//------------------------------// // Part 9 // Story: Prince Marshall // by Mocha Jon //------------------------------// We can see Cadence sitting bored in the crystal chambers flipping her hair back and tossing a small broken crystal up and catching it like a ball. Big Macintosh was still standing by the exit pathway, blocking it. He tossed Cadence some apples and cartoonishly bumped her head with one, to which he apologized. "You know soon somepony will know I'm gone and come looking for me." She mentioned. "Eeyup." "Still not gonna let me go?" "Nope." Cadence just rolled her eyes, figuring that nopony's gonna help her anytime soon. When she started eating the apples, she began to wonder what she's gonna do now, even if she manages to get free, nopony would take her seriously without her wings and horn and without Shining Armor anymore her love magic just seems to bring her to tears. She began to shift from her angry expression to one of despondence and depression. Big Macintosh noticed she was heartbroken and felt a little sorry for her. "Ya know, just because I'm being controlled by the new King of Equestria and need to guard you down here, and the fact that you're a girl doesn't mean we can't be friends." He tried to say to cheer her up. "Uh... none of that made any sense, plus ever sense we've been down here, all I've heard you say is 'eeyup', 'nope', and 'I hate girls with a burnin' passion!'" Cadence responded, imitating Big Mac's deep southern drawl. "Hey, you just got heart broken, imprisoned, and lost your magic, I'm pretty sure you've suffered enough, besides, I'm only ordered to keep you in here, that doesn't mean we can't have some fun while we're down here." Big Mac said as he pulled out a massive box filled with stuffed animals, "One of my friends gave me like a dozen of these boxes, take a look!" He said as he tossed a stuffed wolf toy to her. Cadence winced an eye at interest of that, despite being aware that he's possessed and forced to hold her captive, he was still trying to be nice. The scene then shifted to Twilight flying in the sky by herself, looking extremely angry and ready for a fight. She could be heard grumbling to herself as well, "Okay this guy must have some nerve thinking he can just take over half of Equestria like that and do who knows what with the Princesses and not think I'm gonna send him all the way to wherever King Sombra was sent...!" She then was revealed to be flying to Celestia's former castle, now over run by the Hinny King. Guards were all over the entrances, all under Marshall's control. Twilight landed right at the front entrance, the guards were all looking her down, clearly not happy to see her, but they reluctantly let her in before she even said anything. "He's been expecting you..." They said in unison and let her in, much to her confusion. Twilight walked in and was shocked by how it was redecorated, particularly disturbed by the 20 foot statue of Marshall in the lobby (with Mocha Jon, Shining Armor, and Big Macintosh bowing down and kissing his hooves) "Okay somepony has some issues to work out..." She quietly said. Marshall walked into the room shortly after, Jon following, carrying some of his stuffed animals. Jon instantly rushed over and hugged Twilight in a cartoony fashion, "Twilight! I'ts great to see you again! Marshall made me the back King up in case anything happens to him and..." He began saying until Marshall telekineticly moved him away. "Sorry about that, he's been eager to brag lately, anyway, it's been a long time coming Princess, how's it feel to be in the presence of your King?" Marshall smugly asked. "You are not a King!" She yelled out in anger as she used her magic to throw a Jon's dinosaur plushie at Marshall, to where he and Jon yelled out in pain. "OW! You realize my subjects under my spell feel all the pain I feel right?" Marshall asked rubbing his forehead. "It was a stuffed toy?" Jon sighed, "That one had batteries in it..." He said rubbing his forehead again, Twilight looked sorry and embarrassed... "Well anyway, royalty doesn't use magic to get his way and make Equestria an unfair place to live!" Twilight yelled out in anger. "Unfair?" He shook off the pain and chuckled, "Honey let me show you something..." He said as his horn started to glow and suddenly a large circle of magic began to show up in front of them. "Take a look at that big red apple farmer when he was a colt:" Suddenly a flashback appeared on it and it presented Big Macintosh as a little colt who was putting on his harness for the first time and had to pull his first heavy load on the farm. Bog Mac was clearly not happy and