in tracking you sure took your time finding out where they'd gone," Flurry noted as she looked at the Horses of the town celebrating like no tomorrow. food and drinks were in abundant supply, and the entire town seemed to be covered in a barrier protecting it from the wiping winds and the blowing sand, "What's going on?" She questioned "I don't know a lot about Saddle Arabia but I don't think there are any holiday's happening anytime soon,"

"Who knows," Starswirl replied as he looked at the partying natives "Maybe that sand protecting barrier is new, seems like the kind of thing you'd celebrate when you live in the center of a desert," Starswirl looked around and rolled up his map, "Alright, you two look around and see if this town has a leader, we'll need their permission if we want to bring an investigative team here to search for Cozy and Spike, in the meantime I'll see if I can pinpoint how many wishes were made here," Starswirl dropped the bell from his hat and followed it as it began tracking traces of Spike's magic.

Shining and Flurry watched him for a moment before turning to a nearby restaurant that was overcrowded with horses and they made their way in. As they headed inside Flurry stopped as her sensory spell informed her that something had been staring at them for a fair amount of time. She looked around but gave it up when she failed to spot the one watching her and entered the restaurant. On a Roof across the street from her, Breezie Spike fluttered up a little and smiled.

"About time," he said with a chuckle before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Shining and Flurry's time in the restaurant was short as their question of who was in charge of the town had been answered by nearly the entire establishment with a hearty cheer to the Duchess of the Western Kingdom. Flurry had been given a drink on the house while Shining had been filled in on the town's recent events.

"Apparently," Shining said as they exited "This town had a big problem with slave trading, and this Duchess of the Western Kingdom moved her entire lively hood here and has been stamping the problem out at the source, the towns own local government,"

"What's a Duchess?" Flurry asked as she tried to pinpoint the title to somepony in Equestria.

"It's what Prince Blueblood actually is," Shining replied simply "A Rank below that of a Prince, Blueblood just demanded to be called a prince and then started firing any of his staff who called him otherwise," Shining looked to his daughter and noticed the look on her face. "Oh, but don't worry, I'm sure not all duke's and duchesses are like Blueblood,"

"I hope not," Flurry said with a groan "It'll make this impossible,"

"She moved her entire life to a random providence to help stop the slave trade in her country," Shining pointed out as they made their way to the town hall the Duchess was currently residing at, "I'm sure her heart's in the right place at the very least," Due to the town seemingly celebrating the arrival of the Duchess the streets were mostly empty and The two made their way to the town hall fairly quickly. The Townhall was fairly large in size, and outside of it, a set of guards were dragging a horse to a cart where he was desperately screaming for forgiveness as he was thrown into a cart and was driven off, still pleading to be set free. Shining and Flurry watched the scene play out before making their way to the hall, where a small line of horses stood, all holding different papers. Shining and Flurry were about to ask if this was the line to see the Duchess when a female voice spoke up.

"Hold the line, I see a couple of Lost Equestrians in the back," The Line looked back at them as what looked to be a Diamond Dog made its way down the line towards them.

"I'm very sorry," She said "But this line is an aid line for those who have lost family members to the slave trade, if you are lost there's a hotel you can spend the night in and you may come tomorrow to ask about accommodations back to your homeland," Flurry walked up to the Diamond dog and removed her coat, letting her wings show freely as she picked the cloth up with her horn. "Oh," The Diamond dog said bluntly as the line goers all stepped away from the Equestrian Princess "I was not told of an Equestrian Princess coming to see the Duchess," The Diamond dog scratched her chin with a bemused look "That said I doubt I have the power to stop you from speaking to the duchess regardless of if you have an appointment or not," A set of guards approached and the Diamond dog waved them off "As the Assistant to the Duchess I'll take you to her personally, I'm sure she'll be happy to see you, not that she can stop you either,"

The Trio walked past the line, Shining looked at it and realized that the papers they were holding were pictures of lost family members along with document's probably relaying information on who had taken them, he quickly noted that most of the line goers only had pictures though. They made their way into the Hall and after some walking arrived at a large set of doors.

"Um...please be quiet upon entry," The Diamond dog said politely "There's a trial going on at the moment, the Duchess will see to you after it is over" She put her hand against the door, and revealed that the large door was just the wall made to look like a door with the actual one hidden inside of it. The Trio made their way in and found a horse standing in the center of the room, before a glamorous throne sat an Equestrian Pegasus, she was taller than most with light pink fur and a long blue mane. She was wearing a white dress so her cutie mark was hidden from view, She had larger than normal wings extended their fullest as she glared silently at the cowering Horse. She paid no mind to Flurry or Shining as the Diamond Dog motioned for them to stay put and rushed to the Duchesses side. The Duchess didn't look away from the Horse as she reached out and lightly patted the Diamond Dog's head once she came to a rest next to her.

"I..." The horse said feebly and the Duchess struck her hoof down and hit the floor, cracking the marble at her feet as she did so.

"You have nothing," She declared "I have several families who have confirmed they saw their missing members with you before they went missing, Furthermore you were caught attempting to smuggle exotic creatures through the city, including but not limited to a young Dragon, a Kirin, a Breezie, a Llama, and the Very Diamond Dog that now stands at my side,"

"Please," The Horse said abruptly "I had no idea she was yours when I..."

"This Diamond dog is my assistant not my Property," The Duchess said as she struck the floor again, "Regardless you will be shipped to the Eastern mountains to spend the rest of your days working in the mines, Take him away," The Horse started begging as the guards dragged him out. The Duchess watched this as the Diamond dog whispered to her. The Duchess turned to Flurry and Shining as she drew her wings back in and stood on her hooves. as she approached a Brown Kirin with a Pink mane slunk out from behind the throne and removed the broken marble floor and quickly replaced it before sliding back out of sight.

"Greetings," She said with a bow.

"How," Shining asked with a raised brow "Did an Equestrian become a member of Saddle Arabian Royalty"

"I was taken from my homeland at a young age by a group of slave traders, and was bought from them by a set of noble folk who couldn't have their own child, They have long since left me behind, not that I care too much for them, they were prominent in keeping the slave trade alive, upon their death I took claim of their estate and soon after began dismantling the slave trade. Truth be told I am now living here after a failed attempt on my life, the would-be assassin originated from this town, so I am here to clean it of its dirty trade and help the locals regain their lost family's,"

The Duchess turned her back to them and made her way back to her thrown, upon taking her seat a blue Breezie with a white mane fluttered in and whispered into her ear.

"Tell him he will be in charge of the next few trials, we have Equestrian Royalty visiting," The Breezie fluttered off and the Duchess looked to Shining and Flurry "Now then, what might I aid you in?"

"We're looking for an escaped Convict," Shining said simply "She was last seen in this town, at least three days ago if our tracking is good, we've come to ask your permission to search for her in your town,"

"Permission granted," She replied with a smile "And might I add I appreciate you taking the time to ask me," Shining and Flurry bowed and the Duchess bowed back "Please do tell me if you find them, and you can use any of my guards for help if need be," After a quick thanks Shining and Flurry waved the Diamond dog off and teleported back to where they had left Starswirl.

"She seemed nice," Flurry said "What a pleasant surprise," Shining didn't say anything as he scratched his chin in thought

"That Duchess has the same color pattern as Cozy, what more her list of slaves from that trader are all things Spike has been noted to turn into, and I never saw her Cutie mark, if that is Cozy, then we'll need to tread lightly, this entire thing could be a trap of some kind," He looked to Flurry and smiled "Flurry doesn't seem to have thought of it yet, so I'll have to keep her in the dark and see if she spots anything suspicious while not looking for it," Aloud Shining called to his Daughter "It occurs to me that if Cozy is still around she'll probably be going after the Duchess, might be planning to start a war between Saddle Arabia and Equestria, Flurry, while we search for Cozy, keep an eye on the Duchess if Cozy makes a move against her I'll need you to stop her,"

"You got it dad," Flurry said with a salute

Cozy sat in silence as Spike scratched her head.

"That went super well," Diamond Dog Spike said as she looked to Cozy "Shining's suspicious, as planned, and Flurry's going to be keeping you safe from....you,"

"Good," Cozy said with a smile as she extended her now super large wings "I have to say I wasn't expecting the age thing when I wished to be the Duchess, but I am loving being this big, I can finally reach the top shelf without having to fly," Spike smiled at her and Cozy patted her head again. Kirin Spike poked out from behind the throne and started scratching at his wrists.

"Careful," Cozy said to him "If you scratch too much you'll disrupt your glamor, be pretty hard to play to fool if they see you in your true colors, along with the eyeliner and the golden cuffs,"

"Ah, but Glamor's are so itchy," Kirin whined as he rubbed the air over his arms.

"I wish they didn't bother you, Pweety Pweese," Kirin Spike let out a large sigh of relief.

"Ah thank the stars," he sighed as he flopped onto his back, "Oh and about all the missing..."

"I wish for them to be found in a quick but believable way, Pweety Pweese," Cozy said simply "Now, let's get Dinner started, I could use a bite and I need to see how all the rest of the you's have been doing in their roles as head of staff,"

Author's Note

A bit different that the other chapters but it was a lot of fun to write.

Dinner with the 6 Spikes

Cozy made her way to her private chambers and, after making sure the door was locked, took her dress off and looked at the spot where her glamour was hiding her cutie mark. The many versions of Spike were already in the room and were busily causing a mess as they attempted to prepare Dinner, Thanks to their glamors they all had different colors and clothing than they usually did.

Kirin Spike was Brown with a Pink mane and had a White Collar and a Torn red Bow around his neck. Breezie Spike was Blue with a white mane and had a plastic play fork strapped between his wings like a weapon. Diamond dog Spike had the typical coloring of most Diamond Dogs along with a vest and a Golden collar with red gem embroidering. Llama Spike was Bright orange Wool with pink fur on his face, lower legs, and ears, and had a neon green neckerchief resting on his head. Dragon Spike had gone a different route with his disguise and had changed the type of Dragon he was He was Dark Blue with light orange undertones on his belly, ears, and head spines, his head spines were thinner and had fin-like webbing on them, he had webbing between his fingers, had fins on his arms, lines on his neck that would turn into gills if he entered the water, his tail also now ended in a point with retractable fins on the end.

