Knight in Smoking Armorby Mocha JonChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 1On a dark night in Equestria, six hooded young ponies were having a small adventure in the woods and brought along with them sets of candles, chalk, crystals, and a book. Upon removing their hoods, the ponies were revealed to be Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, and Pip Squeak. The CMC decided to have a small sleepover in their treehouse to celebrate getting their cutie marks and help mend any fences faced against their new friends after the school election. “Alright guys, this book says we can only do this on a full moon’s night for it to work.” Diamond said as she signaled Pip Squeak to begin as he started drawing a circle in the dirt. “By the way, how do you have this book anyway? Seems a little strange for you.” Apple Bloom asked as she formed the crystals into a triangle pattern and drew a triangle connecting them. Silver Spoon rolled her eyes, “We bought it after we found out what’s fun at slumber parties, everypony says talking to the dead is a must, why, are you afraid?” She asked as she scowled at her. Diamond bumped Silver on the shoulder and gave her a look of disappointment, “Hey, remember, we’re trying to be nice to these girls now, no more insults okay?” Silver responded with a disgruntled sigh. “Besides, I’ve always wanted to do this, hearing all those spirits make a bunch of growls and howls as they possess one of our bodies and make all the stuff fly around the place!” Scootaloo said as she began to place the candles in between the crystals, drawing another circle between them forming a hexagram in the circle. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom looked a little nervous about starting this, they themselves don’t have a lot of experience with dark magic, but worked hard to convince themselves that it wa just a simple sleepover game. Sweetie used her horn to light the candles and the six sat in between the candles and crystals, “I really hope nothing bad happens with this…” Apple said to herself. “It’s fine Apple Bloom, I’ve done this with my friends a dozen times.” Pip said as Diamond began reading from her book. “Okay… On darkest days, and lightest nights…” She began as she passed her book to Silver. “Those of horror, those of terror, those of frights…” She them passed it to Pip. “Whether you have gone down or you’ve seen the lights…” He passed it to Scootaloo. “The past doings of wrongs and rights…” She them passed it to Sweetie Belle, who was shivering a little. “Your soul was tortured and you were vanquished of might…” She said as she passed it to an equally reluctant Apple Bloom. “Return from the grave and present yourself in sight!” She said as she lightly tossed the book into the center of the hexagram, which began to glow mildly, making Apple cover her eyes. As the hexagram began to glow, the candles began to burn brighter as more smoke was beginning to come from them. The six kids all looked around, this time all of them seemed a little nervous about what was to happen. They all looked around but could not see anypony rising from the ground and assumed the process was still happening. When they all reached their arms out and locked hands, they closed their eyes hoping that the unity would help activate the spell, however, whenever they opened their eyes, they found the hexagram stopped glowing and the candles had lost all their flames and left nothing but leftover smoke on them. “That’s it? Where are the ghouls and spirits? I wanted to see one of us get possessed and start floating with glowing eyes!” Scootaloo said as she kicked the dirt. “Where did you say you got that book again?” Sweetie Belle asked as she nervously picked up the book. “It was one of those independent stores that had no lights in it that said they sold cursed items, totally ripped us off!” Silver responded. “Whatever, let’s just head back to the treehouse, we could do something fun like play spin the bottle…!” Pip Squeak said as he began to walk away. “NO!” All the girls said as they began to follow him, leaving the tantric items where they were. After all the children had left, the wind began to pick up and the smoke coming from the candles began to condense in the middle of the hexagram as the circle itself began to grow a layer of small black crystals… At the train station in the Crystal Empire, Princess Twilight and Spike were seen walking off the train and looking around, Spike himself seeming a little eager to return as he knew the Empire would ravish in his return. “You know, it’s great that you’re visiting Cadence again, but five bits says something will go wrong.” Spike said as he sat on Twilight’s luggage like a chair as she lifted it with her horn. Twilight looked back, annoyed at that comment, “First, do you even have five bits? I saw you spend a lot of money on those gems you were eating on the train. And second, why do you say that? You never seem that cynical.” Twilight responded as she saw a white hoof waving in the background. “I’m just saying, weird stuff happens every time we come here…” He said as Twilight got accosted by her brother and hugged in a cartoonish fashion, making her a little out of breath. When she was hugged she forgot she was using her horn and Spike fell off the luggage… “Wow… Ow...” When Shining Armor let go of his sister, he looked at her and apologized as he saw she was out of breath, “Oh… Sorry, I guess I don’t know my own strength…” He said as he blushed and scratched the back of his mane… “Well it’s still great to see you again!” As Twilight caught wind again and shook off, she responded with similar eagerness, “It’s great to see you too! It’s so nice to finally get to see you without needing to fight off some magical beast for once!” She jokingly said as she looked at Spike with a tone of sarcasm, then looked around again, “Where’s Cadence?” She asked. Shining Armor winced an eye at her asking that so soon, “She’s back at the palace, she has a habit of sleeping late on weekends, she should be there when we get there.” When Spike got back to his feet, he started leading the way, “Alright let’s go then! I want to get there before an evil grizzly bear shows up and uses his claws to send everypony here to another dimension or something.” Twilight and Shining Armor shrugged their shoulders and followed him. “Everything alright with him?” Shining asked. “Oh he just thinks something bad will happen that will happen during our visit, don’t worry, it’s just a little paranoia.” Twilight responded. Shining chuckled, “Heck knowing our track record I’d bet five bits something does happen to us.” Spike turned around and gave a thumbs up to Shining, “See this is why I love your brother Twy.” He said until he accidentally bumped into a Crystal Pony. The mare pegasus broke into shrieking as she saw Spike and Twilight, “Oh My Gosh! Princess Twilight and Spike! Oh My Gosh! Oh My Gosh!!! You two are my heroes!!!” She said as she formed a girly pose. Twilight smiled as she waved at the mare, “Well it’s great to hear that! I love seeing everypony I can, we’re visiting for a few days, maybe we’ll get a chance to hang out.” “Yeah, Twy made me plan three hours out of each day for miscellaneous time in case she gets impulsive…” Spike added. “Oh My Gosh! I would LOVE that! I live near the bakery, look me up!” She said as she walked past Twilight and Spike, but then noticed Shining Armor was behind them, and she broke her excited tone and just gave him a dark scowl and a small huff that Spike and Twilight didn’t notice. “Uh… Let’s just head to the palace now…” Shining said as the mare left, clearly not happy to see him. Chapter 2At the palace, two guards were standing in place barricading the door like expected. Upon seeing the three return, they opened and allowed them all in gratefully before standing back in attention. Cadence was waiting in the entrance, pressing her mane down with her horn to make it look like she hadn't just gotten out of bed. Upon the three entering, Cadence rushed straight up to Twilight, hugged her, and their signature greeting was performed. “SUNSHINE SUNSHINE, LADYBUGS AWAKE, CLAP YOUR HOOVES AND DO A LITTLE SHAKE!” The two mares looked happy with their greeting, but Shining Armor and Spike just blushed and looked at each other, clearly uncomfortable at how girly that was. “Twilight it’s so great to finally get to see you without needing to fight some bad guy!” Cadence said as they all began to make their way around. “You say that now, five bits says otherwise.” Spike added as he rolled his eyes. “So what are we gonna do here anyway? This palace is cool and all but there has to be some fun stuff to do in the Empire.” Shining Armor turned around and seemed eager to suggest something, “Hey, maybe we could try…” He began until Cadence cut him off. “Twilight we need to go shopping at the Crystal Galerina!!! They have all these gorgeous paintings of the powerful mares who were used as eye candy when