//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9 
// Story: Heart of Gold 
// by CartoonNerd12 
//------------------------------//

The day to depart for the Royal Summit came and the king was grumbling and dragging his hooves all the way to his carriage. He hated leaving his castle given it was his only way of returning to his true self during the nighttime. But since they will be far away from his sanctuary he was stuck in this pathetic body for a few more days. Making him feel more grumpy than usual.

Twilight casted an annoyed stare at him as she was waiting for him in the carriage.

"If you don't hurry we'll be late!"

He shot back, "That was the idea! By the time we get there, the summit would have already ended and we'd have to come back here!"

She rolled her eyes. Then she turned to Spike who was holding the door open for him but what surprised her was how much the dragon was giving more hateful glances toward the king recently. But she didn't have time to dwell on it, as she was getting impatient for the king to get inside the coach. When he finally did, he whined.

"Can we at least make a couple of stops before we get there?"

She yelled, "No! We need to get there right away! Look at it this way, the faster we get there, the faster the Summit will be and then we can get back!"

He crossed his arms, "Fine…"

Marquis Fancy Pants addressed him from outside the carriage, "You have nothing to worry about, Your Majesty, I will make sure everything runs as it should. I've done it before, and I will certainly do it again."

The king just rolled his eyes, "Just make sure my servants don't leave while I'm gone and be sure to treat my future queen the respect she deserves no matter her background, is that understood?"

Fancy bowed, "Of course, Your Highness, Miss Fluttershy will have only the finest treatment that I can offer."

The king muttered under his breath, "Suck-up…"

Spike then closed the carriage door and signaled the coach-stallion to get going. Twilight waved at him and he returned the wave. Fancy was also waving farewell to them with him magically waving his handkerchief. Once the carriage was past the gates, Spike turned to Fancy.

"What's the first order of business, sir?"

"First things first, you give the all-clear to everybody and have them gather in the ballroom."

Spike slightly smirked, "But we do that every time you come."

Fancy winked, "And it always works."




Spike had immediately told Pinkie and Cheese the order and with bright smiles on their faces they began to bounce around the castle getting the servants' attention, singing out, "Come one, come all! Leave your looms and sewing stools! Coop the hens and wind the spools! Come one, come all! Close the cellars and the rooms! It's the day for breaking rules! Come and join the feast of…"

By then Fluttershy was coming out of her room, asking, "What's going on?"

Pinkie replied by singing, "Once the king's out, we throw a party in the place!"

Cheese sang with her, "Once the king's out, we turn all the place upside down!"

They both sung, "Once again it's party time for us!"

Fluttershy asked, "Party time?"

Rainbow Dash came up to her and smirked, "You know what they say, Flutters. When the cat is away the mice will play. Come on, I'll show you." she escorted her friend to the ballroom where many ponies were singing and dancing.

"Step in time, step in time! Step in time, step in time! Never a reason, never a rhyme! Step in time, you step in time! Kick your hooves up! Kick your hooves up, step in time…Kick your hooves up, step in time…Never need a reason, never need a rhyme, kick your hooves up, step in time!"

"Goodness!" Fluttershy exclaimed.

Rarity then ran into the room, shouting giddily, "He's coming! He's coming!"

"Who?" Fluttershy asked.

"Fancy Pants!" Rarity replied with a swoon.

Pinkie sang as she came into the room, "Here he comes, ring bells, bang the drums! You all know you love this guy!"

Fluttershy questioned, "What is Marquis Fancy Pants like?"

Cheese popped next to her nearly startling her as he sang, "He faced the galloping hordes! Fought a hundred bad guys with swords! Who sent those goons to their lords! Why, he's such a prince! He's got seventy-five golden camels! Purple peacocks, he's got fifty-three! And when it comes to exotic-type mammals…"

Fluttershy hopefully asked, "Has he got a zoo?"

Cheese smiled as he sung out, "I'm telling you, it's a world-class menagerie!"

The mare smiled brightly when hearing that.

By then Fancy walked into the room with Spike along with Applejack and the rest of the kitchen maids rolling in barrels of apple cider which Rainbow and Soarin' in no time took to one of them to open up and poured out gallons of cider to the cheering crowd.

As everyone was getting a cup to drink the cider, Pinkie sung out on top of a barrel, "Dearest friends, dear gentlecolts… listen to my song, life down here's been hard for you… Life has made you strong… Let me lift the mood… with my attitude! Hey fellas, the time is right! Get ready, tonight's the night! What you're hopin' for will come true, let me be good to you!"

