//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Brotherhood and Sisterhood 
// by CartoonNerd12 
//------------------------------//

Six brothers woke up on the dot as the morning sun rose up in the sky. The eldest of them, Discord, was in his late twenties almost thirty, but despite his mature age he tended to act childish around his brothers and the royal court much to his father's annoyance. The second eldest was Soarin who was also in his late twenties, but compared to his older brother he was more responsible and had a sense of duty. The third brother was Capper, he was the cunning one of the group next to Discord that is but his smarts helped him with his studies and managed to find loopholes in everything he did. Next was Flash who liked spending his days in the castle gym with the rest of the royal guard practicing his swordfighting, making him one of the best swordsman of all the land.

Then there was Cheese who liked being a practical joker but he also helps plan most of the castle's important events, making him well respected. Then finally, the youngest, Spike who recently turned nineteen. But just as Discord was immature for his age, Spike was quite mature for his as he tended to act more wisely then the rest of his brothers. That is to say he wasn't without flaws like he gave into his greed every once in a while but he still had a kind and noble heart. In fact, all of the princes were kind and had a sense of honor to them.

One-by-one they filed out their rooms, fully dressed, and they greeted each other.

Flash said to Soarin, "Morning, brother."

Soarin replied back, "Morning, brother."

Spike was rubbing his eyes, "I hate these early risings."

Discord pointed, "Hey, it's not our fault that Father wants us to be on time. After all you know what he says…"

They all said, "Punctuality is the politeness of princes."

A voice suddenly said, "And you will do well to remember that."

They turned to see Lord Fancy Pants walking down to them.

Capper addressed him with a smirk, "Oh we'll remember but can you remember the time that Father was late himself? That wasn't very polite."

Fancy countered, "But as he is the king and for a king, he's never late, everyone else is simply early."

Discord questioned, "Is that what he told you? Sounds like more of an excuse to me."

The lord motioned, "Regardless, you six need get down to the dining hall to have breakfast with his majesty. Then after that, you need to start on your duties and lessons."

With sighs they did as he said.




The boys sat around the table in silence as they ate. On occasion if their father was away on business then they would get into lively chatter with one another but since their father was here, they needed to keep quiet until they were done.

King Tirek then got up to address them.

"Well my sons, since Spike became of proper age, it's time we discuss your futures."

"How so, Father?" Flash asked.

"An excellent question, my son, tell me what are your thoughts on marriage?"

"Marriage?!" they all gasped.

"Yes, marriage. Now pay attention. Discord is almost an old man making him undesirable to eligible ladies of the court."

"Hey! I resent that!"

"Quiet! Now… the rest of you aren't getting any younger either so it's important I have all of you be wed to the most important noble ladies of the land. And fortunately, I have been corresponding with the Lady Chrysalis and she has six lovely daughters to be your wives."

The princes exchanged looks with each other, shock by this announcement.

Lord Fancy Pants who was standing nearby was also surprised by the news.

Tirek continued, "As such we will have a masquerade ball to celebrate your betrothal to them."

The boys were utterly speechless.

Their father smiled, "I see that that you're accepting this gracefully."

Capper cleared his throat, "Well Father, it's wonderful to see that you care for our well-being and that you would choose beautiful women to be our princesses but it does seem rather sudden for us to marry them without proper courtship."

His brothers murmured in agreement.

Tirek held his hand up, "There will be plenty of time for you to do that at the ball and after the wedding." then he started to walk away, "You are dismissed."




For the rest of the day, the princes were distraught by their father's words as they performed their duties and did their studies. Once it was almost time for them to retire they met up in Discord's room to talk about their impending marriages.

"Maybe they won't be so bad…?" Spike tried to sound reassuring.

"But what if they are?" Cheese inquired, "What then?"

Flash suggested, "Maybe we should tell Father we don't want to marry them."

Discord shook his head, "Bad idea. You saw how pleased he was with us for not speaking out."

Soarin frowned, "So that's it then? We'll just accept our fate and marry these girls?"

Capper had been pondering deeply until his eyes lit up and told them, "Or maybe… we don't have to…"

They turned to him with curious expressions with Discord asking, "What is going on in that cat-like mind of yours?"

Capper smiled, "Let's see these daughters of Chrysalis for ourselves to determine if we'll either like them or hate them. If we like them, there's no problem and we make our father happy in the process. But… if we don't, then we can convince them to not marry us and they'll tell their mother to call off the deal."

They gawked at their brother's plan before smiles spread across their faces.

Discord declared, "You are devious and brilliant, oh, brother of mine!"

He mocked a bow, "Just doing my part as being the smartest one of us all."