Cozy watched Sea Dragon Spike walk past and chuckled when he sneezed and his tail fins popped out like a kite. He looked over at her irritably and she held her chuckle back.

"I'm sorry," She amended "But you were the one who didn't wanna just change the type of creature you were," Dragon muttered something and continued on his way. Cozy made her way to the table and found that the many Spikes all seemed to have a different idea as to who was sitting where. There were a total of 6 chairs lined the large table, and an assortment of Burt or half-cooked dishes lined the table, each chair had the name of one of the Spike's species on it and every few seconds they would swap randomly, save for Dragon, who had the other end by default thanks to being the original Spike. Cozy took her seat and looked at the unappetizing foods before her.

"I wish for an extra cheesy vegan Lasagna and some sugary green tea Pweety Pwease," the table was moved in magic and a giant Lasagna took center stage, along with a cup of warm tea, the Spikes all chaotically began taking seats and in the end, the chair to her right housed the Kirin, the one to her left remained empty as Breezie instead sat next to the main dish and began attacking one of the corners with his plastic fork. She Ignored the empty seat and partook of the meal.

Cozy cut herself a slice and began eating, the Spikes stayed oddly silent as they also ate from the Lasagna, save for the Breezie, who was being very vicious about how he ate, stabbing his food violently until it could fit into his mouth. Cozy reached for the parmesan and Kirin Spike passed it to her, she thanked him with her full mouth and sprinkled some on her food before placing it to her left, as she began eating again she spotted Kirin Spike take it and began coating his food in it. Something felt odd about that and after a moment she blinked and swallowed her food before turning to Kirin Spike, who was now on her left and pouring Parmasain on his food, then to her right, where Kirin Spike was also still sitting and cutting his food up with a knife.

"Hold up," She said when she realized there were 2 Kirin Spikes sitting at the table "What's going on with this?"

"Well," The Right Kirin said "We , or I , was talking and realized...the most dangerous part of your plan is, well me," Kirin Spike motioned around "We, or I, Realized that since we know everything there's a chance one of us will mention something we shouldn't know, and in the event, you end up in a dangerous situation, I'm the only one who can really do much since the others don't naturally have magic and would have to give up who they are to help, and after some talking and planning, Cozy we would like to introduce you to-" Kirin Spike pointed to her left, and she looked to the Left Kirin Spike, who was no longer a Kirin, it was now a Purple and Green Changling with small green Horn like antlers that bent outwards, with eyeliner and Golden cuffs,

"Hello," She said happily "I'm Changling Spike, I exist now," Cozy looked at her for a moment as the Changling activated her own personal Glamor and turned her Purple light Orange and the green Blue. Cozy just stared at her for a moment before motioning to Dragon Spike.

"Why didn't you just make yourself a Changling?"

"Would have ended up the same," All of the Spike's replied in unison "Only Dragon would have had to stay in the lamp the entire time," Cozy groaned "Your such a confusing creature?"

"Good," Breezie replied as it wielded its plastic fork like a Tritant as it stabbed its food "Genie's should be confusing," as Changling Spike now revealed the Spikes became their normal noisy Selves. Cozy looked over the Changling Spike and was conflicted, unsure if she should just act like there was more Spike, or if she should go on her theory that Spike's solitude had driven him to make his other sentient creatures based on himself their own selves. She decided for the moment to go with the first, knowing the Spike would just end up arguing with one another and instead Spoke to Spike as a collective.

"That's a very smart idea, Thank you Spike I appreciate the help," The Spikes all waved her off, save for Breezie who rubbed his own chest proudly before going back to his lasagna massacre. "So, how do you think we should play this?"

"Just make it real," Diamond dog replied "When you try to make Flurry fall for you,"
"fall for her," Dragon Suggested as he ate a cup of tea.
"lust for her," Breezie added in between stabs.
"want for her," Llama concluded "Want her so much that you forget the original reason you even wanted her was for Alicornhood!"

"Or unpetrify Chrysalis and have her teach you that mind control spell she once used on Shining," Changling Spike recommended, The other Spikes all stopped what they were doing, Even Breezie stopped mid-stab and looked at the Changling with a heartbroken look on his face, as though Changling had betrayed its trust "Was I not supposed to say that one out loud? Because we were all thinking it," Cozy chuckled as she put her hoof on her face.

"I appreciate the concern, but I'm trying to win Alicorn hood, and if I were to wish Chrysalis unfrozen then..." All the Spike cried out in an attempt to stop her when they realized what she was about to do but instead were forced to follow the rules as one line of makeup disappeared from all of them and they sadly called out.

"Your wish had been Granted," They all facepalmed and Cozy stood up.

"What!? I wasn't wishing for..."

"Warning," Dragon Spike said "Be careful what you say cause if you say, I and wish, and then something after in the same sentence it counts as a wish whether we like it or not,"

"I wish she was stone again, Cozy said immediately, the Spikes just all sadly shook their heads.

"We can't do that," Breezie said simply "Being turned to stone, while technically leaving your mind alive, kills you on a biological level since it replaces all your living tissue with lifeless stone, We can undo that easily, but we can't petrify any creature," Cozy looked at the Spikes for a moment before her ears slowly went flat as the fact of what she had just done hit her.

Alarms were blaring in the Chrystal Empire and the Guards rushed to where Chrysalis's statue was being held, All they found upon arrival was an empty pedestal. Chrysalis flew as fast as she could away from The Crystal Empire, Laughing madly as she looked at her stolen prize in her hooves, Her crime was realized when she exited the boundary of the empire and the barrier keeping eternal winter from the empire broke.

"The Crystal Heart!" A Guard cried out "The Crystal Heart has been stolen by Queen Chrysalis!"

Author's Note

and then the Chapter ended with an ending that I'm sure no one was ready or prepared for!

Cozy's Storm

Cozy was sitting down with Breezie Spike. All of the other versions of Spike were busy doing their own part of her new plan.

"Alright," Cozy said "So we find Chrysalis and tell her she either works for me or I'll turn her over to Cadence," Cozy spoke slowly as she made sure not to use the words I, or wish in the same sentence, "Then when that eventually works, I'll tell her I freed her so she can help me with the mind control spell,"

"Sounds good, Sounds good," Breezie nodded as he motioned his hoofs for her to continue "And then?"

"And then I need a plan that sounds really good but is doomed to fail so she gets captured and I can continue with my own plans to become an Alicorn," Cozy looked over to Spike, who was nodding.

"What can go wrong," He asked with a chuckle as he took roost in her mane "You ready for this," Cozy took a deep breath and made her first wish "I wish I could change between The Dutchess of the Westernkingdoms and Cozy Glow Pweety Pweese,"

"Wish Granted," Breezie noted. Cozy lifted her hoof and bopped her nose, in an instant she snapped into her original look, being the child villain Cozy glow, once she did so Breezie's Glamor dissipated.

"Oh I don't miss this," She grumbled as she looked at her chair, it had been a nice fit when she was in Dutchess form, but now that she was in Cozy mode she couldn't even reach the desk. She looked up at Breezie "Is Changling in position?"

"She's should be arriving about now," Breezie replied as his eyes went white to check in on the other piece of himself.

Changling Spike was flying at impossible speed as she shot through the cold winter winds, instantly finding Chrysalis, who had been fallen by the cold and was weakly still trying to escape with the Crystal heart. Changling hit the ground with no noticeable impact and merrily skipped across the snow.

"Hello," She called with a wave to Chrysalis, why blinked at the Changling walking towards her and fired a magical attack, It hit Spike and did nothing as she continued advancing. Chrysalis took a step back and continued blasting away until Spike came to a rest a little ways away from her and yawned. "Are you done?" She asked happily "Because I recon you have maybe 4 minutes before Cadence pinpoints you, and I'm sure Cozy Glow will have hated to waste her time freeing you only for you to get caught again,"

"Cozy glow?" Chrysalis demanded with a chuckle "How? That tiny little Pony is a simple Pegasus, she could never-"

"Alright look I don't have time for this," Spike said with a groan "She used me to free you, also Hi I'm the Genie of the lamp, all-powerful creature, I turned Luna into Nightmare moon, blah blah blah," Spike rolled her hoof "Anyway Cozy sent me to save you, under the condition, you place yourself at her mercy and become her subordinate,"

"How dare you!" Chrysalis said, clearly about to go into a power rant.

"2 minutes before Cadence finds you," Spike declared with a shrug making Chrysalis falter "Oh well, I guess we can use Tirek instead, Bonus we can use you as an example," Spike turned around and began walking away with a little skip in her step "Enjoy being stone again,"

"Wait," Chrysalis called out as she began chasing after the Genie, struggling in the snow as she did so "Come back, join with me instead of Cozy!"

"Not how Genie's work," Spike called back casually, "But hey if you change your mind, feel free to call out to me and say you'll serve Cozy," Chrysalis watched as the Genie faded away into a puff of smoke and stood her ground breathing heavily in the snow before moving as fast as she could, frost now developing on her wings as she held the Crystal heart in her magic to increase her speed. True to the Genies warnings within Two Minutes a Blast of Magic hit the earth in front of Chrysalis, forcing her to a stop, flying above her was Cadence with a unit of Pegasus Guards.

"End of the line Chrysalis," Cadence said as she lit her horn and easily tore the Crystal heart from Chrysalises grasp, causing the Changling to fall forward in her feeble attempt to keep the heart. Chrysalis looked up at Cadence who just shook her head as she handed the Heart to a Guard who shot back to the empire with it"Fool, why do you think you were brought to the Empire? you never had any hope of escaping through the eternal Winter," Cadence lit her horn and Chrysalis saw only one path forward and cried out.

"Genie!" as Cadence shot the spell her eyes went wide at the word and she watched as her spell hit a second Changling, not phasing them in the slightest as they held a hoof to their ear and mockingly hasped.