King Sombra ruled, and the even have books on their lives! Those mares were beautiful and empowered and I love seeing them,” Cadence suggested before even noticing her husband was about to suggest something else. Spike himself looked a little excited at the idea, as he knew what she meant by ‘eye candy’ and started imagining those mares, “Beautiful mares? Alright I’m in!” Twilight naturally seemed interested in the lives of the past crystal mares and anything involving books, “Sure that sounds great! I’ve been needing to send Starlight Glimmer some information about them for her friendship studies!” She said as she grabbed her notebook. “Then it’s settled! Let’s go now before the line gets too big and we have to feel guilty for using our royal status as an excuse to cut in line!” Cadence said excitedly as Spike and Twilight followed her. “Finally some girl time with my favorite sister in law!” Shining Armor just stood in surprise for a moment as they had all just impulsively left him there, “Oh, okay I guess I’ll see you guys later then…” He said as he sighed and walked out by himself, “Okay, I guess I’ll just go to the first ever Crystal Pony’s hoofball tournament by myself then…” Shining was a bit dishearted by this as he was hoping they could all do something together, but he understood that his wife did need some girl time. As Shining Armor made his way outside to the event he could see everypony was batting eyes at him and chuckling. This was to be expected, after all, he didn’t have his wife around to stand up for him. Two teenage mares noticed him and walked right up to his face, “Oh hello ‘your majesty…’ it is an honor to be in your presence…!” One mare said with a very clear indication of sarcasm. Unbeknownst to anypony was that there was some dark smoke coming from a barrel near by… “They dare disrespect their ruler like such…?” A very quiet voice was heard out loud, but nowhere enough to be noticed or concerning. The voice was deep and menacing with a mildly horsey rasp. Shining rolled his eyes at that comment the mare made, “Nice to meet you too, it’s always fun to meet a fan and then call security on them later…” Shining responded with equal sarcasm. “You know I’m surprised your wife let you out alone, do you have a curfew?” The other mare asked as the two started walking away, “Tell Cadence we said Hi, we’ve always wanted to meet true royalty…” They both started laughing as they walked away. Shining was visibly frustrated at how little the ponies respected him, his eyebrows scowled as his horn began to light up… “Oh I’ll show you what true royalty can do…” He said quietly as he pointed his glowing horn to the mares. “Yes… Make them pay. Respect must be demanded…” Shining suddenly breathed out and looked down as his horn stopped glowing, “I can’t… No matter how much they hate me, I can’t give them a reason too…” Shining sighed and began to walk back to the hoofball game, but he stopped again when he heard a faint growl… “Huh? Hello?” Suddenly smoke started to surround the area very quickly, making Shining Armor begin to cough for a bit until he was surrounded completely by darkness… “They do not respect you…” The deep voice said, Shining Armor finally able to hear the voice, was understandably confused and scared about what was going on. “What…? Huh…? Coughhh…” He tried to ask between the coughs as he tried to not breathe in the fumes, “Who are you…?” There was a sharp pain that began in Shining’s head. “The ruler of the Crystal Ponies must not allow such disrespect from his subjects…” Shining tried fighting what was going on, he knew this voice was trying to get inside is head and was holding his breath from the smoke. Shining had trained in fighting such corruption spells ever since his wedding, but holding his breath was not working… “Coughhh cough… I… can’t… cough… hurt them…” He said as he finally gasped for air, and suddenly Shining started standing in attention and stopped resisting. “Yes… Just breathe it in… Breathe deep and listen to my voice…” Suddenly Shining followed the order and sniffed the smoke deeply from his muzzle and as he did, swirls of dark purple and light green appeared in Shining’s eyes… “There we go… Nice and submissive… Now you understand that disrespect from the Crystal Ponies must be punished…” “Yes… Disrespect from the Crystal Ponies must be punished…” Shining repeated slowly as the hypnotic smoke locked the notion in his mind. As Shining repeated the mantra out loud, the smoke began to dissipate quickly and Shining was back where he was in the Crystal Empire. Once the smoke was fully clear, Shining shook his head off as the swirls in his eyes faded. “Huh? What just happened?” He asked as he looked at his watch and seemed disturbed, “Oh man! The hoofball game starts in 10 minutes!” Shining said as he quickly started running… However in his rush he accidentally knocked over three barrels being arranged next to seven others by a pegasus…. “Ouch…” The pegasus looked angry, “Oh my gosh! Watch where you’re going!” He yelled as Shining stood back up. “Huh? What?” He asked as he noticed the barrels, “Oh gosh, I’m sorry sir, it was an accident…” He looked understandably embarrassed. “You’re sorry? I expect better from the Captain of the Royal Guards and our second banana ruler.” Shining was confused, nopony was that direct with him before, “I said sorry… If you want I can fix these,” Shining said as his horn light up and all the barrels were levitating and arranged into a triangle like bowling pins, “That better?” The pegasus didn’t seem impressed, “Yeah thanks I guess, just watch where you’re going…” He said in a very mean tone… Suddenly before Shining could just shrug his shoulders and walk away like normal, the purple and green swirls reappeared in his eyes for about three seconds before fading… “You know what… You’re right!” Shining said as his horn light up and suddenly the pegasis was enclosed in a purple force field similar to his famous protection spell. The force field with the stallion inside was lunged right to the barrels and destroyed all ten and left the pegasus disoriented and upside down on the rubble, “STRIKE!” Shining yelled boastfully as he walked away. The voice could be heard again without any physical manifestation, “Yes, there is more work to do, but there is potential in him…” “You know, I wonder what Twilight. Cadence, and Spike are doing?” Shining asked casually as if what he just did was not out of the ordinary. The scene changes to the museum, with Spike screaming at the top of his lungs in shock, “Oh my gosh! THAT is what they thought was beautiful!?” Twilight was happily writing in her notebook, “Of course! These ponies are from 1000 years ago! That was back when being as fat as possible was the best thing anypony could do!” She said as Spike fainted from shock. Chapter 3The scene changes to the museum, with Spike screaming at the top of his lungs in shock, “Oh my gosh! THAT is what they thought was beautiful!?” He said as he saw a bust of a mare wearing braided hair and the size of a native buffalo. Twilight was happily writing in her notebook, “Of course! These ponies are from 1000 years ago! That was back when being as fat as possible was the best thing anypony could do!” She said as Spike fainted from shock, quickly getting back up, not remembering what he just saw. “Oh my gosh! THAT is what they thought was beautiful?” Cadence was looking over at the bust of the Royalty of the Crystal Empire before King Sombra, specifically the ones with married couples. There was a look of dispondance in her eyes, almost like she didn’t like seeing the King and Queen together. She quickly brushed it off when she saw the other two make their way to her. “Cadence, check this out!” Twilight yelled as she held up a sketch that looked nearly identical to the bust Spike hated, “Oh my Celestia, is that King Ramsy and Queen Patra, and… Oh my! That’s King Luther and Queen Dido?” She asked in awe as she dropped her notebook. “Wow, she’s really fat!” Spike said. Twilight just rolled her eyes, “I remember how Ramsy lead the revolt against the invading empire of the Ramsy Empire and convinced the two to merge together into one empire, and how Dido founded the Crystal Empire by trading in her dead mother’s one last crystal for an investment and managed to keep trading and trading until the town was prospering!” She excitedly said as she quickly took her notebook back and started copying the pictures. Cadence blushed lightly but still looked impressed with their accomplishments, “That’s true, Ramsy and Dido sure knew how to run things, I actually had to read all their books before I took the throne here.” Spike looked bored and wanted to read the descriptions of both works, “Huh, it says Queen Patra was originally a Poet and Luther was a blacksmith before they got married to Royalty… Okay that’s it I’m bored, if anypony needs me, I’ll be in the gift shop waiting for whatever villain is gonna go after us.” Spike said as he