Soarin said sarcastically, "Ha, ha…" but ended up smirking.

Discord pointed, "As much as I would love to debate who is the smartest one here," he muttered under his breath, "Even though it's obviously me…" he said out loud, "we need to get out from these palace walls first to find our future brides."

Flash motioned, "Capper, think you can trick Lord Fancy to tell you where Lady Chrysalis lives?"

The third brother replied, "I can do one better, I can get us a map of the entire kingdom from him."

Spike asked, "How?"

"Sorry, that's a trade secret."

"Oh, come on! You can tell me! I'm not a little kid anymore!"

Soarin slyly grinned, "That maybe so but you'll always be our baby brother."

Spike crossed his arms and grumbled.

Flash slightly chuckled and wrapped an arm around him, "Don't worry, you may be the youngest but you're still a lot more mature then those three." pointing to Discord, Capper, and Cheese.

"Hey!" they said but ended up laughing instead.

Cheese shrugged, "Well, he is right!"

Discord gestured, "At least we know how to have fun unlike you three."

Soarin retorted, "Hey, we can be fun!"

Capper said, "Prove it then. Tomorrow is our day off so it'll give us the chance we need to escape the palace and journey around the kingdom. After we meet with the ladies of course, then you can show off your fun sides."

Spike declared, "You're on!"




Fancy met with the king before he retired for the evening as he wanted to voice his concerns about the princes' betrothal.

Tirek was at his desk in his study when he saw the noble approach him.

"Something on your mind, Lord Fancy Pants?"

"There is, Your Majesty. It's their highnesses' upcoming marriages."

"What about it?"

"Sire, I'm concern on how this is going to work for them as Prince Capper had said this morning, they haven't properly courted these young ladies."

Tirek stood up and stated, "Marriage is about alliances. My sons are fulfilling their duty by marrying Lady Chrysalis's daughters who holds a large portion of our great kingdom. Besides, the Lady Chrysalis and I have been planning this since I took in my sons and Chrysalis's youngest was born."

Fancy's eyes widen.

"So whatever you think is the proper approach, I've already covered every detail to make this happen."

"But… but surely you care for your sons' happiness and let them fall in love on their own?"

"Love? Love is for the weak and my sons are much stronger than that. Now is there anything else you wish to discuss?"

There were a lot of things Fancy wished he could discuss with his king. Of the poor choices he has afflicted upon the kingdom ever since the old king and queen had passed away without an heir, leaving the entire monarchy in shambles as there was a great debate of who would have the right to succeed. So many of the nobles wanted the crown for themselves but Fancy stood his ground telling them that Lord Scorpan, Lord Tirek's brother was the logical choice to rule. But on the eve of his coronation he disappeared leaving a letter to everyone saying he gave up the title to his brother and thus Tirek was made king.

The nobles were furious by this arrangement but Tirek made a negotiation with them that he would take in six noble sons as his own to be his heirs. That eased the aristocracy as they presented their sons to King Tirek and he made his choice. Discord, Soarin, Capper, Flash, Cheese, and Spike were deemed fit as princes and rightfully so. Fancy had watched the boys grow and he was pleased to see how brotherly they were toward each other. They had indeed shown great skills of how it took to rule a kingdom. Between Discord's cunning, Soarin's responsibility, Capper's charm, Flash's chivalry, Cheese's wit, and Spike's wisdom they would do wonders. Unfortunately they were incredibly naïve to the world around them. Their adoptive father had sheltered them in so they had no experience to what the other half lived like.

Fancy tried his hardest to teach the boys this but they had a hard time grasping it.

He said to the king, "No, Sire." he bowed before leaving the room. He started going down the hall when he saw Prince Capper coming toward him.

"Thought I'd find you here."

"As always your sharp mind is right. Now the question is, why were you looking for me?"

"Because you know better than anyone that Father is forcing us to marry women we absolutely don't know about."

Fancy sighed, "I had hope I could convince him otherwise, but he had this planned for a long time it seems."

"Then you know that my brothers and I want to see these girls before the wedding."

"That is out of the question."

Capper frowned, "Those are our father's words. I want to hear what you would say…"

Fancy sighed again and said, "It's too risky. You cannot meet them until the ball, but… if there's any hope of you six having successful and somewhat happy marriages…" he scowled and stated in a firm tone, "I want all of you to be back before dinner, is that understood?"

Capper smirked, "You have our word."

"I mean it, your highness. I'm risking my neck here and if your father ever found out…"

"We know. And we'll make sure that Father never suspects that you helped us."

Fancy sighed and shook his head, "I hope that you are right."