"dost mine ears deceive me?" she asked "I think you forgot apart,"

"I'll serve Cozy Glow," Chrysalis said in defeat.

"I'm sorry, that was a little hard to hear," Spike said as Cadence landed, staring at the Purple and green Changling as she realized who it was.

"Spike?" She asked in shock.

"Not now," Spike said waving her off "I'm mocking Chrysalis, Now say it louder,"

"I'll serve Cozy Glow," Chrysalis Cried out.

"See was that so hard?" Spike asked as she booped Chrysalis on the snout and she vanished on the spot. Cadence silently stared at the scene before her as Spike moonwalked over the spot Chrysalis had been laying.

"Oh I am the best at my job," Changling Spike waved to Cadence, "Sorry Cadence, nice to see you again after 10,000 years and what not but I got a master to serve so I can't stay to chat," Changling Spike Jumped up and rocketed away so fast that Cadence didn't even have time to think of following before Spike was gone. Cadence looked at where Spike had been for a moment before her main question finally came out.

"Was he a she?" She asked her guards.

a light wind was blowing across Ponyville as Applejack and Rainbow sat on a bench, looking up at the sky and watching clouds, happily arguing with one another.

"You'd break your legs," Applejack replied simply, much to Rainbow's irritation.

"I would not, I could easily clear out a full field of Appletree's before you could, I'm way faster, and stronger,"

"In some areas maybe," Applejack agreed "But I've felt your kicks before missy, and they ain't got half the grit needed to do an entire field," Rainbow was about to retort but stopped when she noticed an odd swirling starting in the clouds.

"There's not a storm scheduled today," She said as she saw some of the clouds starting to go dark. The Two mares got off the bench and headed for the source of the swirling. "Probably some fool trying to play a prank or something," Rainbow said as she flew ahead of Applejack. She came to a stop and found an odd sight, When Applejack caught up Rainbow pointed it out.

"That's a Kirin right?" She asked as she pointed to the Purple and Green Kirin walking around in a circle and loudly talking to itself.

"No it had to be me, not one of the others Me's that could fly, no let's send the Kirin to mess with the weather, Stupid me," The Kirin stopped and sighed "Maybe I am Crazy, Hey Applejack do I look crazy?" Applejack and Rainbow looked at one another as the Kirin waited for an answer.

"Um, I don't think I know you," Applejack said in confusion.

"Really?" The Kirin asked "I thought for sure I knew you, maybe all that time in the lamp did affect me,"

"Lamp?" Rainbow asked before it clicked "Lamp! Spike!?"

"Ah-ha!" Spike laughed "So I do know at least one of you," Spike smiled before stopping "Wait, who are you?" He gave Rainbow a once over "Scootaloo right?"

"What!?" Rainbow lost all interest in the storm "It's Rainbow Dash!" She said defiantly "the coolest pony ever!"

"No I don't think I know you," Spike decided as he continued walking in a circle, Rainbow had no response and just stood there looking offended.

"Spike," Applejack said as she walked closer to him.

"Wait so you do know me?" Spike demanded "Man this conversation has not helped in any way," Spike did another lap, only for a Llama to appear in the center and look up at the storm.

"You're not done?" The Llama asked.

"I've been busy talking to them," Kirin replied as the storm grew worse, the Llama looked over and waved.

"oh hey Rainbow Dash, whos your friend with the hat?" Rainbow and Applejack were at a loss for words as the Kirin came to a stop.

"That's Applejack," The Kirin Spike said "How do you not know who that is?"

"You didn't recognize me," Rainbow called back angrily.

"How do you not know who Rainbow is?" Llama asked with confusion. "Where the same creature,"

"I dunno," Kirin groaned, "I think we are crazy,"

"well we did spend over 9,000 of our 10,000 years alone in a lamp," Llama noted "So being crazy is not exactly an astounding discovery,"

"That's it, storms ready," Kirin said as he stopped walking in a circle, "Sorry, but Cozy wished for it, you have like 20 minutes before it turns into a real monster, have fun,"

"Bye Hat pony," Llama said happily "Later Rainbow Stay cool," The Llama and Kirin walked over the Bridge and Rainbow shook her head.

"Why are we just standing here?" She demanded.

"I'm so very confused about what just transpired," Applejack replied "I just didn't know what to do or say to any of that," Rainbow Flew over the bridge and found the 2 Spikes had vanished.

"Storm Warning," Rainbow yelled out to any of the parks goers who could hear before turning to Applejack "AJ go warn the town I'll try to break this sucker up," Rainbow Flew at the swirling mass of storm clouds and a few other Pegasi park goers joined in.

Twilight groaned as she received more of the same news from one of her guards, she asked them to get Celestia for her and sat on her throne rubbing her head, she sat in her throne as she waited and after a few minutes Celestia made her way into the throne room.

"What's happening?" Celestia asked with concern in her voice.

"Spike has been spotted causing storms all across Equestria," Twilight groaned "We have reports of flooding in Manehattan, and a massive wave had taken out the Railroad tracks leading in and out of the Crystal Empire, what more the storm is messing with magic, only one spell is effected, Teleportation, and to top it all off if you try to fly the winds will pick up and you'll be sent safely to the ground in a tiny tornado, It sounds like a disaster but there are no casualties as anypony who is put in danger is immediately saved by the storm itself,"

"But Cozy has effectively trapped us in our own home," Celestia noted as she heard the sound of winds and looked out to see a mass of clouds beginning to swirl near the castle, at the same time they heard someone humming and quickly rushed to the source of the noise, finding Spike in his Dragon form spinning his hand around and creating the storm.

"Twilight," He said when he saw her "it's been centuries, for me at least, how was life without me?" Twilight said nothing and instead rushed to Spike and grabbed him in a tight hug, crying as she held him. Spike smiled and used his free hand to patter her gently "Oh, I've missed you too,"

"Celestia's going to make sure you're freed," She said as she held on tightly to him "She and a few of your old masters and friends are searching for you,"

"Oh, Rainshine and Starswirl?" Spike asked with a smile "Oh I've missed them, but I doubt they'll be finding Cozy anytime soon, this is quite some wish she's made, the storm will die down to light rain but the effects will remain until she decides otherwise, so no Teleporting or flying, and it will follow anyone who intends to find me, so if you do figure out were that old lamp is your gonna have to take a long way,"

Spike looked up at the sky before eyeing Celestia and adding "Oh, and I'm still fairly miffed at you for both throwing me 10,000 years into the past and for being left on a table for 30 years only to be instantly banished for over a thousand years, so I am spitefully not giving you anything even close to a hint as to where I am," Spike stopped as the storm began and patted Twilight as he walked away. Without warning, he turned on the spot and used his left hand to pull on his lower eyelid and stick his tongue out at Celestia before vanishing.

"I figured he'd still be mad," Celestia said with a sigh, "Well Twilight, I'll leave you to your own devices, I have a team to rally together, and it seems our trip to Saddle Arabia just became a lot trickier," Twilight said nothing as she silently looked at where Spike had vanished while Celestia left. After a while, she got up and gave the area one last look before going to her guards to inform them that Flying and teleportation was to be bard across Equestria until the storm could be dispelled.

"Alrighty," Breezie Spike said as his eyes stopped glowing white "Chrysalis is in place, and all the other me's are waiting for us,"

"Good," Cozy said "I wish to be in the town square with a barrier protecting me from any attack, Pweety Pweese,"

"Your Wish is Granted," Breezie replied. In the Town Square, Shining and Starswirl were talking about Cozy with Flurry standing in front of them.

"I've already told Celestia," Starswirl said "She and the rest should be arriving soon,"

"Good," Shining said, "Flurry while we all search for Cozy I want you to stay with the Dutchess, we need to make sure Cozy doesn't try and start an Equestrian war," Before Flurry could reply her eyes went wide.

"Dad," Flurry said cautiously as she took a step back, Shining and Starswirl followed her gaze, and Found Cozy glow standing a fair ways away from them holding the Lamp. Starswirl instantly tried to snatch the lamp but his spell simply coated the Barrier around Cozy.

"Did you come all this way just for little old me?" Cozy asked sweetly "How nice, but you know, this place just feels so dry. What do you think Spike," They watched as Breezie Spike popped out of the top of the lamp and looked around.

"Oh, hey guys. Yall might wanna run," He said before adding a wave "Hi Starswirl, I've missed you,"

"I wish for a Monster of a Rainstorm that will make it impossible to fly and mess with Teleportation, Pweety Pweese," Breezie Spike sighed and took flight, his eyes glowing and he grew in size, the trio watched as he grew to the size of a house.

"I've never seen him so big before," Starswirl said as he took a step back, "I think we should follow his advice and make for cover," Breezie Spike held his hoofs together and blew on them, blowing out Storm clouds from his mouth and spinning his hoof in a circular motion, causing harsh winds to begin hitting against the sand barrier surrounding the town. Cozy frowned when she saw that, having forgotten she had wished for it as the Dutchess to keep the wind from blowing sand in her eyes.

"Uh," She said looking at the barrier and playing dumb "The heck is that thing?"

"A Weather Barrier," Shining said with a smile, they watched the storm take form as Breezie Spike declared the wish granted and disappeared in the massive storm, the rain began falling and went past the barrier, but it did keep the winds at bay. Cozy gritted her teeth and shook the lamp, making Breezie pop out.

"Hey!" Breezie said angrily "your shaking up all my stuff,"

"You didn't tell me there was a barrier," Cozy said angrily.

"You didn't ask," Spike replied. "You could just wish it gone,"

"I don't need this town to hate me, I need them to hate them!" Cozy replied angrily, frowning as she looked at it, but then smiling before looking to Shining armor.

"I wish for the Barrier to Crumble if Shining Armor leaves this town, Pweety Pweese,"

"What!?" Shining demanded as Spike shrugged.

"Your Wish is Granted," Shining and the Barrier both started glowing for a second before it died down.

"You have got to be kidding me," Shining said.

"oh and the rain still messes with your teleportation, but feel free to try, no telling where you'll end up, but if it's outside the barrier, it crumbles and this town is turned into a wet Sandstorm!" The Trio rushed at Cozy and attacked her Barrier, to no avail, "I don't have time for this, Spike I wish to be taken to where the rest of you is,"

"Your wish-" Spike said before he and Cozy vanished.