walked away. Twilight rolled her eyes again, “Don’t mind him, he’s probably just upset cause a commoner marrying Royalty is Rarity’s dream and he wants her to himself.” Twilight said as she noticed Cadence’s look on her face. “Is everything alright there?” Cadence quickly snapped out of it when Twilight called her out, “Huh? Oh yes, I was just wondering… uh... how the perspective is working in this painting, is it one point to two point?” “Oh, I’m not sure really… Hold on, I know how to figure it out…” She said as she conjured up a protractor and a second notebook and started analyzing the painting of Ramsy and Patra. “Alright, so first we need to measure all the lines on the paper and compare them to a 90 degree angle, then we need to measure parallel lines that…” As Twilight started explaining, she went further and further into detail. However, Cadence couldn’t care less about the artistic designs of the works, she cared more about the fact that the Royalty were paired up with commoners. She could only see herself in the places of Ramsy and Dido, and Shining Armor in the place of Patra and Luther. She hated to admit this, but she didn’t think her husband was worthy of being a true Prince...As much as she loves him, she knew that ever sense their wedding, he has been defeated by the Changelings twice, King Sombra, Tirek, and the Storm King…. “...And so if all the angles on the edges line up to 180 degrees you know what the perspective is!” Twilight said as she revealed her page filled with ridiculous amounts of equations and problems, too much for Anypony to understand. Cadence took a minute to process the fact that Twilight finished explaining. “Huh…? Oh! Right… It must be… uh… Two point right?” “No… You must have accidentally put the lines on the top and the angles on the bottom of the fraction.” She said as she looked at the painting again. “It’s still beautiful though.” Cadence walked closer to it to get a better look, “They were great rulers, that’s for sure. But I wonder if say Ramsy and Dido ruled together? Imagine how great they could have done.” Twilight just chuckled at that, “Well I guess, but first of all Ramsy was a very Left Wing Pegasis and Dido was a very Right Wing Pegasis, they probably would fight. Plus then they wouldn’t be with their true loves, aren’t you for that?” “Well yes of course!” She interjected, rather adamantly, “I mean, why does a spouse automatically get a royal title? Just because they are married doesn’t mean they both earned the same status.” Cadence said, with a hint of guilt. Twilight winced an eye at that idea, “Well nopony really ‘tries’ to earn a spot at royalty, neither of us did, we just happened to fall into it. Plus isn’t it nice that somepony who came from nothing can suddenly become Royal? Sounds like a dream… Mainly to Rarity but still.” Cadence tried to think of a response without mentioning her husband, but was standing with a loss for words. “Well yes but… The pressure of the title can sometimes… Well, you know…” Cadence started stuttering. Twilight was looking suspicious, but before Cadence could finish, a security guard walked over and interrupted her. “Miss Sparkle, I apologize for barging in, but your dragon friend was caught sneezing in the gift shop and activated all the candles, and he said you would pay for them.” He said as he looked down with Spike standing next to him, smiling awkwardly. “I tried to tell him I’m the great hero of the Empire but he said a debt is a debt…” Spike said as he slowly walked back towards the gift shop. Twilight sighed and looked annoyed, forgetting her conversation with Cadence right there, “Spike I told you to take your medicine, do you take Equestrian currency?” Twilight asked as she went with the guard to the shop. Cadence sighed in relief, scratching the back of her mane, “Okay… That was close… Remember, you husband is a GOOD Prince, he deserves his title, he should be a Prince…” She said as she looked back at the Painting of King Luther and Queen Dido, seeing herself as the strong and empowered Dido (though much skinnier) and seeing her husband making horse shoes in Luther’s place... Chapter 4Back to Shining Armor, the unicorn had arrived to the stadium, the entrance was completely blocked off by a massive line waiting to get their tickets verified. The stadium only had one pony working the stand, so the line was moving as slowly as can be. Shining looked ahead, and he could see that there was one family who specifically caused a hold up because they had bought scalp tickets. Shining started to get worried until he had an idea; Shining was the Prince after all, he could just teleport in… It seems a bit unfair though, as the rest of the ponies have been waiting longer, should he cheat like that? As he pondered the option, a faint purple and green glow appeared in his eyes for a brief moment and he decided to do it! “Prince Shining Armor here on official Royal business!” Shining yelled as he teleported in, making the rest of the line look enraged, but Shining just chuckled and walked over to the snack bar, he was a Prince after all and he needed to stay full. The concession stand was surprisingly dead compared to the amount of ponies were at the as a stadium. The most likely reason for the lack of business was perhaps because they started selling modern snacks such as popcorn and hot dogs, which the crystal ponies didn’t seem to like very much. When Shining Armor looked over the options, the two counter attendants with name tags labeled ‘Twinkle Shine’ and ‘Marble Stone’ turned around and noticed who was waiting, and they both quickly rushed over to greet him, “Oh my goodness! Prince Shining Armor! What are you doing at a hoofball game? I didn’t think you’d be able to have this kind of time off.” The mare worker said excitedly. Shining Armor was surprised she was so eager to greet him, most ponies try to avoid eye contact, “Oh, well, honestly, Cadence handles most of that stuff herself, she kind of makes it to where I have plenty of free tie for myself.” The two workers looked happy for Shining when he responded, but felt he deserved better, “That’s too bad, I mean Twinkle and I think your ideas as Prince really helped get us back together as a town!” Marble responded happily, with his sister nodding in agreement. “Really…? Gosh, thanks! That’s so sweet!” Shining said surprised, he had never been told he was a good Prince before, in fact Cadence never even told him that, she tells him she loves him, she tells him he;s a great captain, but she never tells him he’s a great Prince. Twinkle and Marble both smiled and nodded in respect, “Well it’s true, tell you what, snacks are on us today, get whatever you want!” Twinkle said as Marble went back to put whatever he ordered together. Shining did not know what to say, two ponies who actually respected him as a Prince, he couldn’t take their offer, they deserved to be paid, they deserved a huge tip for what they said. “Oh gosh, I really appreciate it but I can’t just…” The same purple and green glow briefly returned and suddenly Shining’s stomach started growling hard, “Actually… Lemme get… Uh… Let’s see, two large popcorns, medium caramel corn with extra caramel, five hot dogs plan, five hot dogs with nacho cheese, three things of nachos with extra cheese, one thing of nachos no cheese, six pretzels, hold the salt, put it on the side, two blue cotton candies, one pink cotton candy, a thing of roasted peanuts, allergen free, if not scratch that, oh I see you got candy too, lemme get six chocolate bars, two bags of gummy worms, one bag of gummy bears, hold the white pineapple ones, and… oh… uh… alright, an extra large lemonade with no ice! And hurry it up, the game’s about to start” Shining said as he smacked the counter hard. Twinkle just looked dumbfounded at that large order, she wasn’t even sure how to enter that into her register for her brother to see, “Oh… Uh… Marble did you get all that?” Marble was struggling to get those all put together, it took him almost 15 minutes as most of them needed to be dropped fresh, which is not an easy process. When they were all finished finally, they took up the entire counter. “Few… All set your Highness… Do you need help carrying these?” Marble asked, clearly looking exhausted and overwhelmed with such a big order. Shining Armor just light up his horn and all the food magically just levitated up and Shining Armor just walked off quickly, “I got it, thanks!” The two snack workers just looked surprised at his attitude, “Well… At least he’s better than Sombra...” The two awkwardly said in unison, When Shining Armor made his way to the seats, after accidentally leaving a trail of popcorn along the way, he noticed a spot that was open in the front row of the best section, three seats were open. Shining quickly rushed his way over to that spot, running past a stallion and his two foals. He took up all three seats, sitting in one and unloading all the snacks in the others, much to the dismay