Chapter 8

Twilight awoke the next morning feeling very rested and ready to face the day. He made his way downstairs, drawn by the smell of Spike's signature pancakes. When he entered the kitchen (when there are only four of you, it makes little sense to sit in a dinning room built for more than a hundred ponies) he saw a very cheery Umbra talking to a rather dejected looking Shadow

“... and Big Mac was there along with that weatherpony Thunderlane and that really strange clockmaker that calls himself 'The Doctor'.” Umbra lied so well that even her (equally deceptive) sister couldn't pick up on it “We had the time of our lives”

Twilight rolled his eyes and chuckled to himself;

“It's no fair, you got to go to a great party while I had stay here and helped Spike organize the bookshelves” Shadow pouted

“Applejack was there” Twilight added as he sat down and grabbed several pancakes with his magic and began eating them whole in a way that would make Rarity cringe “And she was rather belligerent”

“Then I would have challenged her to a duel and taken Maccie as a prize”

Umbra snorted and chuckled at her sister's pet name for the stallion

“And what if he didn't want to be 'taken as a prize'”

“Eh, he's just a stallion”

Umbra facehoofed while Twilight almost choked on a pancake

“'Just a stallion'? What's that supposed to mean?” Twilight's asked accusingly at the dark mare

“Um ... that he's a stallion?” Shadow asked nervously

“And what's wrong with that?” Twilight gave the mare a glare that was only a few orders of magnitude less powerful than the dreaded Stare

“Um ... nothing?” the mare managed to squeak out

“So Twilight, are you ready for today's morning court?” Spike asked as he walked up while carrying a stack of pancakes twice his own height

Twilight instantly started to panic. In the recent events he had entirely forgotten about his semiweekly morning court “Ah! How could I forget.” he screamed in a slightly deranged fashion before disappearing in a flash of magenta light

The two mares and the dragonling looked at one another; silently asking who would go after him

“Not me” said the trio in unison before resuming their breakfast

Fifteen minutes and several unnecessary panic attacks later Twilight was sitting on his throne (which, with his larger stallion body, almost looked reasonable in size) in the aptly named throne room.

It had only taken Twilight ten minutes to figure out that there was, quite literally, absolutely nothing that he needed to prepare for his court; among other things, he had spent several minutes worrying about how his regalia would no longer fit him before he remembered that he, or rather she, had never worn it in the first place.

The ponies of Ponyville seemed to believe that wearing clothes of any sort was an arrogant statement of superiority along with an act of self-concealment; much like saying “I am too good to show you who I really am” or something similar (Which made Twilight sincerely doubt a certain white mare's sanity who had set up a high class boutique in what was basically a nudest colony).

But alas, the tale must move forward.

Spike announced the first petitioners “Miss Diamond Pick and company”

In entered three ponies who bowed out of respect. The first, a cerulean earth mare, started “Greetings, Your Royal Highness, I am Diamond Pick and we are here on a matter of business” Diamond turned towards the golden-brown unicorn mare to her right

“And I am Golden Rod,” The unicorn shuffled nervously “We are here because I ... um ... we have recently found, what could quite possibly be, a very significant mineral deposit to the south-west of Ponyville.”

Twilight couldn't help but be intrigued “What minerals are we talking about anyways?”

“The divination revealed large amounts of copper and mythril ore with smaller veins of gold ore and there were minor indications of adamantite”

Twilight's eyes widened slightly, adamantite, the ore of adamantium, was worth ten times it's weight in gold (and one mere gram of the refined metal was worth more than the average pony made in a lifetime)

“I'm sure we can work something out”

And work something out they did, The miners left the throne room with mining rights and all the bits that they would need to establish their mine while Twilight remained with a rather significant stake in the operations.

However something left Twilight unsettled. The third pony in the group, a muscle-bound earth stallion, hadn't said anything, nor had Twilight even learnt his name. Instead he had just stood there quietly several steps back while the two mares had done the talking.

Normally, Twilight would have paid this fact little attention, but his cousin's words from breakfast came back to him 'he's just a stallion'. What if Shadow's words held more truth than he first thought

A number of ponies came to through court. There were several buisnessponies and artisans looking to put up shop in the growing town of Ponyville, there was a handful of townsponies asking him to solve their trivial disputes, and there were a few scholars looking for a position at the soon-be-built Everfree University of Magic (a place where young ponies could come and learn magic regardless of their tribe or social rank). Unfortunately Twilight had yet to find an earth pony willing to teach in the school (the earth ponies vehemently refused to teach their own unique magic to anyone who was not related directly by blood). He chuckled to himself, he never thought that it would be easier to find thestral professors than an earth pony professor.

Luckily, of the ponies that came to court, none of them were the whinny (he, he, he, whinny. You get it?) nobles that plagued Celestia's court. Twilight was not surprised at this; after all, most nobles in Equestria would sooner crawl into a dragon's mouth than deal with a Twilight (it's a long story). Regardless Twilight was starting to feel like the 'Griffin Emperor With No Coat' as that nopony had commented on or even implied they noticed the royal alicorn's recent change in gender.

Twilight was broken out of his thoughts by Spike announcing the next petitioner.

“Carrot Top of Golden Harvest Farms”

“Ugh, and I was having such a good day”  Twilight groaned. Carrot Top was to Twilight like Blueblood was to Celestia (No, not his niece. Anyways Blueblood wasn't truly related to the solar diarch, that was merely a silly rumour). Carrot Top was a very vocal mare who would often come to Twilight's court demanding that some of Sweet Apples Acres's land be turned over to her.