"Great," Starswirl said irritably "Now Shining is trapped here and our backup is going to be delayed greatly by this storm,"

"I really hate that kid," Shining said with a groan as he moved out of the wet sand and onto the sandstone road. Flurry however was looking up at the large swirling storm.

I've never seen Cozy Glow before," She said as she looked up at the rain "But something about her seemed...odd to me,"

"I assure you she's just like that," Shining said "Come on let's go to the hotel and figure a way out of this out of the rain," Shining and Starswirl made their ways down the Sandstone road but Flurry continued looking at the rain, trying to pinpoint what exactly it was that had made Cozy Glow seem off, after a moment it hit her that is had been her use of wishes, more specifically how she had ended them all.

"She says the phrase Pweety Pweese a lot,"

The Duchess and the Princess

Cozy found herself sitting on a throne elevated above a large room with a staircase on either side leading up to her. The room was large and had no windows or doors in her line of sight. Sitting at the bottom was a very angry Chrysalis, who had a shackle around her neck.

"You tried to make a run for it," Cozy noted when she saw the shackle, Chrysalis didn't say anything and opted to not look at Cozy "Unfortunately for you by agreeing to work for me you've sighed a magical contract, so until I release you you're stuck in my service,"

"I hate you," Chrysalis responded "I'll find a way out, and when I do..."

"I'll have Spike turn you to stone," Cozy bluffed casually, "Now then on to more important matters, Spike I wish for you to send three of your duplicates to slow down the members of Starswirls team who have yet to arrive for as long as you can, Pweety Pweese"

"Llama, Breezie, and Kirin you're up," Dragon Spike decided, The three alternate Spikes instantly ceased to exist in the room, off to do their task.

"Spike I wish for Chrysalises magic to be sealed until I saw otherwise Pweety Pweese,"

"Can do," Changling Spike confirmed with a casual salute.

"Alright, you three follow me. try your best to get comfortably Chrysalis, but not too comfy since your trapped her with no way out," Cozy got up and walked towards Chrysalis in silence.

"What that's it?" Chrysalis demanded, "you Free me, then you enslave me, and now you send me to my room without supper?"

"Not gonna lie," Cozy said, lying her ass off as she spoke to Chrysalis "The Genie may have jumped the gun of freeing you, by like a month or so, not even sure I need you yet, so just sit around and get comfy, your basically plan c, and plan A is still going strong,"

Chrysalis was about to retort when a magic chain forced her mouth shut, she gave muffled protests as the chains around her limps moved her like a puppet and made her walk away.

"I have a lot to do, so go hang out in your room, if you get hungry or thirsty the Changling Spike will get you something to nibble on, see you later. I wish to be in my Room Peety Pweese," Cozy and her three remaining Spikes dissipated out of the small room while Chrysalis marched unwillingly to a lavish room situated directly beneath the throne, snuffly placed between the staircases.

Cozy appeared in the room she slept in as the Duchess with Changling, Dragon, and Diamond Dog Spike all standing around her, Cozy pressed on her nose and became the Duchess once again, with the three Spikes taking on their glamors.

"Alright, Diamond Dog with me, Changling creep around and be a slight jerk, Dragon go to the kitchen and complain about being an amphibian trapped in the desert," Spike mumbled something as he snapped and disappeared, Changling casually opened the Window and walked down the outside wall to begin spying on random members of The Duchesses staff and spread gossip.

The Duchess and Diamond Dog walked causally out of the room and barely made it down the hall before Flurry heart turned the Corner and slid to a halt.

"Why hello again," The Duchess said in a casual tone of voice "How goes your hunt for that convict?"

"Oh, not too good," Flurry replied casually "We found her, but she made it rain, and now..."

"Oh wonderful," The Duchess cut in with a smile as she looked out the window, her plan slowly beginning to fall into place "I'd make an announcement about the drought coming to an end but I'm sure all the townsfolk have noticed," Flurry looked out the window and saw a fair amount of celebration as Horses of different shapes and sized all held out different kinds of containers to catch the rain in.

"How long have you been in a drought?" Flurry asked with as casual of a tone as she could pull off.

"Nearly a month now, quit the predicament, since we're so deep in the desert, The town has managed thanks to the reserves, but they were beginning to get dangerously low, we had two weeks left at best," The Duchess chuckled before adding "Maybe don't tell the town your convict made it rain, I understand your hear to capture them, but I'm a politician so if the masses want her to stay I'll have to grant her amnesty in order to avoid problems in the future, assassins are surprisingly cheap when you hire them to go after some creature they don't personally like so I'd prefer to stay on everyone's good side,"

"It's a tad too late for that," Flurry heart groaned "My Dad went around telling everyone Cozy caused the storm and not to attempt to teleport, What more if he attempts to leave your town limits he'll destroy your wind barrier,"

"He'll do what!?" The Duchess demanded "Well you tell him that barrier requires a lot of alchemy, magic, and thousands of coins to craft, It's Sandstorm season, and believe me when I tell you they can last upwards of weeks without the barrier,"

"Don't worry, he won't leave unless he's forced to," Flurry assured her "Once we catch Cozy we can use...what she used to curse him to uncurse him," The Duchess took note of Flurry's care to not mention Spike and made sure to remember it to see if it could be used for anything later.

"Well, you best tell him if he does break it he better run his ass all the way back to Equestria, Saddle Arabians are not all too forgiving when faced with the threat of Sandstorms,"

"I'll make sure to tell him," Flurry assured her "But for the time being I've been tasted with guarding you personally.

"This is working well," The Duchess decided before saying aloud "very well, I lack any real power to stop you, either way, so follow if you must, if you need anything my Dog will happily fetch it for you," Flurry looked back at the Dimond dog and she quickly spoke up.

"I don't have a name," She informed her "And I don't want one so please don't try to name me, you ponies all come up with the most demening names," Flurry pursued the matter no further and walked alongside the Duchess and Dimond Dog as they headed to the judgment room to prepare for the day's trials.

"So...do you have a name or..."

"Duchess will do," The Duchess replied simply "Names are a formality, and I'd rather not get too attached, I doubt you'll be returning once you catch your prisoner,"

"Hey, I could come back," Flurry replied with a huff "I can go wherever I want to if I feel like taking a vacation,"

Author's Note

The next chapter will be longer, sorry for the long wait.

This chapter was released because 2tail said Pweety Pweese

Barreling through the storm.

Kirin, Llama, and Breezie Spike all popped into existence atop a speeding train in the middle of Cozy's rainstorm, Llama opened his mouth to get some water, Kirin began screaming in delight, and Breezie struck a superman pose.

"I'm on a train," Kirin Spike cheered "Oh it's been millennia,"

"It has not been that long," Breeze chastized "It's only been a little over ten thousand and thirty or so years," Breezie squinted before shrugging "I dunno that sounds right so I'm gonna stick with it, so where are our distraction targets?"

"If we're on top of the train," Llama rationalized, he swung his head down and swung his face into the roof "They must be in the train,"

"Congratulations Einstien," Kirin retorted to Llama, "Never would have figured that one out on my own,"

"But Your me," Llama countered "So technically you did figure it out on your own,"

"Oh, can we cut it out with that stupid joke?" Breezie pleaded "It's starting to annoy me, so it's also probably annoying most of the rest of us," Inside the Train, safe from the raging storm sat Fluttershy, Seabreeze, a handful of other Breezies, Thorax, and Rainshine.

"I Never really got time to get to know him," Rainshine said with a sigh as she and Thorax talked to one another, "But he has been a shining light of inspiration to me, I just hope he never finds out about the whole spring of silence fiasco, not my proudest moment as a leader,"

"Spike is single handily responsible for setting me on the path that led to me becoming the leader of the changelings, and that was before he had magic mind you, trust me, he's worth being an inspiration, the thought of getting to see him again is what's been keeping me going these past few years, it's been lonely without him, I can't even begin to imagine what you must be going through though,"

"Well, I can at the very least assure you that your friend Ember hasn't made it easy these past few years," Rainshine grumbled irritably "She's been very forward with her demands that Spike be sent to live out his endless years in the Dragonlands when he should be allowed to pick where he goes, and I can't imagine she'll be happy when he decided to come live with me,"

"Spike is a very caring Drag...Genie," Thorax scratched his chin for a moment "He'll probably work out a shared custody deal, travel around, and spend a week or two with each of us individually on a visitation rotation,"

"So long as he's happy he can go where ever he pleases," Seabreeze cut in, his four followers agreeing with him in their native language.

"Regardless of what he wants, we should give Spike some time to enjoy being free," Fluttershy said with determination "He's been stuck in that lamp for a long time, I'd hate to imagine the psychological trauma he's gone through, spending so many years trapped and alone,"

"I wouldn't say alone," Llama noted, he and the other two Spike using magic to watch and listen to the group from the comfort of a few seats over "I always have myself for company,"

"I hate you," Kirin retorted bluntly as he looked out the window.

"We're you," Breezie retorted, Llama looked over to the group and found they hadn't heard him as the Breezies had seemingly started singing a drinking song against the wishes of Sea Breeze.

"Oh well," Llama shrugged "We switched the train tracks so now it's slowly heading inland instead of to the port side town that will take 'em to Saddle Arabia, that should slow them down by a few days at least, and since we have to slow 'em down for as long as possible I guess this bit of us get's just to chill,"

"5th Dimensional Chess?" Kirin offered the Llama as the game that had been the direct cause of their Cosmic Powers materialized on the table.

"I think I'm gonna go play with them a little," Llama decided after a moment "We have free reign so long as we keep them from going the right way for as long as possible,"

"You and I then," Kirin noted as Breezie took point across from him and Llama went to cause havoc.

