//------------------------------// // Chapter 13: Cosmopolitan // Story: The Alicorn King's Glare // by LightOfTriumph //------------------------------// Applejack woke up in... rather pleasant surroundings. All things considered it was a rather posh room. She was lying on, what did Rarity call it, a Chaise Lounge? All of the furniture was very high class. The floors were solid mahogany. There was a hearth with a roaring fire in it. Next to it, there was a rack carrying three gold plated fireplace pokers. Then something caught AJ's eye... What looked like a wedding portrait. There was an Orange mare in a wedding dress standing next to a very handsome stallion. The mare was beaming, this was obviously the happiest day of her life. The stallion was smiling, but in a different way. This obviously wasn't about love for him, this was about profit. The kind of smug satisfaction that he was wearing wasn't that of a proud husband who had just hooked the mare of his dreams... But that wasn't the most disturbing part. The most disturbing part was that she recognized both of the ponies in the portrait. She placed the groom almost immediately. It was that stuck up noble Rarity was crushing on a few months ago. And the bride... Orange coat. Straw-colored mane. Emerald green eyes. The picture may have been rather flattering, but there was no denying who this was... Applejack turned around as the large wooden doors flung open behind her. "Oh my goodness," came a refined voice. The bride from the picture stepped in behind her. She had a distinct very high class drawl. "Oh ain't you just the livin' end! Oh honey you must be exhausted! Come sit down and I'll have somepony get the both of us a drink! Casper!" Applejack wasn't scared of the bride herself. On the contrary, she seemed like a very nice pony. As a matter of fact she reminded AJ of a pony she used to work for in Dodge Junction, Cherry Jubilee. Very high class, but still quite... country. AJ could still sense something was wrong... while her kindness seemed genuine, her smile was forced. It was less a face and more of a mask. But again, AJ wasn't scared of the bride. Applejack was scared of "Casper." The Bride's manservant wasn't... equine. His coat was shiny and glossy... like it was recently polished. His eyes were completely lifeless. He wasn't wearing a tuxedo, his tuxedo was bolted on. With every step there was a loud clank followed by a huge whir as he lifted each hoof. Casper was a doll. A clockwork doll. The Bride couldn't help but notice Applejack gawking. "Do you like Casper?" she asked. "His majesty gave him to me for a weddin' present! Of course that was before... Anyway. Casper, two of the usual. Make our friend's... strong, will you? She looks like she needs it!" Casper nodded and left the room with a series of whirs and clanks. "I...," Applejack stammered. "I'm awful sorry miss... I'm just mighty confused..." "I'd imagine!" the Bride giggled. "Fighting off against the King one minute and then poof! Sittin' in my late husbands study the next! Don't you worry, now. His Highness said that that it would all be explained to you all at once. It might be a little shock but- Oh! Thank you kindly, Casper!" Casper clanked back into the room carrying a tray with two glasses. The drink was far to fancy for AJ, but she took the glass. There was no sense in turning it down. She was about to take a sip when something stopped her. A flash in her mind. "I hardly ever come in here anymore," the Bride said wistfully. The images came and went quickly. A blank sky. A crying filly missing the farm. This was her life now. She had to make the best of it. Besides, she liked it better here. Her life was perfect. "He used to come in here when he needed to be alone...," A true Manehattanite. A long night. A great war. A new king. A position of authority. So everything about her world had shifted. So this new ruler was a bit... extreme. It didn't matter. She was a proper lady now. Her life was perfect. "I'd come in sometimes to help him out," the Bride continued. A wedding to her dream man. Her prince. Her Blue Blood. Her life was perfect. "But he made it clear he wanted to be alone..." Anger. Unrest. Hooves raised in anger. Hiding bruises. He lost his temper. That's all. Her life was perfect. "Oh Blood," the Bride sighed. An affair. The final straw. A deadly cocktail. The poison would take care of the problem nice and quietly. No matter what, nopony could ever know about this. As far as they were concerned, aside from the fact that her husband tragically passed away far too young... Her life was perfect. "Drink up, Darlin'" she smiled. "You'll like it. It's called a Cosmopolitan." Applejack put the glass down, and closed her eyes. She knew what she had to do. "You know," Applejack sighed. "I know what he was trying to do. He may have wanted to make me jealous... Or scared... Or angry... Do you know what it actually did, Miss?" "What did it do Darlin'?" Cosmopolitan smiled. "It made me sad," Applejack nodded. "Just made me really sad. Sad that I had to see that. Sad that you had to live it. And more than anything else... Sad about what I'm going to have to do next." She walked over to the Hearth and picked up one of the pokers. "What're you...?" Cosmopolitan protested. "You need to snap out of it!" Applejack shouted. "Right...now!" She took a massive swing at the wedding portrait. It seemed to crack like it was made of glass. The prices fell off and the portrait was a much darker image. Cosmopolitan with tears streaming down her face, mixing a "drink" for her husband. "STOP IT!!" Cosmopolitan shrieked. "Casper! Help!" "You kept surroundin' yourself with fake happiness!" With a loud WHAM! she drove the poker into the wall. Causing the facade to crack. She soon realized that Cosmopolitan herself was cracking along with her lie. "A fake family!" WHAM! "Fake compassion!" WHAM! Casper put his huge mechanical hoof on Applejack's shoulder. Without missing a beat, AJ swung the poker and took the doll's head clean off. "Why are you doin' this!!" Cosmopolitan screamed desperately. "Why can't you just let me be happy!!" "You think you're happy..." AJ scoffed. "That's the worst part. Not just that you're lyin' to everypony else." She jabbed the Poker into the floor. Cracks spread from where she slammed down. "That would be bad enough! But it's worse than that! You're lyin'-" SLAM! "to-" SLAM! "yourself!" "NO!!!" With one final SLAM! Cosmopolitan and the room around her shattered. Applejack found herself falling through a white void. She had never been more angry. Not at Cosmopolitan, at Glare. He thought he could get to her... He did. And that would be his last mistake. "One..." she could here Dash say. "Two," said Pinkie. "Three," said Fluttershy. "Four," said Rarity. Applejack had the strangest sensation of falling up when she came through the void into the Crystal Empire throne room. She righted herself in midair and landed. "Five," she said. From the realm beyond there was a laugh. And eight words were uttered. "Well, now we got ourselves a ball game."