of the three ponies he knocked over, who wanted to get those seats. When the three got back up, (the brother and sister not even noticing Shining, assuming they knocked each other over…) the father grunted and made his way over to Shining, visibly annoyed, “Excuse me, would you please watch where you’re going next time?” He said as he got right in Shining’s face, “It’s hard enough to keep those two from fighting without them getting knocked over!” Shining looked a bit bothered but mostly apathetic to the angry father, not liking his attitude but not wanting to antagonize him, “Oh, I didn’t see you guys over there, I’ll promise not to run you over if you guys stay out of dangerous paths.”m He responded, not intending to sound as off putting as he just did. “Dangerous pathways? It was the stairs! You’re head of the military for Celestia’s sake, you should know to look where you’re going.” He said as he put his hoof on his head in annoyance, “Look, I don’t mind you knocking me over, but you should apologize to my foals at least!” Shining Armor did turn around and then saw the two foals he ran past, looking a little guilty. “You’re right, those kids need a better role m…” Shining started to say until he looked back at the father and noticed he was wearing a black ball cap with an orange ‘T’ on it, then a faint green hue appeared in his eyes, “Wait, is that hat what I think it is? Don’t tell me you’re rooting for the Tigers’ are you?” Shining asked, looking angry. The stallion looked a little confused as to why he suddenly just changed the subject like that, not sure what to say, “Huh? Yes, I mean we are from Manehattan after all and…” He said until he caught himself back on guard and shook his head, “Hey! Don’t try to change the subject!” Something went off in Shining’s head, as soon as he realized that pony was an outsider, a part of himself felt like he should put the outsider in his place… He light up hs horn and suddenly the stallion was encased inside a purple bubble and was quickly flung across the stadium, landing in a section where the rest of the ponies were wearing Tigers themed clothing. “A Prince has to put his people first!” He said with a smug grin as he put his foothooves up on the rails and leaned back. The sibling foals stopped pulling each other’s hair when they heard their dad screaming and saw him get flung across the field. They then saw Shining’s horn had the same glow as the bubble and realized he was the one who did that, and they both instantly started laughing hysterically at the sight of their dad like that. “Oh my gosh, Daddy’s freaking out! More than when I showed him you changed a D to a B on your last report card!” The filly said “I know, man that unicorn is cool!” The colt said as the two hoof bumped then went off to meat up with their dad across the field. Shining Armor overheard the two complimenting what he did and turned around and waved at the two, “Glad I could help!” He happily yelled at the two. When he looked back, he noticed the game was starting, with the two teams meeting in the middle. As soon as the ball was put into play, a mare from the Tigers’ team instantly got a hold of the ball and managed to kick it into the basket in under ten seconds, causing Shining Armor to scream, “What, oh BOOO!!!!” He yelled out loud, annoying the other viewers. As the game progressed, Shining started to become more and more of a pest to the audience of the game, constantly praising his team and cursing at the other, especially when they score. Shining was starting to become enraged once he saw the score was presently at 18 Crystal Empire and 20 Manehattan. “Oh you have got to be kidding me! That referee has got to have been paid off!” He said as he threw his bag of peanuts onto the field in rage. A pegasus was sitting right behind the Prince and was looking more and more annoyed, finally hitting her breaking point and tapped Shining’s shoulder, “Excuse me, would you mind not acting like somepony from Yakyakistan please?” She asked as Shining finished his lemonade and burped loudly. Shining Armor did not like that statement at all, “I am not some smelly two horned bow hunter who needs a haircut! I an from the Crystal Empire and refuse to be addressed as anything else!” Shining yelled as he violently stuck his pink cotton candy to the pegasus’ muzzle and turned back around. The mare just grunted as she took the stick off and angrily threw it on the ground, the cotton candy not coming off, “Oh forget it, I’m leaving!” She said as she just flew away in rage. When the game was at the ten second mark, the score was Crystal Empire 32 and Manehattan 31, with Manehattan having the ball. As the clock was ticking, Manehattan’s Earth stallion got a hold of the ball and at the very last second kicked it into the goal, the alarm going off right at the same time. When the referee looked over the footage to see if the point was valid, he agreed that it was, making the ending result 32 to 34. Shining Armor became furious with the referee’s ruling and starting cursing beyond belief. At that moment the green hue returned to his eyes and he said out loud, “My subjects must never loose…” Then he stood up on his hooves and rushed onto the field and snagged the microphone right away from the referee, leaving him befuddled. “Excuse me everypony, I hate to interrupt, but as Prince of the Crystal Empire, I feel it is my duty to tell you that Manehattan has cheated! They clearly convinced the referee to support them unfairly, I don’t know if they paid him off or if he’s dating one of the Tigers, but he cheated and I say we all protest his choice! Who’s with me!?” Shining yelled in hopes of the crowd cheering in agreement. When he looked at the seats, all he could see were either ponies being too confused to know what was going on, or ponies acting (understandably) annoyed at his actions and booing him. “What in Cadence’s name are you doing!?” The referee tried to ask as he tried to get the microphone back, unsuccessfully. Shining then became enraged at the lack of support and the fact that Cadence’s name appeared to hold more weight than his own. and decided to play a new strategy. Suddenly he light his horn up and before anypony knew it, the entire stadium was surrounded by a purple force field.As soon as the shield was placed, the field became silent with concern and confusion. “There we go, if Manehattan’s gonna play dirty, so am I, nopony leaves until this sell out says the Crystal Empire wins!” The referee didn’t seem concerned, as he knew his protection spell only worked in keeping ponies out, not locking them in, “You’re bluffing, what is your wife going to say when she finds out you…” He tried to say until he looked up and noticed the pegasus who attempted to fly away earlier hit the rim of the field and cartoonlshly fell to the floor. Shining Armor did look a bit concerned for the pegasus falling down, but he didn’t seem to consider it a problem, “Think I’m bluffing now? That crash is on your hooves.” Shining then pointed the microphone back to the referee, “Just note don’t mind staying here, I found out I get free food. It’s your call now…” The referee looked around at the teams who only looked surprised, and the audience, who looked concerned, then back at Shining who only looked smug and confident. “I… Uh… I guess…” He said as he sighed and looked back and Shining, “Fine… The Crystal Empire wins…” He said as he looked down in defeat. At that moment, Shining grinned in pleasure as he instantly released the stadium and nullified the force field. The audience had a completely mixed reaction, not sure what to expect or how to react, both sides were surprised in different ways. As Shining Armor was about to walk away, he unexpectedly was drenched in a red liquid, “Huh? What the…?” After he wiped the fluid from his eyes, he turned around and saw it was the Crystal Empire’s team dumping their sports drink onto him like a coach. The team leader rushed right up to the unicorn and instantly hugged him tight, “Oh my gosh, thank you so much!!!” She said as she let go and used her horn to remove all the drink from Shining’s fur. The stallion holding the jug for the drink cartoonishly tossed it behind him and agreed, “Yeah man, I’ve never seen you take charge like that, you acted like you were a real King out there!” He said as he and the other two members leaned down and picked Shining up and started carrying him off in gratitude, cheering for him proudly. “Wow… Thanks guys, that means a lot…” He said as he smiled softly and blushed. Back in the crowd, the Tiger hat wearing stallion simply sat with his mouth open in shock seeing his team loose, his kids looked excited however. “That was… SO COOL!!!” The filly yelled as she tossed her popcorn bag up. “I know what you mean! I’m gonna be just like him someday!” Her brother responded. “No, I will!” “No, I will!” “Me!!” “Me!!!” The two foals continued to argue until they started roughhousing again, making the father just groan and put his head into his hooves.