"...sometimes I miss him sure," Rainshine said as she and Thorax did their best to get to know one another "My brother was abusive, and maybe with time he would have grown to be a better person, but Spike was right to be against giving him eternal life, he was put to work building an irrigation system when we first arrived in the grove but ended up killing 4 other Kirins in a failed escape attempt then ended with him impaling himself on a stolen spear,"

"I'm sorry to hear that," Throax said "My brother and I didn't always have the best relationship, but thanks to a little help we've managed to patch things up, we still fight sure but I suppose I should be grateful he didn't take the path yours did,"

"Seems those two are getting along fine," Sea Breeze noted as he took a swig of Breezie ale, a thimble of milk with one speck of sugar within it, "Shame the same can't be said about the Dragoness, she seems to harbor resentment towards all of us, save for the Changling," Sea Breeze was about to take another swig when he and all the other Breezie's suddenly froze "Why is the train going faster?" He demanded, as his four followers began panicking.

"Looks to be going the same speed," Thorax replied as he looked out the window.

"I'm a Breezie, I always know when I'm close to harsh winds, and the ones caused by the movement of the train are starting to pick up, slowly mind you, but it's never done this before,"

"Maybe they've been ordered to pick up the speed so they can shut down the train lines," Rainshine pondered curiously.

"I can go and ask the conductor," Fluttershy offered, "You guys hold down the fort for me ok,"

"I'll go with you ma'am," Sea Breeze said at once as he took flight and placed himself atop Fluttershy's head. Fluttershy left Thorax and Rainshine to tend to the remaining Breezies and headed to the front engine to speak with the conductor. "It's really picking up speed now," Sea Breeze mused with concern "If this continues we could de-rail should we come across any turns,"

"All the more reason to speak with the conductor," Fluttershy replied calmly "He's probably just trying to get home and out of the rain," Fluttershy made her way through two empty train cars before arriving at the front engine, said engine had a sign signifying that all where welcome to enter and speak to the conductor. Fluttershy obliged and entered the control room. instead of finding the conductor she was met with a very fluffy-looking pony with its head sticking out the window, no other pony in sight was controlling to now noticeably faster train.

"What is this?" Sea Breeze demanded as he looked around in a huff " Where's the pony in charge?" Fluttershy walked over to the pony with their head out the window and poked them softly.

"Excuse me have you...seen...the..." Fluttershy's voice fizzled out as the Llama before her reeled its neck back in from the window and twisted it around to look her in the eye. She stared silently at its' Emerald Green eyes and it's eyeliner before fully realizing who was standing before her.

"Spike?"

Llama Shy

Llama Spike twisted his neck around as he inspected Fluttershy, Sea Breeze was still preoccupied cursing out the nonexistent conductor for leaving his post.

"Why hello," Spike Greeted Fluttershy in a polite tone "It is indeed I, Spike the Great Genie of the lamp," Llama let out a prideful snort before looking back at Fluttershy "Pleasure to meet you! now who might you be, oh, and do tell me how you recognized me, was it Starswirl maybe? I love that guy, How's he been? Wait I just saw him in Saddle Arabia I know how he's been, Still very Bearded If I might say," Llama merrily skipped past Fluttershy, blissfully unaware who she was as he inspected Sea breeze with interest. Sea Breeze took mild offense to be snatched out of the air, but his rage fizzled out similarly to how Fluttershy had when he saw the Llama. Sea Breeze instantly latched onto Spike's hoof with all his might.

"We found him, Fluttershy get the others, I'll hold him in place until we find a way to free him,"

"Aw, that's so cute, it reminds me of those blocks from the old Breezie cave, I felt so bad when they tried to stop the lamp from launching into the horizon, although in retrospect the Lamp beat the ever-loving daylight out of me for it," Llama easily slunk out of Sea Breezes might grasp and pulled a random lever among many "Any who, you two where with Rainshine and that Moose looking fellow so I assume your two of the creatures Cozy has instructed me to stall for as long I and the other two me's are able,"

Llama merrily waved at them again "So I guess it is nice to meet one or both of you again?" Llama gave them both a once over before shrugging "Or maybe It's nice to meet one or both of you for the first time," Llama waved a magic-coated hoof, and the Train began violently shaking as a steering wheel popped out of the floor and the Llama grabbed hold of it, Now sporting Goggles and a long scarf as it turned the wheel and caused the Train to jump track and barrel across the neighboring body of water that had been created by the rising flood water accumulating across Equestria. "Well Regardless, Good luck stopping me, and sorry in advance" Llama raised his hoof to the still dumbfounded Fluttershy and Sea Breeze and with a simple circular motion teleported them both back to their seats to the shock of their companions.

"What's happening?" Rainshine questioned as Thorax remained preoccupied trying to stop the Breezies from giving themselves panic-induced heart attacks due to how fast they were currently going. "This Train seems to be going off the rails but also seems to be moving normally?"

"It's Spike!" Sea Breeze said as Fluttershy simply sat down, staring ahead of herself still dumbfounded at the event she had just taken part in. "Cozy glows sent him, or parts of him I guess, to stall us,"

"Spike is here?" Thorax demanded as he finished using his magic to settle the panicking Breezies to sleep.

"Not all of him," Sea Breeze corrected "He didn't recognize Fluttershy, and he referred to you as a Moose,"

Thorax looked hurt at the statement before a familiar voice cut into the conversation.

"Don't feel too bad Thorax, That Crazy Llama didn't recognize Applejack either, think he's gone mad," The group all turned to the voice and watched as Kirin Spike placed a piece down on a chessboard and spoke calmly as he did so "Randomizer Dolphine,"

"God dammit," Breezie Spike said angrily as he materialized a Fork Trident and threw it at the Kirin angrily "This is why we've been stuck on the same game for 10,000 years, Just let me win you dick!"

"But if you win you also lose," Kirin noted casually.

"That joke stopped being funny a thousand years ago," Breezie snapped.

"But didn't you technically make it?" Kirin shot back with a smug look. "This never stops," He added as both he and Breezie stared at the group "I have spent centuries doing nothing but this and it just gets worse with time,"

"Spike" Rainshine rushed to the Kirin Spike who, jumped up and accepted the hug he had been eagerly waiting for since Rainshine had made her last wish.

"Oh I missed you," Spike noted as Rainshine chose no favorites and pulled Breezie Spike into a hug too.

"You were always my favorite master," Kirin noted as he held onto the friends he had spent so much time wishing he could see again "But I can't stay, I have a new master, and I have to stall you so..."

"You're stalling me," Rainshine said without hesitation "I'm content to stand here for the rest of time if it means I get to be with you again,"

"Alright so I have dibs on this," Kirin said without hesitation as Breezie Spike slithered out of Rainshines hug "Breezie you go distract Thorax, and his new Breezie buddies,"

"Of course, I'm the one who has to actually go out and do stuff," Breezie grumbled irritably as he fluttered forward to the trio already standing at the ready.

"Allow me to introduce myself," Sea Breeze managed to say before Spike spoke up.

"I know who you are, you're not the one who was my master, but you are a part of his lineage, Dunno if you knew that but regardless I do want to apologize for not making it plain what would happen after the third wish, your ancestor wasn't really picking up what I was putting down and I probably should have noticed, it all just happened so fast you know, didn't even get the poor guys name, But I do know yours, so to you, I say Hello Sea Breeze, sorry about that time I messed with the winds and caused that whole ordeal with your team trying to slack off with Fluttershy,"

"The Apology is mine to deliver," Sea Breeze replied calmly "Because of you so many Breezies have known only peaceful days, My wife and child included, and I vow to see you freed of your chains as payment for the wishes we forced upon you in ignorance,"

"That's very kind of you," Breezie noted before turning to Thoarx, who got all he needed from the look on his face "Oh don't pout at me, I'll be honest my memories of you are hazy, but I mostly know who you are Thoarx, not entirely sure why you went from classic changling to candy Moose, Guess Kirin got those memories, but it is still nice to see you again, how's Ember? still a ball of rage?"

"Who's Ember?" Kirin Spike pondered in confusion.

"Don't worry about that right now," Rainshine said in a soft tone "Your mind's been damaged by thousands of years of solitude, I'll help you with that once we've freed you of that lamp,"

"Yes," Thorax noted with a smile "although her rage is mostly aimed at Celestia, Luna, and Discord nowadays for what they did for you,"

"Well in their defense they were plugging a Paradox," Breezie noted "But in Ember's defense I also Hate them with ten times the intensity of the Sun!" Breezie let out literal steam from his ears before quickly adding "You tell Discord that as soon as I see him I'm kicking his ass, this mess is all his fault," Breezie continued huffing before shooting across the room and landing on Fluttershy's nose.

"So, you must be Fluttershy," Breezie gave her a once over and simply shook her head "I'm sorry I got nothing, on you or whoever that Applebuck Kirin saw was, I think back to the good old days and I have fond memories of partying with Pinkie but..honestly that's about all I got, Some Thorax stuff, a little bit of some pony named Big Mark I think, a lot of Ember stuff, and Pinkie Parties, nothing much outside that thought, Maybe Dragon, Diamond dog, or Changling have all your stuff with-"

"Changling!" Thorax lost all interest in letting Breezie have a personal one-on-one with everyone present before they had their forced conflict "What's he like, how tall is he, Wigns, horse, or both? Tell me everything,"

"I dunno She a recent introduction to my..." Thorax fainted and Breezy just kind of stared at him in confusion.

"Wha...what?" Breezie looked around bemused before Sea Breeze spoke up.

"Oh, pretty sure that one's gay for you, like specifically, so you having a female version of his species might have overloaded him,"

"Oh, that's...sweet?" Breezie fluttered over and poked Thorax with a small kick to the face "Man I am great at stalling,"

Shining sat angrily on a bench in a cell, The Duchess, Flutter Heart, and Diamond Dog in disguise all standing outside his cell.

"I'm very sorry about this," The Duchess said as she put one of a hundred keys into the cell lock and failed to open it "My guards heard about your curse and...reacted without my content,"

"It's fine," Shining muttered angrily "Not the first time I've been thrown into a hole," as Shining patiently waited for the Duchess to try and find the correct key Flurry decided to fill in the silence with some good and bad news.

