Just a Toy
Twilight had no idea where she was. What she did know was she was stand in a great hall.A thing, tall and red with rosy check was standing over her. He was uniformed with his weapon over his soldier. A frightening guard. He was indeed frightening, but not as frightening as the other, all beardy with great clomping jaws that looked like they could crush nuts.
"Send in the Princess of Equestria!" called a voice from inside.
The guard ushered her in. As Twilight walked in she looked around, what she saw....
"Toys!" She exclaimed."They're all toys!"
"And so are you!" came a voice from the throne in front of her.
On the throne sat a sad Jack in the Box who looked at her thoughtfully.
"Oh no,no,no,no.....you are mistaken...."she said with a smile."I'm not a toy...I'm a thinking sentient being...."
"Words..."said the Jack in the box with a smile.He then sighed."What is written on your leg?"
"Oh that! That's my cutie mark! it says...."
"No....what is written on the inside of your leg..."he said sternly.
"That's obscene! That's no way to begin a conversation!" she cried out hurtfully.
"I will tell you!"he said."It says Hasbro Copyright...."
"What is this talk? Where am I?" Twilight sputtered.
"You are in the great hall of toys where we, coordinate..."he said"Under the rule of the great Jack in the Box, the broken tool, who says all the toys belong to him, that he gives out toys to anyone who says he can, the tool that sculpts the world,that reveals the companions as merely toys."he said with a sniff.
I'm ruling in his stead because he is out in the world making more toys so that we can be a majority and overthrow the companions and play and play and play...."the last part the Jack and the Box said with a twinge of pain as he shut his eyes and let a tear roll out.
You have been brought here to show you that you are just a toy, to stop this growing this changing!"
"That not true! I'm not a toy I..."
The guard grabbed Twilight and bent her in a way that that she could see the writing on her leg....
"No....its not true...."she looked down. Finally, she spoke up."If I am a toy, what then?"
"You must stand in one place, you must smile always, you must come and go when the Jack and the Box tells you...and you must rise up and mindlessly demand your rights, take toys and there parts from those deemed undeserving and tear down and destroy anything that supplants the holly writ of the Jack and the Box.You must burn books, you must tell everyone they are wrong, the Jack in the Box is right. You must do only what the Jack in the Box tells you. Then play and play and play all day!"
"I can't do that!" Twilight said aghast. "I have to read I have to learn! To talk and clarify! I have to find out about the world I live in, explore! I must make friends and have companionship!"
There was a great clatter of sound,"OOOO she thinks she is a companion! Everything shows she's a toy but she overthinking she is a companion!"The crowd of toys gathered in the hall clattered and whooped.
"Well? What shall we do?"asked the Jack in the Box.Some argued this some argued that: the most heinous of ideas to make her confess she was a toy.
"I know."said the nutcracker."Give her to the Toymaker's Son! When she finds out she is a toy and not a companion she'll come right back here! She'll sit still, smiling, until the Great Jack and the Box tells her what she is fit for!"
The Jack in the Box eye twinkled and he smiled.
"Yes!Yes! Give her to the toymaker's Son!"the crowd howled.
The Nutcracker, Toy soldier and a teddy bear grabbed Twilight, and gagged her. Then they carried her over to the jack in the box.
"The spring, the spring! Over to the spring the spring!" he said. Then in blink the Jack in the Box moved to Twilight's ear as he glanced at the guards binding Twilight's wings,"Please! Be an intercessor also!Interceded for us! When you find the Son...ask him for mercy for his stewards...!"The Jack and the Box jumped back laughing a little too merrily.
The teddy bear nodded in agreement as she was loaded on the platform.
Then in an instant. Twilight was thrown of the spring and, with a muffled scream ejected into the air in an endless arc!
At that moment the doors to the hall burst open. Something slithered in. Panic erupted in the court as those inside fled.
When all was empty, a hideous figure rose from the floor long and thin attached to a box on the floor belching fog. A goblin face was attached to the end of the spring with huge sharp teeth. It wore a bell cap. The nasty visage turned it attention to the only occupants left in the court. The bear, the nutcracker, the toy soldier and the Jack it the box.
"Where... is... the horse? Where is Twilight Sparkle!" It roared.
"We heard you were returning so we thought it best to do the judicial matter so that you wouldn't be bothered so you can rest...after all it such a long trip going too and fro in the world..."said the jack in the box.
"I never rest I never sleep and I left specific instructions that I was to deal with this,'Princess of friendship!' She would have brought many over to our cause!The great singularity!" The Jack in the Box glowered.
"But I thought you said the toys were winning..."said the teddy bear sarcastically.
"What is this? Were have you gotten backbone all off the sudden? Who do you thing you are?"
There was a rattling sound and a hissing and then a clatter at the base of the monstrous Jack in the Box, a spray can.
The toy soldier had written, "Down with the false toy maker, long live the companions, Son save the stewards!"
The Goblin stared at the four in dis belief.
"We are tired of this stupid game....we want the Son to play with us again!" Said the Jack in the Box.
"...and you think the Son will save you?"Glowered the Goblin smiling with wicked jagged fangs.
"Yes!"they all cried.
"My teeth are bigger!" said the Nut Cracker.
"You think so?"The Goblin said as its grin became demonstrably bigger making the Nut cracker shudder. "Tut, Tut, Tut! Toys don't think. Toys are part of...me"The voice was deep and growly making the floor shake."I think I shall create a new line of toys, mix and match...you all need an attitude adjustment...I have no idea why I never got to it sooner..."
"The intercessor shall come!" cried the nut cracker.
The Goblin looked down at the bear."I'll start by removing that pesky backbone of yours!"
Then the doors of the great hall slammed shut.