Chapter 1On a dark night in Equestria, six hooded young ponies were having a small adventure in the woods and brought along with them sets of candles, chalk, crystals, and a book. Upon removing their hoods, the ponies were revealed to be Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, and Pip Squeak. The CMC decided to have a small sleepover in their treehouse to celebrate getting their cutie marks and help mend any fences faced against their new friends after the school election. “Alright guys, this book says we can only do this on a full moon’s night for it to work.” Diamond said as she signaled Pip Squeak to begin as he started drawing a circle in the dirt. “By the way, how do you have this book anyway? Seems a little strange for you.” Apple Bloom asked as she formed the crystals into a triangle pattern and drew a triangle connecting them. Silver Spoon rolled her eyes, “We bought it after we found out what’s fun at slumber parties, everypony says talking to the dead is a must, why, are you afraid?” She asked as she scowled at her. Diamond bumped Silver on the shoulder and gave her a look of disappointment, “Hey, remember, we’re trying to be nice to these girls now, no more insults okay?” Silver responded with a disgruntled sigh. “Besides, I’ve always wanted to do this, hearing all those spirits make a bunch of growls and howls as they possess one of our bodies and make all the stuff fly around the place!” Scootaloo said as she began to place the candles in between the crystals, drawing another circle between them forming a hexagram in the circle. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom looked a little nervous about starting this, they themselves don’t have a lot of experience with dark magic, but worked hard to convince themselves that it wa just a simple sleepover game. Sweetie used her horn to light the candles and the six sat in between the candles and crystals, “I really hope nothing bad happens with this…” Apple said to herself. “It’s fine Apple Bloom, I’ve done this with my friends a dozen times.” Pip said as Diamond began reading from her book. “Okay… On darkest days, and lightest nights…” She began as she passed her book to Silver. “Those of horror, those of terror, those of frights…” She them passed it to Pip. “Whether you have gone down or you’ve seen the lights…” He passed it to Scootaloo. “The past doings of wrongs and rights…” She them passed it to Sweetie Belle, who was shivering a little. “Your soul was tortured and you were vanquished of might…” She said as she passed it to an equally reluctant Apple Bloom. “Return from the grave and present yourself in sight!” She said as she lightly tossed the book into the center of the hexagram, which began to glow mildly, making Apple cover her eyes. As the hexagram began to glow, the candles began to burn brighter as more smoke was beginning to come from them. The six kids all looked around, this time all of them seemed a little nervous about what was to happen. They all looked around but could not see anypony rising from the ground and assumed the process was still happening. When they all reached their arms out and locked hands, they closed their eyes hoping that the unity would help activate the spell, however, whenever they opened their eyes, they found the hexagram stopped glowing and the candles had lost all their flames and left nothing but leftover smoke on them. “That’s it? Where are the ghouls and spirits? I wanted to see one of us get possessed and start floating with glowing eyes!” Scootaloo said as she kicked the dirt. “Where did you say you got that book again?” Sweetie Belle asked as she nervously picked up the book. “It was one of those independent stores that had no lights in it that said they sold cursed items, totally ripped us off!” Silver responded. “Whatever, let’s just head back to the treehouse, we could do something fun like play spin the bottle…!” Pip Squeak said as he began to walk away. “NO!” All the girls said as they began to follow him, leaving the tantric items where they were. After all the children had left, the wind began to pick up and the smoke coming from the candles began to condense in the middle of the hexagram as the circle itself began to grow a layer of small black crystals… At the train station in the Crystal Empire, Princess Twilight and Spike were seen walking off the train and looking around, Spike himself seeming a little eager to return as he knew the Empire would ravish in his return. “You know, it’s great that you’re visiting Cadence again, but five bits says something will go wrong.” Spike said as he sat on Twilight’s luggage like a chair as she lifted it with her horn. Twilight looked back, annoyed at that comment, “First, do you even have five bits? I saw you spend a lot of money on those gems you were eating on the train. And second, why do you say that? You never seem that cynical.” Twilight responded as she saw a white hoof waving in the background. “I’m just saying, weird stuff happens every time we come here…” He said as Twilight got accosted by her brother and hugged in a cartoonish fashion, making her a little out of breath. When she was hugged she forgot she was using her horn and Spike fell off the luggage… “Wow… Ow...” When Shining Armor let go of his sister, he looked at her and apologized as he saw she was out of breath, “Oh… Sorry, I guess I don’t know my own strength…” He said as he blushed and scratched the back of his mane… “Well it’s still great to see you again!” As Twilight caught wind again and shook off, she responded with similar eagerness, “It’s great to see you too! It’s so nice to finally get to see you without needing to fight off some magical beast for once!” She jokingly said as she looked at Spike with a tone of sarcasm, then looked around again, “Where’s Cadence?” She asked. Shining Armor winced an eye at her asking that so soon, “She’s back at the palace, she has a habit of sleeping late on weekends, she should be there when we get there.” When Spike got back to his feet, he started leading the way, “Alright let’s go then! I want to get there before an evil grizzly bear shows up and uses his claws to send everypony here to another dimension or something.” Twilight and Shining Armor shrugged their shoulders and followed him. “Everything alright with him?” Shining asked. “Oh he just thinks something bad will happen that will happen during our visit, don’t worry, it’s just a little paranoia.” Twilight responded. Shining chuckled, “Heck knowing our track record I’d bet five bits something does happen to us.” Spike turned around and gave a thumbs up to Shining, “See this is why I love your brother Twy.” He said until he accidentally bumped into a Crystal Pony. The mare pegasus broke into shrieking as she saw Spike and Twilight, “Oh My Gosh! Princess Twilight and Spike! Oh My Gosh! Oh My Gosh!!! You two are my heroes!!!” She said as she formed a girly pose. Twilight smiled as she waved at the mare, “Well it’s great to hear that! I love seeing everypony I can, we’re visiting for a few days, maybe we’ll get a chance to hang out.” “Yeah, Twy made me plan three hours out of each day for miscellaneous time in case she gets impulsive…” Spike added. “Oh My Gosh! I would LOVE that! I live near the bakery, look me up!” She said as she walked past Twilight and Spike, but then noticed Shining Armor was behind them, and she broke her excited tone and just gave him a dark scowl and a small huff that Spike and Twilight didn’t notice. “Uh… Let’s just head to the palace now…” Shining said as the mare left, clearly not happy to see him.
Chapter 2At the palace, two guards were standing in place barricading the door like expected. Upon seeing the three return, they opened and allowed them all in gratefully before standing back in attention. Cadence was waiting in the entrance, pressing her mane down with her horn to make it look like she hadn't just gotten out of bed. Upon the three entering, Cadence rushed straight up to Twilight, hugged her, and their signature greeting was performed. “SUNSHINE SUNSHINE, LADYBUGS AWAKE, CLAP YOUR HOOVES AND DO A LITTLE SHAKE!” The two mares looked happy with their greeting, but Shining Armor and Spike just blushed and looked at each other, clearly uncomfortable at how girly that was. “Twilight it’s so great to finally get to see you without needing to fight some bad guy!” Cadence said as they all began to make their way around. “You say that now, five bits says otherwise.” Spike added as he rolled his eyes. “So what are we gonna do here anyway? This palace is cool and all but there has to be some fun stuff to do in the Empire.” Shining Armor turned around and seemed eager to suggest something, “Hey, maybe we could try…” He began until Cadence cut him off. “Twilight we need to go shopping at the Crystal Galerina!!! They have all these gorgeous paintings of the powerful mares who were used as eye candy when King Sombra ruled, and the even have books