"So, the good news," She said with a little hoof movement to get her father's attention "Is that Crystal balls still work well enough through the rain, but we can only so far receive messages from the Crystal Empire. the bad news is that Cozy wished Chrysalis Free and Spike swooped in before Mom could contain her and sent her away, presumably to wherever Cozy is hiding out in Saddle Arabia,"

"So we have limited communications but can't send them anything back, and Chrysalis is free, all while I'm still stuck in this town?"

"Not ideal," The Duchess agreed as she managed to finally find the right key to free Shining "But maybe if we boost power to the barriers we could keep enough of the rain at bay to let you send a message out, probably not a long one but it might work,"

"It's worth a try," Flurry replied with a determined look in her eye "How would we boost your barriers power?"

"I'll take you to the battery chamber, our knock-off Crystal Heart if you would, I'll explain the process once we get to it," The Duchess pulled the cell open and allowed Shining to exit before shutting it behind him and handed the keys off to the Diamond Dog, who took the keys and, the second the Duchess stopped looking at her, proceeded to toss em behind her back without much care.

"You're a terrible assistant," Shining noticed.

"Yes that is true," Diamond Dog replied casually. The Group began walking down the hall and Flurry began striking up a casual conversation with the Duchess

"So does the Duchess have a first name?" Flurry asked in as casual of a tone as she could.

"I probably had one once," She mused blandly "But I wasn't all that old when I was sold off, the only name I was ever really refused to as back home was the Equestria child and later the Duchess so I suppose Duchess is both a title and a name,"

"Over dramatic backstory," Shining noted to himself " I'm dam near confident she's Cozy, but if she is Cozy then this Diamond Dog-" Shining looked over the Dog in question, who didn't seem the least bit interested in conversation, Shining was trying to think of a way to get the Diamond Dog to admit it was Spike when The Duchess spoke up.

"Diamond Dog could you go look over the reports of yesterday's court cases for me? I suspect I may be busy for quite a while and the prisoners not already sentenced by me need to be given a location to be sent. Oh and do remember the mines are only for slavers, any other crimes of that day should be given the proper prison sentence,"

"Alright," The Diamond Dog replied informally before turning around and walking in the opposite direction of the group. Shining watched the Dog leave, just as it was about to round the corner it turned back to face them and stuck her tongue out at him in a mocking fashion before disappearing around the bend, it was too obvious for Shining's liking and multiple ideas began sprouting in his mind as Flurry and the Duchess began talking about how The Duchess had set up the barrier.

"Could it be that Cozy wished for the Duchess to look like her exact duplicate? Wouldn't she notice? or did she wish she always looked like her, it's even entirely possible she wished for several of her attendants to look like Spike forms and also just wished it was always like that, this situation is bad, any leads could be rendered mute with a simple, I wish that wasn't true from Cozy, she has power beyond power with unlimited wishes, our only chance is the get Spike's lamp and wish him free,"
Just as Shining was about to try and come up with a way to pinpoint Cozy a nasty idea popped into his head, "What if she used a wish to make Spike adore her? or Wished they were best friends or something...Starswirl said you can't wish for love but if Cozy found a way past one rule, maybe she has a way over all the rules. Would...would freeing Spike be too dangerous?" As Shining tried to figure out how he would tell Twilight or even any of the others that had spent countless years looking for him that freeing him immediately might be part of Cozy's plan and that doing so should be delayed until it could be proven without a doubt Flurry noticed the look on his face.

"What's wrong?" Flurry asked with concern, The Duchess also looked back at him as she slowed to a stop, Shining looked at them for a moment before speaking "Flurry and I need to find Starswirl and have a quick chat, would you mind working on strengthening the barrier without us?"

Llama was taking care to steer the train off course, having been ordered to slow them down but been told not to straight out stop them he was having fun mindlessly driving them across the open waves, any creature that could be in harm's way being picked up by the storm and set down at the closest safest spot. Llama stuck his head out the Window and enjoyed himself for a moment, in all his thousands of years inside the lamp this was the first time he had ever gotten to do something without hefty restrictions and commands, an old Sea Captain had once used a wish to have the Genie save his ship and he had gotten to drive it for a few minutes but that had been the captains only wish before his crew had revolted to take the lamp and it had resulted with it being thrown into the ocean.

"Those eighty years in the ocean were kind of fun," Llama recalled, "although I don't think I was there, it was only the first three I's but I am still us so I do remember enjoying the ambiance of the ocean as we played a fairly spirited game of Cosmic chess," before the Llama could properly recall if that time in the ocean had been the one ended by a fishing net or the time a large fish had eaten the lamp and then fished out of the ocean the door to the cap opened, Fluttershy entered the room alone and walked up next to Llama Spike.

"So," She said awkwardly, having already been told she was the current goal of the mission was to stall them and that there would be painful punishment for a failed wish none of the creatures trying to save Spike had even an ounce of desire to let him be harmed even if it did mean they might save him faster. "You don't remember me?"

"Oh don't take it personally," Llama replied cheerfully "I definitely remember you and it's not like I'll suddenly forget you, it's just that when Rainshine first used the lamp I turned into a Kirin, and then when our time together ended I kept both the Dragon and the Kirin form on in the lamp, as time went on we kind of sorta just got stuck and just kept some of Spikes memories, we could probably swap the memories around if we felt like it, but only the mortal memories got scrambled, any memories made as a Genie are known to all of me,"

"I'm sorry," Fluttershy told the Llama as she petted his back "It all happened so fast and...and all because I went to the Library on that day of all days, and because I brought Discord with me..." Fluttershy's voice cracked and Llama Spike in turn patted her head without a hint of malice terminating from him.

"If you hadn't the universe would have exploded into a million bits," Llama replied casually "Kirin history would be different, Starswirl wouldn't have lived long enough to do whatever it was he was doing I don't really remember, he wouldn't have used me to make the tree that born the Elements of Harmony, even Nightmare moon wouldn't have been around to forge Twilight's friendships," Llama laughed "think of all the history you creatures just because of one trip to the library with a Chaos God!" Fluttershy didn't say anything immediately before asking another question.

"You remember Twilight?"

"I have no idea who that is," Llama replied merrily "But Dragon talks about her sometimes, I got a lot about Pinkie and a little about Rainbow Dash, Kirin got mostly memories about someone named Rarity and a little about some pony in a hat which I think was named after a fruit?" Llama muttered something that sounded like Applehat but shook his head "I just saw her I swear what was her name?"

"Applejack?" Fluttershy smiled back, feeling the tinge in her heart usually reserved for one whose loved ones had forgotten everything.

"Applejack," Llama agreed "No clue who she is but Kirin seemed confident about knowing her, Maybe Breezie remembers...no wait I think he got the ones about you or at least some of the ones about you?"

"Would you like to come sit with us?" Fluttershy offered, she expected the Llama to make a merry comment to the question, properly throw a joke in but he just stared at her slack-jawed.

"Would I?" He asked in confusion "Huh, being with Cozy Glow has been fun," Fluttershy frowned at the comment before the Llama elaborated "This is the first time in ten thousand years somepony has asked me if I want to do something, not even Starswirl did that" The Llama smiled, the most genuine Smile Fluttershy felt she had ever seen "No," He decided "No I...I wanna drive the train and enjoy the rain," The Llama was practically shaking with excitement at the simple word, No.

"Oh, well if you want to come sit with us, it's entirely up to you, so feel free to come when you feel like it," Fluttershy took great care to emphasize that he could do what he felt like doing and could see the excitement dashing in his eyes at the idea of doing something, just because he wanted to do it," As Fluttershy walked away she decided, personally, to advocate for a lesser sentence on Cozy, entirely because she had, purposely or not, been the one who had set up that moment and allowed Spike to taste true, unfiltered, freedom for the first time in what must have felt like forever to him.

the Trio of Shining, Starswirl, and Flurry sat in a room, the Duchess had allowed them to use her quarters, Starswirl had a simple silencing charm around them and the noises of the light rain outside were cut off. Starswirl and Flurry stared at Shining as he finished speaking, something that could only be called poorly covered hostility was coming from Starswirl, as though he knew Shining was right, but still wanted to hate him for saying it out loud.

"He's been in that lamp for ten thousand years," Starswirl said in a forced tone of calm "My single greatest regret was and still is not freeing him, in truth I only avoided doing it because he told me he knew the future and that he had to remain in the lamp to avoid a paradox, my original plan for my Time Travel spell was to travel into the future and give him to my future self," Starswirl let out a huff, "I thought I was being so clever, I can't cause a paradox if I just send you to point after you're thrown into the past," Having somehow turned his frustration at himself Flurry cut in.

"Dad we can't do that," She decided "Even if he was made to be enthralled with Cozy, he'd still be equally enthralled with Rainshine and Starswirl and Probably Twilight, Ember, and Thorax to. At worst he probably just wouldn't let us turn her back into stone and insist her sentence be spent with him or something,"

"Kiddo, she broke one rule, for all, we know she could have broken them all. when it comes to this level of magic, we have to take precaution upon precaution when the rules are bypassed." Shining rapidly swept his gaze around the room nervously as he spoke, clearly unsure the charm would do anything "I'm not saying we don't free him, but maybe we have Luna hide him away until Cozy's natural time runs out, and then-"

Starswirl cut into Shining's words when he began howling with laughter "You honestly think that young Pegasis hasn't already joined me in the eternal realm?" He questioned "If you're that concerned then first we give the lamp to either you or Flurry here and wish to undo all of Cozy's wishes, no all her harmful wishes, I know Spike, and he always told me he hated the idea of some chump getting his mitts on the lamp and just going, I wish away all their wishes, so we should wish away the storm but avoid undoing any of her other wishes, loophole or no loophole Spike was never one to be handed a cheap wish and respond with a fair one,"

"You know this how?" Flurry asked inquisitively.

"Oh well a few years after finding him a few thieves broke in and found the lamp before I had it under protective charms, they wasted all their wishes trying to out petty the other and, since I still had a wish, once they both ran out of their wishes the lamp flew right to me, I arrived halfway through and let me tell you Spike Monkey pawed them something fierce," Starswirl smiled at the memory before noticing the looks on Shinings and Flurrys face "What?" he asked in confusion.

