Short Hand: The Dark Emperor Shepherd 6 · 8:32pm Aug 4th, 2020
Meanwhile, in the Crystal Empire...
Cadence: "Oh dear. You're telling me that Luna and Celestia have been overthrown?"
Sunburst: "That is indeed what has happened, Your Highness."
Cadence: "By Shepherd?!"
Sunburst: "Yes! We're also invited to his evil wedding to Fluttershy."
Cadence: "Wait, it actually says 'Evil Wedding'?" She examines the invitation "So it does. Ooh, I love the font!"
Sunburst: "Yes, it's very well done."
Cadence: "Where is Shiny? He needs to know this too!"
Sunburst: "Ah, well, I actually told him first. He'd gotten the intel reports earlier so I gave him this to complete his strategy session."
Cadence: "Strategy session?"
Cadence immediately teleports to the strategic planning room. Shining has gathered his generals together, and is pointing at a chart with an anatomically correct diagram of Shepherd hanging from the wall.
Shining: "And this area is very sensitive, especially if you hit it really hard with a sap."
Cadence: "SHINING! We're supposed to save Shepherd, not torture him!"
Shining: "What? I'm just running the stallions through some methods of breaking him out of whatever evil influence is possessing him!"
Cadence: glare "Shining..."
Shining: "It may require putting him through a great deal of physical pain! You said it yourself, intense pain can break the hold of a malevolent magical entity!"
Cadence: "Yes, but a slap is usually sufficient! Why do you have plans for putting him on a rack?!"
Shining: "Well, we want to be thorough-"
Cadence: "SHINY!"
Shining: "He's marrying Fluttershy and breaking my little sister's heart! He needs to pay, no matter what's turned him evil!"
Cadence: "And if he was marrying Twilight instead?"
Shining: "We'd be doing the same thing, of course!"
Cadence: sigh
Meanwhile, back at Canterlot... Dark Emperor Shepherd was giving ear scritches and belly rubs to his friends as he sat on his throne.
Shepherd: sigh "Work work work... Being a tyrant isn't all it's cracked up to be."
Starlight: moans "Tell me about it~... Oooh... I much prefer being a follower... What is your next order, My Dark Liege?"
Shepherd: "Take the bondage gear Rarity has stored away and go bang Sunburst already."
Starlight: "Sunburst who?"
Shepherd: "No! Nope! None of that! Get going already!"
Dash: "Yeah, his royal harem is big enough!"
Shepherd: "I do not have a harem."
Fluttershy: "Um, I wouldn't mind it... If you're all right with it, dear."
Twilight: sighs "They already think that's what we are, after all."
Rarity: "Twilight? No denials at all?"
Twilight: "I've become very disillusioned over the last two hours."
"And the belly rubs help."
Of course she has that.
Later:
Shining: "He's sicced his evil enchantress on our Crystaler, see, he deserves what's coming to him!"
Cadance: "Oh hush, it's about time SOMEONE pushed them together. I'm just disappointed he beat me to the punch."
Speaking of harems, is the story still pushing Andrew into a harem? Not the silly parody chapters, the main story.
5329327
Possibly.
5329331
Hopefully not. While its funny for one-shots, in a larger continuity it more seems to rely on the idea of "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" to hide it being forced, making it feel flimsy.
5329341
Well, that's just like, your opinion man.
5329344
Not sure if that's mean to be positive or negative.
They in pure bliss..
Part 7 train incoming
5329327
It's not a harem. It's a herd
5329341
That is why this form of storytelling is great for the silly one-offs. Ooh, when the main story is finished, they could then collect the shorts into a story, and call it something like: "Short Hand: the Short Side".
5329597
"Short Hands: The Short Stack"?
(Awww, poor Twilight! Also, Shining, dude... chill.)