on their lives! Those mares were beautiful and empowered and I love seeing them,” Cadence suggested before even noticing her husband was about to suggest something else. Spike himself looked a little excited at the idea, as he knew what she meant by ‘eye candy’ and started imagining those mares, “Beautiful mares? Alright I’m in!” Twilight naturally seemed interested in the lives of the past crystal mares and anything involving books, “Sure that sounds great! I’ve been needing to send Starlight Glimmer some information about them for her friendship studies!” She said as she grabbed her notebook. “Then it’s settled! Let’s go now before the line gets too big and we have to feel guilty for using our royal status as an excuse to cut in line!” Cadence said excitedly as Spike and Twilight followed her. “Finally some girl time with my favorite sister in law!” Shining Armor just stood in surprise for a moment as they had all just impulsively left him there, “Oh, okay I guess I’ll see you guys later then…” He said as he sighed and walked out by himself, “Okay, I guess I’ll just go to the first ever Crystal Pony’s hoofball tournament by myself then…” Shining was a bit dishearted by this as he was hoping they could all do something together, but he understood that his wife did need some girl time. As Shining Armor made his way outside to the event he could see everypony was batting eyes at him and chuckling. This was to be expected, after all, he didn’t have his wife around to stand up for him. Two teenage mares noticed him and walked right up to his face, “Oh hello ‘your majesty…’ it is an honor to be in your presence…!” One mare said with a very clear indication of sarcasm. Unbeknownst to anypony was that there was some dark smoke coming from a barrel near by… “They dare disrespect their ruler like such…?” A very quiet voice was heard out loud, but nowhere enough to be noticed or concerning. The voice was deep and menacing with a mildly horsey rasp. Shining rolled his eyes at that comment the mare made, “Nice to meet you too, it’s always fun to meet a fan and then call security on them later…” Shining responded with equal sarcasm. “You know I’m surprised your wife let you out alone, do you have a curfew?” The other mare asked as the two started walking away, “Tell Cadence we said Hi, we’ve always wanted to meet true royalty…” They both started laughing as they walked away. Shining was visibly frustrated at how little the ponies respected him, his eyebrows scowled as his horn began to light up… “Oh I’ll show you what true royalty can do…” He said quietly as he pointed his glowing horn to the mares. “Yes… Make them pay. Respect must be demanded…” Shining suddenly breathed out and looked down as his horn stopped glowing, “I can’t… No matter how much they hate me, I can’t give them a reason too…” Shining sighed and began to walk back to the hoofball game, but he stopped again when he heard a faint growl… “Huh? Hello?” Suddenly smoke started to surround the area very quickly, making Shining Armor begin to cough for a bit until he was surrounded completely by darkness… “They do not respect you…” The deep voice said, Shining Armor finally able to hear the voice, was understandably confused and scared about what was going on. “What…? Huh…? Coughhh…” He tried to ask between the coughs as he tried to not breathe in the fumes, “Who are you…?” There was a sharp pain that began in Shining’s head. “The ruler of the Crystal Ponies must not allow such disrespect from his subjects…” Shining tried fighting what was going on, he knew this voice was trying to get inside is head and was holding his breath from the smoke. Shining had trained in fighting such corruption spells ever since his wedding, but holding his breath was not working… “Coughhh cough… I… can’t… cough… hurt them…” He said as he finally gasped for air, and suddenly Shining started standing in attention and stopped resisting. “Yes… Just breathe it in… Breathe deep and listen to my voice…” Suddenly Shining followed the order and sniffed the smoke deeply from his muzzle and as he did, swirls of dark purple and light green appeared in Shining’s eyes… “There we go… Nice and submissive… Now you understand that disrespect from the Crystal Ponies must be punished…” “Yes… Disrespect from the Crystal Ponies must be punished…” Shining repeated slowly as the hypnotic smoke locked the notion in his mind. As Shining repeated the mantra out loud, the smoke began to dissipate quickly and Shining was back where he was in the Crystal Empire. Once the smoke was fully clear, Shining shook his head off as the swirls in his eyes faded. “Huh? What just happened?” He asked as he looked at his watch and seemed disturbed, “Oh man! The hoofball game starts in 10 minutes!” Shining said as he quickly started running… However in his rush he accidentally knocked over three barrels being arranged next to seven others by a pegasus…. “Ouch…” The pegasus looked angry, “Oh my gosh! Watch where you’re going!” He yelled as Shining stood back up. “Huh? What?” He asked as he noticed the barrels, “Oh gosh, I’m sorry sir, it was an accident…” He looked understandably embarrassed. “You’re sorry? I expect better from the Captain of the Royal Guards and our second banana ruler.” Shining was confused, nopony was that direct with him before, “I said sorry… If you want I can fix these,” Shining said as his horn light up and all the barrels were levitating and arranged into a triangle like bowling pins, “That better?” The pegasus didn’t seem impressed, “Yeah thanks I guess, just watch where you’re going…” He said in a very mean tone… Suddenly before Shining could just shrug his shoulders and walk away like normal, the purple and green swirls reappeared in his eyes for about three seconds before fading… “You know what… You’re right!” Shining said as his horn light up and suddenly the pegasis was enclosed in a purple force field similar to his famous protection spell. The force field with the stallion inside was lunged right to the barrels and destroyed all ten and left the pegasus disoriented and upside down on the rubble, “STRIKE!” Shining yelled boastfully as he walked away. The voice could be heard again without any physical manifestation, “Yes, there is more work to do, but there is potential in him…” “You know, I wonder what Twilight. Cadence, and Spike are doing?” Shining asked casually as if what he just did was not out of the ordinary. The scene changes to the museum, with Spike screaming at the top of his lungs in shock, “Oh my gosh! THAT is what they thought was beautiful!?” Twilight was happily writing in her notebook, “Of course! These ponies are from 1000 years ago! That was back when being as fat as possible was the best thing anypony could do!” She said as Spike fainted from shock.
Chapter 3The scene changes to the museum, with Spike screaming at the top of his lungs in shock, “Oh my gosh! THAT is what they thought was beautiful!?” He said as he saw a bust of a mare wearing braided hair and the size of a native buffalo. Twilight was happily writing in her notebook, “Of course! These ponies are from 1000 years ago! That was back when being as fat as possible was the best thing anypony could do!” She said as Spike fainted from shock, quickly getting back up, not remembering what he just saw. “Oh my gosh! THAT is what they thought was beautiful?” Cadence was looking over at the bust of the Royalty of the Crystal Empire before King Sombra, specifically the ones with married couples. There was a look of dispondance in her eyes, almost like she didn’t like seeing the King and Queen together. She quickly brushed it off when she saw the other two make their way to her. “Cadence, check this out!” Twilight yelled as she held up a sketch that looked nearly identical to the bust Spike hated, “Oh my Celestia, is that King Ramsy and Queen Patra, and… Oh my! That’s King Luther and Queen Dido?” She asked in awe as she dropped her notebook. “Wow, she’s really fat!” Spike said. Twilight just rolled her eyes, “I remember how Ramsy lead the revolt against the invading empire of the Ramsy Empire and convinced the two to merge together into one empire, and how Dido founded the Crystal Empire by trading in her dead mother’s one last crystal for an investment and managed to keep trading and trading until the town was prospering!” She excitedly said as she quickly took her notebook back and started copying the pictures. Cadence blushed lightly but still looked impressed with their accomplishments, “That’s true, Ramsy and Dido sure knew how to run things, I actually had to read all their books before I took the throne here.” Spike looked bored and wanted to read the descriptions of both works, “Huh, it says Queen Patra was originally a Poet and Luther was a blacksmith before they got married to Royalty… Okay that’s it I’m bored, if anypony needs me, I’ll be in the gift shop waiting for whatever villain is gonna go after us.” Spike said as he walked away. Twilight rolled her eyes