"You're telling me, you have confirmation that if someone still has a wish and someone else uses all their wishes the lamp will fly to the one who still has a wish?" Shining demanded.

"Yes?" Starswirl replied, seemingly not understanding the problem.

"Then why did we spend all those years looking for him?" Shining demanded angrily "Luna still has a wish, if and when he was found and the wishes were used up he'd just fly to her!" Starswirl stared at Shining for a very long moment of silence.

"Huh," Starswirl noted.

"HUH!" Shining snipped back "That's all you've got!? HUH!?" As Shining began having a meltdown at the time they had all wasted trying to track down if any pony in Equestria had made a wish only to now realize that it would have just ended up in Luna's hooves if that had happened Flurry looked out the window, and saw a Changling staring at them, she stared back and it proceeded to slink out of sight,"

"The Duchess mentioned one of her freed Slaves was a Gossipy Changling," Flurry noted "What do you think the odds of it being Spike are? Because I think it was just spying on us,"

"I need a nap," Shining practically cried out as Starswirl tried looking out the window to see if he could get a look at the changling in question.

The Week Long Storm

Llama, Breezie, and Kirin could feel that the wish was nearing its end, They had thus far managed to stall out the team well past their expected timetable, entirely due to them all hanging back at the harbor seemingly just to enjoy some time with the different versions of him. The Storm had lost most of its energy, the flooding had stopped and receded, and now it was just a drizzle keeping flying and teleportation at bay, Cozy had made a wish with another version of Spike so that the storm would dry up and lose all it's power after a month just in case their plans failed and she needed some good points to keep from being turned back into stone.

Breezie Spike was enjoying the day with Thorax and the Breezies. Kirin seemed more than happy to just be with Rainshine and so far all they had done was enjoy each other's company. Fluttershy had spent the week telling Llama stories that he had forgotten.

Breezie Spike howled in delight as Sea Breeze finished telling the story of how he had met his wife, "-and she proposed to me on the spot," Sea Breeze cheered as he took a swig of Breezie ale, "Never again will I ever have that much luck of that I am sure, oh what a woman," Sea Breeze smiled at the thought of his wife "I haven't seen her in a few months but last I saw her she was expecting, I imagine I'll have another little one running around when my term is over," Breezie Spike didn't question what he meant by that, Sea Breeze had already informed him that his wife let him be a part of this team for only four months out of the year, his allotted time left were only three remaining weeks.

"Can't believe Starswirl found a way to open the grotto," Spike chuckled as he drank the sweet milk the Breezie called ale, "Suppose he would know best how to thwart my magic, but only being able to open it for an hour once a month is still pretty good protection," Breezie finished off his ale and one of Sea Breeze's companions filled him up, unlike Sea Breeze his companions worked for only one month out of the year, but one group of six went out on patrol every month allowing the Breezies to remain active in the search for his lamp year round.

"You sure you don't want any?" Spike asked, the other Breezies turned him down and kept their distance, as far as Spike could tell from Sea Breezes' stories, the tale of Spike and his lamp had been passed down from Generation to Generation. He had become something of a mythical hero in Breezie society. Hence, he understood that as far as they were concerned he was the Starswirl to their Twilight, and the idea of actually talking to him casually probably wasn't going to happen until he was free to just exist in their society. Sea Breeze only seemed calm around him because the tales told of his ancestor failing Spike and he was currently living out the hero redemption arc of fixing the mistakes of those in the days gone by.

"Well I certainly won't force you," Spike noted as he drank some and looked up at Thorax, who was using his front legs to keep the Breezie shielded from natural winds and any nare-do-wells who might think it funny to blow the small creatures into the wind. "So how have things been with you bud? Feel like telling me why you're a moose yet?" Thorax had visible hurt in his eyes and Breezie sighed "No it's fine," he decided "I'll make sure whichever version of me has those memories spends some time with you if I ever get free of that lamp," Thorax smiled, Breezie knew the hurt look hadn't been made on purpose but still felt somewhat bad that he didn't fully remember the changling.

"I hate Celestia," Thorax decided.

"Oh don't go blaming her for everything," Breezie noted, "You sound like the Dragon and the Dog," Breezie took a sip before adding "Kirin and Me are both fully aware that if she didn't do what she did the Paradox would have re-written history so badly none of us would probably exist," Thorax muttered something and Breezie motioned to him casually with his drink "Ok wise guy, how would you have avoided the reality melting Paraox of not throwing that crazy bastard version of me into the past? Because if they hadn't I'd probably still be evil crazy to this day," Breezie took a swig before adding "If you wanna hate someone hate Discord, his dumbass did this to me. He doesn't have the excuse of preventing a paradox to cover his ass either because he didn't know about it until after he did it!"

"Still," Thorax muttered "She was the one who threw you back in time,"

"Dah," Sea Breeze cried out in frustration at Thoraxes bitter tone, "Live and let live, the past is said and done, the Future is a mystery to unravel, but the present is a gift, so peel off that wrapping paper and enjoy what little time we have left, Our dear hero will be pulled back to his prison by night's fall, so enjoy these daylight hours while they last," The other Breezies cheered and Breezie Spike cheered with them.

"Who wasn't to hear the story of the pirate who wasted all three of his wishes in under a minute?" Breezie asked excitedly "It's a real knee slapper,"

Kirin Spike lay snuggly over Rainshine as the Kirin leader went over reports of the Kirin grove, being the leader of a nation left little time for Rainshine to waste on trivial matters, but she was having proxies hold the fort down as she searched for Spike, Kirin Spike had already acted as her advisor and had her fire several of them due to suspicions of trying and failing to rise themselves to power and convince other Kirins that Rainshine was a relik of the past.

With only loyal proxies still at work it was now harder to cover all the work that went into keeping a nation running.

"Seems we have another insurance claim on fire damage," Rainshine muttered, "Really need to buckle down on finding a good court mage who can enchant things with flame resistance, at the rate things are burning we'll have burned through the royal treasure within six years," After his help with the problem proxies Rainshine had sternly denied Spike's help, stating that it was his right as her dearest friend to simply exist and enjoy not being bound to a lamp for the few days he could.

That request hadn't fully stopped Spike from helping, but it had stopped him from spending all his time trying to solve all her problems, as he was a Genie under another employee his attempts at help had already gotten himself and his alternate halves punished by the lamp for than a few times, and yet none of the Spikes seemed to mind it all too much after being informed by Kirin why they had just been magically slammed into the ground fact first several times.

All had denied being hurt, and all had failed to tell that lie in a convincing matter. After three days Rainshine and Spike had finally gotten to a happy medium to stop Spike from hurting himself in his determination to help, Rainshine felt the timer spell she had set go off and she set her paperwork down, rolled over in the bed, and pulled Spike close, Spike accepted her embrace and the two enjoyed a peaceful snuggle.

"Your mane's gotten wild," Spike muttered sleepily.

"You haven't physically changed in the slightest," Rainshine noted sadly, "But I can sense the torment that haunts your mind,"

"I have spent a lot of time beating the shit out of my metaphysical clones," Spike replied, his face matching his tone in exhaustion, Rainshine did so desperately want to soothe him, tell him he could sleep in her arms forever, but he had already informed her that he couldn't sleep, only feel exhausted and pretend to sleep to try and make himself feel better. In the end, the best she could do was let him cuddle up to her for a little while before he was whisked back to the lamp.

"Did it work?" Cozy asked, having just made a wish recommended to her by Changling Spike, who confirmed the wish had been granted.

"Congratulations, you've joined Starswirl and Rainshine in the ranks of my immortal masters, How's it feel, ageless and with the ability to switch from adult to child, you'll make a mighty fine trickster goddess when I'm done with you,"

"Oh? Maybe that can be my title," Cozy said excitedly, "Cozy Glow the Trickster Princess!"

"Maybe one day," Changling chuckled, "You got any other wishes or are you still content to hang out down here and just keep staring at her?"

Changling and Cozy looked over to the cage Crysalis was in, Dragon Spike was cooking her up a heaping helping of love, Cozy had been informed she probably didn't want to know where the love was coming from and she decided to remain ignorant for her good.

"The Plan is still in motion," Cozy said confidently, Spike slid in close and whispered in her ear.

"This plan isn't by chance that you react to a situation and just hope Flurry thinks you're hot is it?"

"On to more important matters," Cozy replied sharply, "if I use all my wishes you'll fly straight to Luna Correct?"

"Yep, Spike confirmed as Diamond Dog began going over Cozy's next planned appearance, having retired Cozy in favor of the Duchess for a week in, what Spike assumed was, a ploy to buy time and try to think up an actual plan.

"Alright, nice to have a backup if I need to use all the wishes to fly under the radar, Luna won't listen to Shinnings crazy demands right?"

"How the hell should I know?" Changling demanded only for all the Spikes to yelp out in pain as the Lamp decided it didn't like Spikes' tone and made his cuffs burn hot, "I have no Idea master, how can I assist you in learning more master, it would humble me greatly to be of worthwhile service to you master," Changing began blowing on her hooves as both Diamond Dog and Dragon where rolling on the ground as though trying to put out a fire.

"It's fine," Cozy said at once as she blew on Changlings hooves, her command of it being ok allowing the punishment to stop, "I wish that would stop happening,"

"I'm sorry that wish can't be granted," All Three Spikes replied in tandem. "We're sorry Master,"

"Please don't call me master," Cozy begged of them.

"Sorry, Lamp forces that on me sometimes," Dragon shrugged before thinking on it for a moment, "That...or it's just become a verbal tick after thousands of years, hard to say honestly, maybe try wishing it away?"

"I wish you would stop calling me master, Pweety Pweese," After checking in with the others the present forms of Spike all gave her a thumbs up to signify it had worked.

