The Mandate

by Mod On Death

Misunderstanding Crisis

"Okay!" Malarson said as he got with Buronson and Sound. "Where do we start?"

"Well, the last place we were at was the assault on Face Fist's Nuclear Cannon where he was aiming it at-"

"Hold on," Malarson interrupted. "Who's Face Fist?"

"In the last arc the newest character that joined with Jenshiro-"

"Wait," he now said, interrupting Sound. "Who's Jenshiro?" The two just stared at him for a while after he asked that. "Well?"

"She's the main character!" Buronson yelled out. "Have you even read any of the story?"

"No. I thought that's what we were going over." The two groaned as they realized that Malarson really didn't know what their comic was about.

"Hah! Sucks to be you guys!" Red yelled as he and Heyfield shot out comedy premises.

"Look, Mal, maybe you should read over our series before you help us out. Otherwise we'll end up making something that really is awful," Sound told him.

"Okay. I guess I'll be doing that tonight. Maybe I can help out Heyfield until then." Malarson trotted away with disappointment, leaving Sound and Buronson back to square one.

"So, how're we supposed to do this then?" Sound asked, hoping that the writer might think up some story that actually makes sense.

"Well, I think we could make it a one-shot, you know? Make it so it's nothing permanent. One story like that shouldn't make things too difficult for us." Buronson thought about one-shot ideas and said, "Maybe she doesn't become Princess of the whole Wasteland, but of a tribe or something."

"Well how can we make her an alicorn?"

"I think I have an idea."

While Buronson and Sound worked on their new story premise together, Low Web and Finch were trying to figure out how to bring back the clone saga they had once done.

"Maybe we could have something with time travel?" suggested Low Web.

"Nah. Just mentioning that would turn fans off," his partner told him.

"Seeing as we're working the clone saga again, we might as well go all out in the insanity since they'd be turned off by that again," Web joked.

"Actually, that might just be what we need."

"Finch, what're you talking about?"

"Web, what if we went and included a storyline so insane that was so cool with this premise that everypony forgot how dumb it actually was?"

"What you just described is the average super-hero comic book."

"Huh. Alright, but what if it was made even cooler within the universe?" Web was started to get annoyed with his coworker's riddles.

"Are you going to actually have a point to this?"

"Yes. I'm suggesting we include the clones and time travel...TOGETHER!"

"That has to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Go on."

"Alright. What if Courage Colt actually has to fight time travelling clones of himself that came from the future because he eventually defeats the clone master in the future with new powers, and the clones go back in time to make sure that Courage Colt doesn't defeat him with them?"

"Yes?"

"And the reason they've gone to that point in time is because they couldn't get an exact time before the time travel device was going to be destroyed?"

"Yes?!"

"And it turns out that the clone master is..."

"WHO?! WHO IS IT?!"

"I dunno yet, but sounds awesome, doesn't it?"

"WE SHOULD MAKE THIS!"

"Web, that's what we're going to do. You think you can do this?"

"Finch, as of this moment, I'm fairly certain that this is what I was born to do."

"All right then." The two pulled out typewriters and yelled "Let's do this!"

---

"So, is this factory a nice place?" Cloverbud asked Golden Bell as they passed into Absrho's Toy Factory.

"Oh, definitely! It's a fun place to see tons of machine and plastic at work." Golden Bell smiled as the two reached the receptionist. "Hello! It's me, Golden Bell. I'm here with my associate, Cloverbud, to check on the toys for Trot Comics."

"Alright. Take a seat and somepony should be with you shortly." She said this without looking up from her magazine and pointed to a couple of chairs. Golden Bell skipped over and took the closest one, motioning over for Cloverbud to come over.

"This better not take a while," Clover said as she sat. Golden Bell had grabbed one of the magazines sitting around while Clover decided to check out the toy catalog that they send in the mail. In it, she saw several of the other products that the company did and wondered how they'd handle their properties. She saw that they designed the popular Styrofoam sports equipment that every foal seemed to play with, along with other toys including Magic: The Gathering cards, the potato guy, and board games.

"Excuse me, but are you from Trot Comics?" a representative asked them.

"Yes. I'm Cloverbud of Quality Control and this is my associate, Golden Bell of Public Relations. We're here to check on the toy models that are supposed to be here."

"Pleased to meet you! I'm Cold Mold, and I'll show you around." The two followed as Cold Mold showed them around the building and explained the history of the toy company. "We've got several new projects that we hope show our dedication to quality and learning for the children. Since you're looking for models I assume you'd like to take a look at them as well."