again, “Don’t mind him, he’s probably just upset cause a commoner marrying Royalty is Rarity’s dream and he wants her to himself.” Twilight said as she noticed Cadence’s look on her face. “Is everything alright there?” Cadence quickly snapped out of it when Twilight called her out, “Huh? Oh yes, I was just wondering… uh... how the perspective is working in this painting, is it one point to two point?” “Oh, I’m not sure really… Hold on, I know how to figure it out…” She said as she conjured up a protractor and a second notebook and started analyzing the painting of Ramsy and Patra. “Alright, so first we need to measure all the lines on the paper and compare them to a 90 degree angle, then we need to measure parallel lines that…” As Twilight started explaining, she went further and further into detail. However, Cadence couldn’t care less about the artistic designs of the works, she cared more about the fact that the Royalty were paired up with commoners. She could only see herself in the places of Ramsy and Dido, and Shining Armor in the place of Patra and Luther. She hated to admit this, but she didn’t think her husband was worthy of being a true Prince...As much as she loves him, she knew that ever sense their wedding, he has been defeated by the Changelings twice, King Sombra, Tirek, and the Storm King…. “...And so if all the angles on the edges line up to 180 degrees you know what the perspective is!” Twilight said as she revealed her page filled with ridiculous amounts of equations and problems, too much for Anypony to understand. Cadence took a minute to process the fact that Twilight finished explaining. “Huh…? Oh! Right… It must be… uh… Two point right?” “No… You must have accidentally put the lines on the top and the angles on the bottom of the fraction.” She said as she looked at the painting again. “It’s still beautiful though.” Cadence walked closer to it to get a better look, “They were great rulers, that’s for sure. But I wonder if say Ramsy and Dido ruled together? Imagine how great they could have done.” Twilight just chuckled at that, “Well I guess, but first of all Ramsy was a very Left Wing Pegasis and Dido was a very Right Wing Pegasis, they probably would fight. Plus then they wouldn’t be with their true loves, aren’t you for that?” “Well yes of course!” She interjected, rather adamantly, “I mean, why does a spouse automatically get a royal title? Just because they are married doesn’t mean they both earned the same status.” Cadence said, with a hint of guilt. Twilight winced an eye at that idea, “Well nopony really ‘tries’ to earn a spot at royalty, neither of us did, we just happened to fall into it. Plus isn’t it nice that somepony who came from nothing can suddenly become Royal? Sounds like a dream… Mainly to Rarity but still.” Cadence tried to think of a response without mentioning her husband, but was standing with a loss for words. “Well yes but… The pressure of the title can sometimes… Well, you know…” Cadence started stuttering. Twilight was looking suspicious, but before Cadence could finish, a security guard walked over and interrupted her. “Miss Sparkle, I apologize for barging in, but your dragon friend was caught sneezing in the gift shop and activated all the candles, and he said you would pay for them.” He said as he looked down with Spike standing next to him, smiling awkwardly. “I tried to tell him I’m the great hero of the Empire but he said a debt is a debt…” Spike said as he slowly walked back towards the gift shop. Twilight sighed and looked annoyed, forgetting her conversation with Cadence right there, “Spike I told you to take your medicine, do you take Equestrian currency?” Twilight asked as she went with the guard to the shop. Cadence sighed in relief, scratching the back of her mane, “Okay… That was close… Remember, you husband is a GOOD Prince, he deserves his title, he should be a Prince…” She said as she looked back at the Painting of King Luther and Queen Dido, seeing herself as the strong and empowered Dido (though much skinnier) and seeing her husband making horse shoes in Luther’s place...
Chapter 4Back to Shining Armor, the unicorn had arrived to the stadium, the entrance was completely blocked off by a massive line waiting to get their tickets verified. The stadium only had one pony working the stand, so the line was moving as slowly as can be. Shining looked ahead, and he could see that there was one family who specifically caused a hold up because they had bought scalp tickets. Shining started to get worried until he had an idea; Shining was the Prince after all, he could just teleport in… It seems a bit unfair though, as the rest of the ponies have been waiting longer, should he cheat like that? As he pondered the option, a faint purple and green glow appeared in his eyes for a brief moment and he decided to do it! “Prince Shining Armor here on official Royal business!” Shining yelled as he teleported in, making the rest of the line look enraged, but Shining just chuckled and walked over to the snack bar, he was a Prince after all and he needed to stay full. The concession stand was surprisingly dead compared to the amount of ponies were at the as a stadium. The most likely reason for the lack of business was perhaps because they started selling modern snacks such as popcorn and hot dogs, which the crystal ponies didn’t seem to like very much. When Shining Armor looked over the options, the two counter attendants with name tags labeled ‘Twinkle Shine’ and ‘Marble Stone’ turned around and noticed who was waiting, and they both quickly rushed over to greet him, “Oh my goodness! Prince Shining Armor! What are you doing at a hoofball game? I didn’t think you’d be able to have this kind of time off.” The mare worker said excitedly. Shining Armor was surprised she was so eager to greet him, most ponies try to avoid eye contact, “Oh, well, honestly, Cadence handles most of that stuff herself, she kind of makes it to where I have plenty of free tie for myself.” The two workers looked happy for Shining when he responded, but felt he deserved better, “That’s too bad, I mean Twinkle and I think your ideas as Prince really helped get us back together as a town!” Marble responded happily, with his sister nodding in agreement. “Really…? Gosh, thanks! That’s so sweet!” Shining said surprised, he had never been told he was a good Prince before, in fact Cadence never even told him that, she tells him she loves him, she tells him he;s a great captain, but she never tells him he’s a great Prince. Twinkle and Marble both smiled and nodded in respect, “Well it’s true, tell you what, snacks are on us today, get whatever you want!” Twinkle said as Marble went back to put whatever he ordered together. Shining did not know what to say, two ponies who actually respected him as a Prince, he couldn’t take their offer, they deserved to be paid, they deserved a huge tip for what they said. “Oh gosh, I really appreciate it but I can’t just…” The same purple and green glow briefly returned and suddenly Shining’s stomach started growling hard, “Actually… Lemme get… Uh… Let’s see, two large popcorns, medium caramel corn with extra caramel, five hot dogs plan, five hot dogs with nacho cheese, three things of nachos with extra cheese, one thing of nachos no cheese, six pretzels, hold the salt, put it on the side, two blue cotton candies, one pink cotton candy, a thing of roasted peanuts, allergen free, if not scratch that, oh I see you got candy too, lemme get six chocolate bars, two bags of gummy worms, one bag of gummy bears, hold the white pineapple ones, and… oh… uh… alright, an extra large lemonade with no ice! And hurry it up, the game’s about to start” Shining said as he smacked the counter hard. Twinkle just looked dumbfounded at that large order, she wasn’t even sure how to enter that into her register for her brother to see, “Oh… Uh… Marble did you get all that?” Marble was struggling to get those all put together, it took him almost 15 minutes as most of them needed to be dropped fresh, which is not an easy process. When they were all finished finally, they took up the entire counter. “Few… All set your Highness… Do you need help carrying these?” Marble asked, clearly looking exhausted and overwhelmed with such a big order. Shining Armor just light up his horn and all the food magically just levitated up and Shining Armor just walked off quickly, “I got it, thanks!” The two snack workers just looked surprised at his attitude, “Well… At least he’s better than Sombra...” The two awkwardly said in unison, When Shining Armor made his way to the seats, after accidentally leaving a trail of popcorn along the way, he noticed a spot that was open in the front row of the best section, three seats were open. Shining quickly rushed his way over to that spot, running past a stallion and his two foals. He took up all three seats, sitting in one and unloading all the snacks in the others, much to the dismay of the three ponies he knocked over, who