"Alright back to business, Flurry and I, or that is to say Flurry and the Dutchess have lunch tonight to talk about the barrier being strengthened along with the weakening storm she should be able to fully connect with the empire, and I think we might be nearing potentially interested in trying a date," Cozy giggled madly as she grabbed the Lamp, "But first I need to make sure the lamp isn't on the opposite side of the ocean when the other you's time run out,"

"Oh yeah, we better hurry," Dragon realized upon looking at the time, "If the wish runs out and they don't teleport back at just the right millisecond we could punished, if they jump too soon we'll be punished for ditching a wish, and if they stay too long the Lamp will tan out hide for part of us being so far from it,"

"Oh yeah," Diamond Dog chuckled before glaring at the lamp, "That thing has zero chill, I wanna break it the moment we're wished free but Breezie called dibs on keeping it," Cozy rubbed the lamp and made her next wish.

"I wish for the ability to control water, Pweety Pweese," Her wish was granted and she tested it out by making a water cyclone beneath her hooves and practiced for a moment to get her balance before chuckling. "Nice, Now I wish to be teleported just outside the town you said your other halves are holding up, Pweety Pweese,"

"No," Breezie said angrily as he threw a single plastic pink fork at the Llama, dematerializing and rematerializing it in his tiny hooves after it either hit or missed its target. No more chess!" With the time of their departure closing in, the team had gathered back up to say a proper goodbye. Kirin and Rainshine were late, and the Llama had offered a game of chess to Breezie, who seemed beyond enraged at the offer.

"Calm down," Fluttershy begged, as she got between the Llama and the Breezie and stopped the attacks. "How about we talk this own, like rational adults?"

"Llama doesn't have that capability," Breezie shot back, "The More bodies we have the less mind there is to go around, talking to that dope is just him repeating the same brain-dead joke a million times over,"

"That's not true," Llama huffed back, "I just do that to annoy you all,"

"Why would you do that?" Fluttershy asked, trying to resolve the conflict peacefully, "You're all the same person,"

"We well, I just don't much like them,"

"Oh shocker," Breezie rolled his eyes, "I hate you, and you hate me, what a happy little family,"

"More like shoddy clones," Llama noted with a shrug.

"I was here before you," Breezie snarled back, "If every subsequent version of us is worse than the last it certainly shines through in you're Braindead eyes," Llama took a deep breath, and for a moment it seemed he was going to be the bigger Spike, then he raised his hoof as though to say something dramatically, only to smash Breezie against the table.

"Least I'm not the size of a gnat!" He barked back angrily. Llama only raised his hoof when Fluttershy pushed him away from Breezie "Oh Relaz, he can't die, It'll just hurt like he died,"

"Spike you can't do that to other creatures," Fluttershy scalded as the Breezies tried to help Breezie Spike only found him absent.

"Well then it's a good thing I did it to myself," Llama said smugly before being enveloped in a shadow, he looked up and saw a massive hoof hovering over him, Breezie Spike having teleported behind him and grown to his massive size.

"Hm?" Llama chuckled nervously before looking over to Fluttershy, who was forced out of the way by the magical rains that prevented any from being harmed by Spike, directly or indirectly, "I forgot he could-" Llama words were cut short as Breezie Crushed him under hoof.

"Who's a gnat now jack-ass?" Breezie demanded in a booming voice as he repeatedly stomped Llama into the ground with every raise of the hoof Llama popped back up in the air for a second before being slammed back into the ground and back up again. After the fifth rapid slam, Breezie was forced to stop when Kirin Spike arrived on the scene and blasted him across the face with fire, it left no visible mark on his face but judging by Breezies immediate flinch and rubbing on his face it had indeed burned.

"He started it," Breezie called back angrily.

"You threw a fork at me," Llama shot back in defence, no worse for ware outside of his neck being full of kinks.

"Oh don't be a baby," Breezie glared at Llama, "You only hit me cause I called you brain dead,"

"You're brain dead," Fluttershy looked over to Rainshine and Kirin and found the latter watching the two bicker with an unimpressed look.

Upon noticing she was looking at him with concern Kirin smiled at Fluttershy, "Don't worry he assured her, We can't kill each other," His smile faded as he muttered just slightly too loud, "Heaven knows we've tried,"

"You just need some time apart," Rainshine told Kirin confidently, "How about, after we get you out of that lamp, all the versions of you select a spot to visit old friends, and then you all rotate every week or month, or however you want, that way you only have to be around yourself for a few brief moments, if at all when you switch places?"

"Sounds like heaven," Kirin replied with a sigh, "Can't wait for something to go wrong and wistfully dream of freedom for another couple thousand years,"

"Don't talk like that," Rainshine begged of her friend, "We'll free you, we'll catch Cozy, or she'll run out of wishes and you'll go into Luna's possession,"

"Happy Dreams," Kirin Replied, before more could be said all the Spike turned their heads to the South as Cozy Telepoted in on her water tornado, feeling both her presence and the draw of the lamp. "Aw, she came to pick us up," Kirin laughed, before adding in a serious tone, "Thank the heavens that lamp would have beat us within an inch of our eternal life if we had been off even slightly,"

"That's exactly what I said," Dragon called out before shrugging, "more or less anyway,"

"Hello," Cozy said sweetly as she inspected the backup units of the group that was going to show up at her home eventually, "I just came to pick up a few friends of mine, Did you have fun boys,"

"I would have loved it more if I was alone," Kirin called back before grabbing Rainshines hoove, "This was nice, let's not wait so long next-" Rainshine grabbed Spike and pulled him into a kiss, cutting off his predictable joke.

"I will free you," She promised him.

"I want a kiss," Breezie complained before looking at the gathered Breezies, "All dudes though, Hmm," Breezie pondered it for a moment before raising a brow, "Any of you fine gents wanna be a lady?" Receiving no positive response he shrugged, "Suit yourselves,"

"Kiss Thorax," Dragon called out, "It'd be hot!"

"I'll do it," Llama called back, "Which one is she?" Dragon laughed in response as Cozy rubbed the lamp and called all the Spikes back to the lamp, the three all flew over and were sucked into the lamps save for the Diamond Dog Spike.

"Don't mind them," Diamond dog called down, "We're all just lonely and willing to settle," Cozy rubbed her temple, visibly trying not to laugh at the Diamond dog.

"I...could you not?" She asked with a slight laugh, "I'm trying to be dramatic,"

"Solid six out of ten," Diamond Dog replied immediately, "The water Tornado's nice but they all know I can't kill,"

"Six?" Cozy demanded indignantly when she was suddenly hit by a blast of magic, the barrier she had used during her first meeting with Flurry and her small team activated and denied the sneak attack it's hit.

"Hey no fair I was talking to Spike," Rainshine's only response was to blast a second attack at the bubble, her smoking ears telling Spike that the short time back together had reignited Rainshine's desire to be back with him to a new level, she had been working on memories older than Equestria, a ghost of a memory, now however she was working for a friend she could remember vividly, his voice, the smell of his fur, the passion of wanting to never be apart again.

"I thank you for letting me see him again," Rainshine told Cozy, "But now that I've had a taste my desires to have him at my side have turned from a forest fire into a volcanic eruption!" Rainshine blasted a solid pillar of flames at Cozy, who just took it head on, Diamond Dog was curious why Rainshine kept going at it, when he felt something, not on his body, no someone was touching his lamp, looking back to it, while it was still firm in Cozy's hooves Sea Breeze had seemingly hitched a ride one of of the Spike's when they had been summoned back and was now trying to get a Wish out of Spike, a fairly impressive stunt, but so long as Cozy was touching it one doomed to failure.

"As though realizing this Sea Breeze did his best to climb toward Cozy's saddle back to try and hitch a ride back to base, Spike did so want to see Cozy's plan blossom forth, but Freedom was Freedom, and the Diamond Dog would at the very least make sure to stay as Cozy's side, thought it was possible being freed would weaken the Spikes powers.

Spike elongated her tail and held it out to Sea Breeze who grabbed it after a moment's pause and was silently taken to the Saddle bag, Spike gave him a wink and Sea Breeze a sault before dropping into the depths of the bag.

"Now then," Cozy looked over to Spike as she pretended to think of a wish, "I'm sure you all so tiered after such hard work playing with Spike if only I could help, OH I know, I wish all these fine folks gathered below us would go home for a nice nap in their beds," Cozy smiled smugly, as Rainshine increased the firepower.

"Your Wish, Is Granted," Diamond Dog notified Cozy as she teleported all those gathered below to help free her back to their beds in their homes, taking care to leave Sea Breeze where he was since he was technically not below them.

"I Wish to go back to the lair, Pweety Pweese," Cozy asked Diamond Dog politely. Who obliged without any fanfare and simply teleported them back, Cozy Turned into the Dutchess and dressed in her required robe, taking care to tuck the lamp inside of it before tossing the saddle bag onto her make-shift throne.

"One of you keep an eye on her," Cozy requested as she looked over at Chrysalis, who avoided eye contact from her cage. "Everyone else go take your place among the staff, Diamond Dog you're with me, I Wish to be in my quarters Pweety Pweese," Cozy teleported away as Changling Spike lounged in the throne, peaking her nose into the bag and looking at Sea Breeze,"

"Hey, how's it going?" Ask asked, she got booped a few times before Sea Breeze realized she was Spike.

"Where's the lamp?" He asked in a low tone.

"With Cozy," Changling replied, "You're stuck in her underground base with no entrances or exits, might wanna take this moment to find a better hiding place, I made a fake mouse hole in the back of the throne when I made the cave so I could play around in it whenever I got bored, I Recommend hiding in there," Changling took care to make sure Changling couldn't see Sea Breeze and gave him a salute, "I can't help any more than this," She warned, "Genie rules and what not, frankly I'm already pushing it, try not to get caught, all it takes is one sentence from Cozy and you're out of the game,"

"Rogger," Sea Breeze fluttered into the Mousehole and began setting up a base of operations within the Enemy base as Changling Spike began staring at Chrysalis as were her orders.

Author's Note

Fun fact: the original version of the first story had several more chapters, but they ended up being cut due to either being too boring or feeling to much like empty filler, one of the deleted chapters included a Pirate waisting all his wishes and basically having nothing to show for it when it was all said and done. (It was cut due to only being 400 words long and frankly kind of dull)