The green maned orange earth mare entered with an intimidating almost military gait emanating a confidence that Twilight had never seen in the mare before.

“Hello Carrot Top” Twilight said icily to the mare that Rainbow had once joked was Applejack's archenemy

“Hello Twilight Sparkle” the farm mare didn't bother to bow as she answered in emotionless monotony

Twilight raised an eyebrow “What brings you here on this formerly wonderful morning”

“As a concerned member of the community I demand that you release your hold on these lands and your titles”

Twilight stared blankly at the mare before bursting into hysterical guffaws “So you want me to abdicate as a prince and duke while turning my back on my family and everything I have worked for?”

“It is not a choice” The mare said unamused

Twilight stopped laughing, the mare was clearly not joking “Why should I?”

“Stallions are not fit to rule, they belong under the mares they serve”

Twilight blinked at that last statement. “And what if I refuse?” Twilight felt the beginnings of fury taking seed in his chest

“Then you will be removed” the mare said smugly

“Is that a threat?” Twilight said through gritted teeth barely holding in his anger

“That's a promise” the earth pony replied darkly

Twilight could no longer hold back the “HOW DARE YOU COME INTO MY COURT AND THREATEN ME, GO NOW AND NEVER ENTER MY PRESENCE AGAIN”

Carrot Top was knocked back about ten metres from where she had been standing before by the sheer power of the Royal Canterlot Voice “You will come to rue this day Twilight Sparkle” she said calmly before turning tail (literally) and leaving.

Twilight wondered why he had suddenly become so quick to anger. Sure he had been put under much stress due to his transformation, but he never reacted to stress in anger (rather he (well, she) would start a downward spiral of neurotic panic attacks and ever decreasing sanity). So why now? Twilight quickly racked his brain for and answer. Hormones! Twilight had read that the natural hormones in a stallion's body causes them to be more aggressive and quicker to anger (Twilight had laughed when she had first read that. Stallions were so calm and docile compared to mares that it was absurd to think that there natural body chemistry made them aggressive). That was exactly what Twilight was feeling right now. Twilight's mood improved greatly now that another mystery was solved.

“Spike, you can send the next petitioner in” Twilight said happily

“There are no more petitioners Twilight”

Twilight was shocked “I've only seen a few of the ponies who were waiting to see me”

“Ponies that were waiting to see you” Spike pointedly said “They all decided that it would be better to wait 'til next week instead of facing an angry you”

“But I'm no longer angry” Twilight pointed out

“And that scares me more than anything from the deepest depths of Tartarus ever could”

“Oh, don't be so dramatic, Spike”

Spike took one look at his unstable mother/brother and turned away shaking his head “Not my problem”

Twilight was lazily flying through the air in the general direction of Sweet Apple Acres. Since his court session had ended early he had decided to check up on Applejack. The fact that she was drunk early last night was highly worrying to the alicorn prince. Applejack could hold he liquor better than most ponies, so she must have drank a large quantity before the start of the party. So naturally Twilight was worried that something had driven the poor mare to drink.

“Heyya Twilight, whatcha doing?” Pinkie said below

Twilight was surprised to see the pink pony bouncing down the road “I could ask you the same question Pinkie” Twilight said as he landed on the dirt road

“Oh, I'm going to see Applejack, I have my family's special hangover cure and I think AJ might need it really, really bad!” Pinkie said in her typical singsong voice

“I was wondering about that, Pinkie. Why was Applejack so drunk last night?”

“Well it all started when my Pinkie Sense told me that you had turned yourself into a stallion, then I thought that it a good reason for a party – but then again what isn't a good reason for a party – and I decided to make it a surprise party; except that it isn't a surprise because you already went to it, does that make it an unsurprise party! Is a surprise party still called a surprise party if it has already happened” Pinkie's eyes widened and she took a gasp of air “If a surprise party already happened and now isn't a surprise party, does that mean that nopony was actually surprised at all?” Pinkie's face now held a look of abject terror.

Twilight sighed “A surprise party is a surprise party regardless of whether it has happened yet. Now what does this have to do with Applejack being drunk last night”

“Oh, yeah, well I started planning the party but I wanted a friend to help, but Rainbow is out of town and she is normally my party planning partner – he, he party planning partner – so I thought that Applejack can do alot of the things that Rainbow can – well except fly and control weather and be cool, awesome and radical all at the same time and be a favourite of the fandom – so I decided that she could help me plan my party. But she was all uptight like 'Pinkie ah've got work ta do' and 'Pinkie will y'all get off me' and 'goshdarnit Pinkie that's one place no mare should put her face' so I gave her some of my family special rock vodka to get her to loosen up a bit; but it didn't work properly, she got all angry and paranoid and even more uptight, so I figured that batch was defective and I poured it into the water fountain”

Twilight blinked in shock. Rock vodka is highly illegal and is considered  toxic and mildly carcinogenic by the Chemical Control Agency due to the fact that the body has a very hard time removing the silicon based alcohols from it's system “So, when Applejack didn't want to help you with the party, you drugged her with illegal liquor to try and change her mind and when that didn't work you poured the rest into the fountain where the many ponies who don't have indoor plumbing get their water?”

“Sheesh, Twilight, that's an awfully negative way to look at it”

Twilight suddenly decided that Sweet Apple Acres would not be an opportune place to be in thirty minutes and remembered that he had some paperwork that needed finishing