wanted to get those seats. When the three got back up, (the brother and sister not even noticing Shining, assuming they knocked each other over…) the father grunted and made his way over to Shining, visibly annoyed, “Excuse me, would you please watch where you’re going next time?” He said as he got right in Shining’s face, “It’s hard enough to keep those two from fighting without them getting knocked over!” Shining looked a bit bothered but mostly apathetic to the angry father, not liking his attitude but not wanting to antagonize him, “Oh, I didn’t see you guys over there, I’ll promise not to run you over if you guys stay out of dangerous paths.”m He responded, not intending to sound as off putting as he just did. “Dangerous pathways? It was the stairs! You’re head of the military for Celestia’s sake, you should know to look where you’re going.” He said as he put his hoof on his head in annoyance, “Look, I don’t mind you knocking me over, but you should apologize to my foals at least!” Shining Armor did turn around and then saw the two foals he ran past, looking a little guilty. “You’re right, those kids need a better role m…” Shining started to say until he looked back at the father and noticed he was wearing a black ball cap with an orange ‘T’ on it, then a faint green hue appeared in his eyes, “Wait, is that hat what I think it is? Don’t tell me you’re rooting for the Tigers’ are you?” Shining asked, looking angry. The stallion looked a little confused as to why he suddenly just changed the subject like that, not sure what to say, “Huh? Yes, I mean we are from Manehattan after all and…” He said until he caught himself back on guard and shook his head, “Hey! Don’t try to change the subject!” Something went off in Shining’s head, as soon as he realized that pony was an outsider, a part of himself felt like he should put the outsider in his place… He light up hs horn and suddenly the stallion was encased inside a purple bubble and was quickly flung across the stadium, landing in a section where the rest of the ponies were wearing Tigers themed clothing. “A Prince has to put his people first!” He said with a smug grin as he put his foothooves up on the rails and leaned back. The sibling foals stopped pulling each other’s hair when they heard their dad screaming and saw him get flung across the field. They then saw Shining’s horn had the same glow as the bubble and realized he was the one who did that, and they both instantly started laughing hysterically at the sight of their dad like that. “Oh my gosh, Daddy’s freaking out! More than when I showed him you changed a D to a B on your last report card!” The filly said “I know, man that unicorn is cool!” The colt said as the two hoof bumped then went off to meat up with their dad across the field. Shining Armor overheard the two complimenting what he did and turned around and waved at the two, “Glad I could help!” He happily yelled at the two. When he looked back, he noticed the game was starting, with the two teams meeting in the middle. As soon as the ball was put into play, a mare from the Tigers’ team instantly got a hold of the ball and managed to kick it into the basket in under ten seconds, causing Shining Armor to scream, “What, oh BOOO!!!!” He yelled out loud, annoying the other viewers. As the game progressed, Shining started to become more and more of a pest to the audience of the game, constantly praising his team and cursing at the other, especially when they score. Shining was starting to become enraged once he saw the score was presently at 18 Crystal Empire and 20 Manehattan. “Oh you have got to be kidding me! That referee has got to have been paid off!” He said as he threw his bag of peanuts onto the field in rage. A pegasus was sitting right behind the Prince and was looking more and more annoyed, finally hitting her breaking point and tapped Shining’s shoulder, “Excuse me, would you mind not acting like somepony from Yakyakistan please?” She asked as Shining finished his lemonade and burped loudly. Shining Armor did not like that statement at all, “I am not some smelly two horned bow hunter who needs a haircut! I an from the Crystal Empire and refuse to be addressed as anything else!” Shining yelled as he violently stuck his pink cotton candy to the pegasus’ muzzle and turned back around. The mare just grunted as she took the stick off and angrily threw it on the ground, the cotton candy not coming off, “Oh forget it, I’m leaving!” She said as she just flew away in rage. When the game was at the ten second mark, the score was Crystal Empire 32 and Manehattan 31, with Manehattan having the ball. As the clock was ticking, Manehattan’s Earth stallion got a hold of the ball and at the very last second kicked it into the goal, the alarm going off right at the same time. When the referee looked over the footage to see if the point was valid, he agreed that it was, making the ending result 32 to 34. Shining Armor became furious with the referee’s ruling and starting cursing beyond belief. At that moment the green hue returned to his eyes and he said out loud, “My subjects must never loose…” Then he stood up on his hooves and rushed onto the field and snagged the microphone right away from the referee, leaving him befuddled. “Excuse me everypony, I hate to interrupt, but as Prince of the Crystal Empire, I feel it is my duty to tell you that Manehattan has cheated! They clearly convinced the referee to support them unfairly, I don’t know if they paid him off or if he’s dating one of the Tigers, but he cheated and I say we all protest his choice! Who’s with me!?” Shining yelled in hopes of the crowd cheering in agreement. When he looked at the seats, all he could see were either ponies being too confused to know what was going on, or ponies acting (understandably) annoyed at his actions and booing him. “What in Cadence’s name are you doing!?” The referee tried to ask as he tried to get the microphone back, unsuccessfully. Shining then became enraged at the lack of support and the fact that Cadence’s name appeared to hold more weight than his own. and decided to play a new strategy. Suddenly he light his horn up and before anypony knew it, the entire stadium was surrounded by a purple force field.As soon as the shield was placed, the field became silent with concern and confusion. “There we go, if Manehattan’s gonna play dirty, so am I, nopony leaves until this sell out says the Crystal Empire wins!” The referee didn’t seem concerned, as he knew his protection spell only worked in keeping ponies out, not locking them in, “You’re bluffing, what is your wife going to say when she finds out you…” He tried to say until he looked up and noticed the pegasus who attempted to fly away earlier hit the rim of the field and cartoonlshly fell to the floor. Shining Armor did look a bit concerned for the pegasus falling down, but he didn’t seem to consider it a problem, “Think I’m bluffing now? That crash is on your hooves.” Shining then pointed the microphone back to the referee, “Just note don’t mind staying here, I found out I get free food. It’s your call now…” The referee looked around at the teams who only looked surprised, and the audience, who looked concerned, then back at Shining who only looked smug and confident. “I… Uh… I guess…” He said as he sighed and looked back and Shining, “Fine… The Crystal Empire wins…” He said as he looked down in defeat. At that moment, Shining grinned in pleasure as he instantly released the stadium and nullified the force field. The audience had a completely mixed reaction, not sure what to expect or how to react, both sides were surprised in different ways. As Shining Armor was about to walk away, he unexpectedly was drenched in a red liquid, “Huh? What the…?” After he wiped the fluid from his eyes, he turned around and saw it was the Crystal Empire’s team dumping their sports drink onto him like a coach. The team leader rushed right up to the unicorn and instantly hugged him tight, “Oh my gosh, thank you so much!!!” She said as she let go and used her horn to remove all the drink from Shining’s fur. The stallion holding the jug for the drink cartoonishly tossed it behind him and agreed, “Yeah man, I’ve never seen you take charge like that, you acted like you were a real King out there!” He said as he and the other two members leaned down and picked Shining up and started carrying him off in gratitude, cheering for him proudly. “Wow… Thanks guys, that means a lot…” He said as he smiled softly and blushed. Back in the crowd, the Tiger hat wearing stallion simply sat with his mouth open in shock seeing his team loose, his kids looked excited however. “That was… SO COOL!!!” The filly yelled as she tossed her popcorn bag up. “I know what you mean! I’m gonna be just like him someday!” Her brother responded. “No, I will!” “No, I will!” “Me!!” “Me!!!” The two foals continued to argue until they started roughhousing again, making the father just groan and put his head into his hooves.