the heavy weight was being a huge strain on him. He was breathing heavily and sweating hard. Twilight looked closer and noticed another kid in the background, it was Applejack, sitting on a rocking chair playing with dolls with Granny Smith. "Be sure to plow the field twice Big Mac, be sure you don't miss any spot!" Granny Smith yelled over to him, right as he fell over, panting more. Twilight looked befuddled, "What? That can't be true?" "Oh there's more..." The next flashback reveals Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon revealing decorations outside for a party. They had smug looks on their faces like always. "See, sense it's Pipsqueak's birthday today, we took the liberty of throwing him a surprise party! We decorated the playground ourselves!" Silver bragged. They revealed the slide had a pink tarp placed over it, dolls were covering the jungle gym, making it unusable, the cake had a frosting drawing of a purple star over a pink heart, red bunting was placed over all the tables, and all the party hats Diamond was handing out were pink with translucent bands coming off them looking like fairy princess hats. Most of the girls and Cheerlee were all super excited and rushed over to the events, while the boys (and Scootaloo...) looked at everything with disdain and felt uncomfortable... Following, the magic showed Dr Whooves in his lab, he was writing something down on paper and seemed very hyper and eager to finish, with Derpy eating a muffin and drinking tea in the background. "At last! I think I've finally managed to find a cure for the common cold! It's so simple and easy to do that anypony can do it! After ten moons I finally managed to... What are you doing...?" He said as he was about to finish until he looked over at Derpy, looking at a mini catapult and placed her tea in it. "No don't do that...!" He tried to yell in panic as she launched the catapult and her tea flung right onto Dr Whooves paper ad ruined it... "You psychopath that was my entire life's work and you just...!" He began to yell until she flung her muffin with the catapult and hit him in the muzzle... Next, Twilight was shown a flashback of Caramel knocking on somepony's door attempting to hand her some grass seeds. "Hey there, I'm sorry this took so long, I had to do about twenty other orders and my coworker's out sick and..." He tried to nicely and calmly explain until he was interrupted. The mare who answered the door, revealed to be Spoiled Rich, was not happy though she took the seeds and threw them right at Caramel's face, "I expected these seeds this morning so my daughter's petunia garden would be big and poofy by the weekend so she could have the greatest bouquet for show 'n tell! Were you being lazy or just plain forgetful again!?" She yelled at him followed by slamming the door on his face before he could answer, leaving him saddened and tearing up a little bit. Next, Mayor Mare was in her office with a stallion earth pony fling some papers for her. He was seen putting pictures of Pinkie Pie's various parties under the file 'Party Taxes' and storing them away. "Alright Mayor Mare, I spent the last two moons working on the monthly Party Tax and I just need to discuss some final notices about how to take care of the final say on if it should be proportional to income or equal for every pony despite income..." He tried to ask, before the mayor started to walk out. "Thanks for that hon, but first I need to head to the salon, I have an appointment to get my highlights in my mane redone sowe'll handle ti when I get back." "Buy Mayor, I spent so much time and effort into these plans and had to cancel so much with my friends and family to get it done and really need you to give the final say on it..." He tried to explain until she just walked out and left him alone with all the paperwork. Twilight was amazed at how under appreciated the men were around here, "I... I don't believe it, how was all this happening in such a sweet place like Ponyville?" "Sweet place? Twilight we get invaded by evil monsters and magical creatures like once every couple of weeks! Equestria's about as sweet as a lemon soaked in salt water." Mocha Jon snarked as he poured himself coffee in the background. "Before I became king, men were only good for pulling heavy carts and not much else, but now take a look at them with me as their King..." He said as he switched the magic to show the present: They are now shown Pipsqueak sitting on a birthday themed chair, eyes glowing cyan, and the kids were all playing laser tag together. Snips and Snails were blasting Scootaloo and laughing, then she joined in the laughter