"No, just the-"

"Yes!" Golden Bell interrupted, causing Cloverbud to lose most of her day.

"Splendid! Now, if you follow me, I'll show you the process of the toy making."

For the next several hours the three of them walked through a mechanized factory where plastic molds were forged, organized, and then pieced together to form a final product. The smell of the place was agonizing, the smell burning its way up their noses. Golden Bell was clearly irritated by the chemicals in the place while Cloverbud was completely unaffected, even without the protective equipment everypony else was putting on. The three finished up their time in that part of the factory and moved over to where the final products were placed. Mold and Golden took off their safety equipment, Golden doing so quickly, and went over to a table with several boxes to take a seat.

"Now, for the moment you've all been waiting for; the reveal of Trot Comics first ever toy, Jenshiro!" Mold took off the box to reveal Jenshiro to the two. The very second he did so, Cloverbud knew something was wrong with the toy. "So what do you think?"

"Why is she pink?" she asked, pointing to the bright pink Jenshiro.

"What do you mean?"

"Jenshiro's coat is white. Why is this toy pink?" Cloverbud's question seemed to make Mold seem nervous.

"Well, girls really like the color pink, so we-"

"So you destroyed the integrity of the basic character design and changed her to pink in order to appeal to a group that you stereotyped?" Golden Bell had never seen Cloverbud so intense or calculating with her words. Mold looked like he was about to faint.

"Um...I think we may have some things to fix before we show you the rest." He gathered up the boxes and started to exit through the back. "Please come back within a couple of days. We'll have better models set up for you. Thank you for your patience."

"Wow! I'd never seen a stallion look so nervous before," commented Golden Bell.

"I am the Quality Control. I make sure what is made is of quality. Fail to do so, and I shall strike." Only Cloverbud could make a seemingly innocent position in a company seem so powerful. "Come. There is nothing more to see here." And without another word, the two left the factory.

---

"Alright, this is the place," Pepperoni told his companions. "Apple Cider, you mind doing the honors?"

"Sure. Just make sure nopony is watching. I don't think this is exactly legal," he said as he took out his lock picking kit.

"How did you know that A.C. was a master of lock picking?" Pawpads asked.

"What? Don't you remember that long talk we once had where you told me about how you took it up as a hobby after you once got locked out of your house?" Pepperoni said as if this were common knowledge.

"Nope. Anyway, here you go." The door opened with a click, the three of them carefully entering the residence.

As soon as the three entered they saw that the house was in shambles. The furniture had been ripped up, knocked over, and in some way or another broken.

"What the hay?" A.C. asked.

"I've seen this before. When you've got a really hungry dog who's not trained it can get real messy," explained Pawpads. "Now, where's my little patient? Come on. Come on!"

"Pawpads, I'm pretty sure that just doing that won't-" The dog suddenly came rushing towards them, a dumb smile on it's face.

"Who's a hungry boy? You a hungry boy? I bet you are! Just let me check you out first." Pawpads then looked into the dog's eyes with a light and checked inside the mouth, humming while doing so. "Well, it doesn't look like he's gotten any pills. No side effects seen, and he's just feeling so energetic, aren't you?" The dog barked in response as the two played with each other.

"Well, I'm gonna go get the food and keys. Hopefully I won't need the two of you again." Pepperoni looked around the house and found the fridge Bates had told him. As he went to the side to get the food, he saw something out of site and decided to follow up on it. What he saw was the bathroom in shambles with the medicine cabinet off the wall and dried blood on the floor.

"Hey. You need any help with-woah." A.C. looked at the scene and wondered what happened here. "That's a lot of blood."

"Yeah. Don't know how that could have-"

"FREEZE!" a terrifying voice yelled out. Pepperoni and A.C. turned to see guards rush into the house, surrounding Pawpads and then themselves. "You're under arrest for Breaking and Entering. Anything you say can-" He stopped as he looked to the floor in the bathroom and saw the dried blood. "What's with this blood here?"

"I'm not really sure, but it was here when we-"

"Shut it!" the guard yelled, sending shivers through Pepperoni's spine. "It's been here for several hours now. Can any of you find where the owner is?"

"We haven't seen anypony else here, sir," another guard addressed. "The pony who called us said that they'd heard noise earlier this morning that sounded like loud crashing though, so it might be possible that this occurred at that time."

"Alright, you three are coming downtown. You might be in real big trouble." Pepperoni received a glare from A.C. and knew that things had taken a turn for the worse.