Fluttershy asked Spike, "Is she going to sing all the time?"

The dragon factually stated, "Oh, yeah."

Applejack added in, "It's her one chance to make everyone smile while the king is away."

By then the kids came running by, surprising Fluttershy.

She voiced, "I didn't know there were children here!"

The kitchen maid pointed, "That's my sister, Apple Bloom and her friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. And the colts are Tender Taps, Button Mash, and Rumble."

Rarity said, "Sweetie Belle is my sister while Scootaloo is Rainbow Dash's sister."

That really confused Fluttershy, "Her sister? But Rainbow is an only child!"

Applejack explained, "Dash took Scootaloo under her wing shortly after she started working as a maid. The young filly was impressed by her that she wanted Rainbow as her big sister and Dash was sweet enough to comply."

The pegasus smiled at that knowing her old friend was kind enough to take a filly under her care.

Just then the marquis came up to her and bowed, "Miss Fluttershy, I presume?"

She blushed while facing the stallion and stammered, "T-that's right…"

He took her hoof to kiss, "It's certainly an honor to meet you. Now I understand what the king has seen in you."

Rarity interjected, "Yes, she is quite beautiful isn't she?"

Fluttershy hid behind her mane, telling them, "I'm not that beautiful…"

"Nonsense!" the unicorn exclaimed, "You're very beautiful what with your flawless face and perfect mane!"

Applejack motioned, "But there's more to beauty then just looks, Rare."

Rarity countered, "I know that! Fluttershy is not only physically beautiful but she just as beautiful on the inside!" She directly told the butter-cream mare, "I may have not known you long but from what I can tell you are such a caring mare."

Fluttershy kept blushing, "Thank you, that's very thoughtful of you to say…"

"But it's the absolute truth, darling!" she turned to her special some pony, "Fancy, my love, you must help us on making sure this pleasant young mare never marries the king. It's a terrible match."

Fancy made a sad smile, "I can certainly try, dearest, but it won't be simple. You know how he's set in his ways."

Fluttershy spoke in concern, "But the king and I already have a deal that if I cannot love him, he would set me free."

Rarity motioned, "We are not taking any chances with you. He could easily go back on his word."

She gasped, "He wouldn't!"

Applejack frowned, "Believe us, sugar cube, we speak from experience."

Fluttershy felt unsure but figured they would know more about the king's behavior better than anyone and decided to trust their judgment.

She turned her head back to the party going on with Pinkie and Cheese still singing.

The pink hyper party mare sang out, "I'd like to dance and tap my hooves, but they won't keep in rhythm! You see, I washed them both today and I can't do nothing with 'em!"

The crowd sang to them with raised cider cups, "Ho hum, the tune is dumb, the words don't mean a thing! Isn't this a silly song for anyone to sing?"

Then Cheese took a gulp of his drink before wiping his mouth and sung, "I chased a polecat up a tree way out upon a limb and when he got the best of me, I got the worst of him!" he guffawed to the point he fell to the floor while smacking it.

The crowd sang again, "Ho hum, the tune is dumb, the words don't mean a thing! Isn't this a silly song for anyone to sing?"

Fluttershy heard a young voice, "Silly and boring!"

She looked down to see the fillies and colts right beside her, she greeted them, "Oh, hello there."

They looked up to her with Apple Bloom inquiring, "Are you really going to marry the king?"

Sweetie Belle pleaded, "Please say no!"

Fluttershy reassured them, "Don't worry, I won't. For you see, I don't love the king and I cannot get married unless I love someone."

The fillies with Button and Tender sighed in relief.

Rumble flapped his wings while exclaiming, "Well make sure it stays that way! Because if you had gotten married to that big bully then you would have forced to do as he says just like the rest of us! What I would give to get out of this place, and not have to obey anyone's orders again!" he sung out, "No one saying do this…"

Scootaloo sang, "No one saying be there…"

Button sang too, "No one saying stop that!"

All the kids sung, "No one saying see here!"

Rumble took over again, "Free to run around all day… Free to do it all my way!" He flew off with the other foals chasing after him.

Fluttershy went back to watching the partygoers and noticed three mares with flowers for cutie marks, she could remember coming across them during her tour of castle and Rarity and Rainbow told her their names were Daisy, Roseluck, and Lily. It appeared they were in a drunken stupor as they sang a song.

"You can learn a lot of things from the flowers… For especially in the month of June… There's wealth of happiness and romance! All in the golden afternoon! All in the golden afternoon! The golden afternoon!"