and started blasting them back, giving Pipsqueek a hoofbump. Caramel was knocking on Sugar Cube Corner's door and was carrying a box of poppy seeds as Carrot Cake answered the door, both of them having cyan eyes, "Hey dude, I got those poppy seeds for your bagels and muffins right here!" He said eagerly. "Wow, I wasn't expecting these until tomorrow!" Carrot said in joy. "Yeah, King Marshall sent some of the old Royal Guards who were tired of having to risk their lives so much to help me with my deliveries!" Caramel said in excitement. "Well if that gives you some free time later, some of my friends were heading to a hoofball game later, maybe you could come along? As kind of a thank you for the ingredients." Mr Cake responded. "Sure thing! I'll see you guys tonight, thanks!" Caramel walked off and the two waved each other goodbye. Next, Derpy was seen trying to burst into Dr Whooves' lab again, but before she could run in, she ran right into Bulk Biceps as the Doctor greeted her... guess what color their eyes are. "Sorry dear, but I hared some extra security to make sure nopony comes in and disrupts my studies and breaks my inventions before I can get insurance on them." He said as he looked over at a very sick, sneezing colt pegasus sitting in his chair. His nose was dripping and he had a blanket. The Doctor handed him a small drink and right when he drank it he instantly cheered up and flew right out of that office feeling better than ever. Lastly, the mayor's assistant walked into her office, also under Marshall's spell, and confronted her in a firm but light hearted manner. "Listen, I know you have a lot of responsibilities around here and all but I have been working hard too and King Marshall says that I need a vacation, so I'm taking some time off, but I have a list of great temporary interns here for you who can do this very well, just promise me when I get back that you'll know much I do for you..." He sighed as he left some papers on her desk and walked out. Twilight's entire world was shaken by the past few minutes, "You actually made all these changes yourself?" "Of course, my mind control spell cannot change who ponies are deep down, I only used it to give these men confidence to help them stand up for themselves and make their lives better, and it has worked." Marshall calmly responded. "He could have possessed the girls and forced them to devote themselves to baking cakes for the men but he didn't, that's gotta prove something..." Jon snarked. "But what about Celestia, and Luna, and..." "Don't worry, very soon they will be back, I only needed to end their oppressive reign over the stallions..." Marshall eerily responded. Twilight had a tear in her eye, she couldn't believe that all this unfair life was happening and the Princesses couldn't do anything about it, or worse, wouldn't do anything about it. She couldn't believe what she was about to say... she wanted to bite her tongue, but she just sighed and said it... "You're right..." Marshall couldn't believe what he just heard, "What did you just say...?" Jon made another snarky sarcastic comment in the background, "She said that she's thinking about trying out for the Wonderbolts, duh! What do you think she said?" "Marshall, you're right, no stallion has ever had the opportunities a mare had, we usually just have them pull wagons and never gave them a chance to be as close to Royalty as mares were... Marshall, I want to leave Celestia's kingdom and join yours." Twilight was heart broken hearing herself say that, but Marshall was ecstatic hearing that. "You're a smart girl Twilight... You have so much potential to do so much, and with me as the King, I can give you many more opportunities than Celestia ever could, she cared about you, but I care about you and all of Equestria, I believe you can do so much as my apprentice...!" Marshall said with his signature smug/sinister tone in his voice. Back at Twilight's castle, Twilight's friends and Shining Armor were waiting in the mane room around the Map waiting for Twilight to return. "Look I still don't know about Twi going alone, Marshall has half of Equestria under his control and we don't know what he could do." Shining said in fear. "Oh please! Twilight's too awesome to loose, we trust her, plus we needed to stay behind to make sure those zombie dudes don't do anything crazy!" Rainbow Dash gloated as suddenly Spike coughed out a letter. "What in tarnation?" Applejack asked Starlight Glimmer took the paper and read the note in her head. When she finished, she was looking extremely depressed... "Twilight's joined the King..." They all gasped in shock from that...