And it seemed they weren't the only ones, Fluttershy saw Derpy and her husband having their arms around their necks while holding their cups and swaying back and fore, all the while singing.

Derpy sung, "We've got cabin fever…"

Doc sang, "No ifs, ands, or buts!"

 "We're disoriented…"

"And demented…"

They both recited, "And a little nuts!"

They certainly are… Fluttershy thought.

Pinkie suddenly popped up to her and the pegasus got startle so bad, she fell to the ground.

"Oh, Pinkie, you startled me…"

The pink pony bounced, "Sorry about that, but I was wondering why you weren't joining in like the rest of us!"

The mare meekly said, "Oh… I'm not much of a party person… I just like to watch and… wait-a-minute, you're not singing!"

Pinkie released a bubbly giggle, "Silly Fluttershy, just because I like to sing at a party doesn't mean I have to sing all the time!"

Fluttershy sighed, "What would I give to be like you, someone who can put a smile on ponies' faces."

"No way! If anything, I want to be like you! Since you're free from the king's servitude unlike the rest of us!" she sang out, "I wanna be like you! I wanna walk like you! Talk like you, too… You'll see it's true… Someone like me… Can learn to be… Like someone like youuu…!"

"How did you ever come to be in his servitude?"

"Oh! That is such a story! And it all started with my sister, Maud Pie! She was a traveling pony who was gifted with rock knowledge, including magical rocks!"

"Magical rocks?"

"Oh, yes! And so when the king heard about my sister, he summoned her to the palace where he ordered her to find a rock that could break his curse!"

Fluttershy gasped, "His curse?! The king has a curse?!"

Pinkie ditzily said, "Whoops, I forgot I wasn't supposed to say that…"

Fluttershy could only think, So that's why he's probably so terrible to everyone around him… If he is upset by his curse, then he would want everyone around him to be miserable too… Of course, that's no excuse for him to act out as he does but at least now I understand why…

Pinkie added, "Of course, no one really knows what the curse is… All we know is that the king has been cursed but he refuses to say what it is. So like anyway, Maud was going over different rocks to break his curse but when they didn't work, he decided to imprison her for failing and the fact that she was getting on his nerves."

"Why was that?"

"My sister doesn't really express her emotions like the way I do and so when she wasn't being as responsive as he wanted her to be, yeah… And it was around that time I was working on my family's rock farm and suddenly my Pinkie Sense was twitching like crazy-"

Fluttershy interrupted, "Pinkie Sense?"

"It's something that happens to my body that gives me the ability to detect things about to happen. So when my sister was getting imprisoned and my Pinkie Sense was going off, I can remember saying, "There's a great disturbance in the Pinkie Sense…" then I freaked out while saying, "Maud!" and I zoomed all the way to the castle and was begging at the king's hooves, "Don't take my sister! Take me! Take me!" I kept pleading over and over till finally he got fed up and agreed. He gave me a contract to sign and he released my sister."

Fluttershy was in awe to the entire story while uttering, "You sacrificed your own freedom for your sister?"

"Well, duh! Maud was always looking out for me that it was about time that I returned the favor."

"That's so beautiful…" Fluttershy could feel her tears about to escape and wiped them. "And you don't regret your decision?"

"Heck no! Because I took my sister's place, I met so many ponies that I was able to help them smile for the first time! And when my hubby came along I knew we were soul mates! Do I wish we can leave this place? Heck yeah, but knowing I have a purpose here makes it all worthwhile."

"I really like how you can keep a positive attitude in all this." the pegasus complimented.

"Well, someone has to! Otherwise this place becomes grim and everypony will start to lose hope!"

Fluttershy said, "Oh, we certainly cannot have that…"

"You're darn right we can't!" Pinkie declared before gulping down some more apple cider and starting singing at the top of her lungs, "Under the sea… Under the sea… Darling, it's better down where it's wetter… take it from me! Up on the shore they work all day… Out in the sun they slave away… While we devotin', full time to floatin'… Under the sea!" she bounced away as she still sang the song.

That left poor Fluttershy feeling confused again but at least Pinkie Pie had given her a sense of clarity regarding the king. So apparently there was a curse over him, but what kind of curse was it?

Maybe once he gets back, I can look into it more… Normally I don't snoop into other ponies' lives but this is something that needs to be address if I can somehow help my friends have more bearable lives in this castle… Maybe… Instead of marrying the king, I can help him be kind and less controlling over his servants. It's worth a try… She thought with determination.