My Little Family

On Saturday, we went to the theater for tryouts. We decided we would play a few songs for them. We set everything up and picked up our instruments.

“Hello, how are you today?” I asked.

“We’re doing good.” One of the mares said. There were three ponies in total: One stallion, and two mares. “How are you doing?” The first mare asked.

“We’re doing good, thanks for asking!” I replied.

“Alright. What’s your band name?”

After much deliberation, I had come up with a genius name that impressed the whole band. I was sure the judges would enjoy it too.

“We are “Different Worlds”.” I said.

“Alright. You will be singing three songs, is that correct?”

“Yes, that is.”

“These songs are from your world?” Mare one asked, looking at me.

“Yes.”

“Interesting. Alright, play when you’re ready.”

Discord started playing the drumbeat for “I Miss You”. We decided to play the regular version this time. When we finished, they clapped.

“That first song was “I Miss You” and this next song is called “21 Guns”.” I announced. We played “21 Guns”, followed by heavy scribbling on a clipboard by the judges. “This last song is called “All The Small Things”.” We played the original version of this as well (what a surprise). When we finished, they clapped, and Mare one said, “Alright gentlecolts. We’ll send you a letter on Monday letting you know if you can play a concert.”

“Thank you.” I said, before we packed up and left.

On Monday, I went to Twilight’s castle telling her they would send the letter to her first, since they couldn’t get it to me. I paced around the library nervously, because even though we did a good job, there could be a lot of reasons why they would say no. After five minutes of pacing, Spike came in and said, “Johnny, there’s a letter.” He handed it to me and I opened it enough to read “Dear Johnny, Marionette, and Discord,”.

“Thanks Spike!” I said, hugging him. I ran to the teleporter room, opened the portal to home, and went through. I ran upstairs, expecting to see Puppet and Chrysi on the couch, where I last saw them, but they weren’t there. I went into the kitchen to go upstairs but noticed a note on the table. I picked it up and read it.

Thanks for the love!

-Love, Chrysi

‘This can’t be good.’ I thought to myself. I went upstairs and grabbed my crown, my trumpet, and my necklace, but as I was about to put it on, I put it in my underwear. Before you say anything, I know what you’re thinking, ‘That’s gross!’ It might be gross, but here’s why I did it. If I got into an altercation with Chrysi and she saw my necklace, she would rip it off my neck. If I put it in my underwear, there’s no way she’s going to think that it’s there, and even if she does, she’s not going to make herself or her minions reach down… there.

I took the items and went back to Twilight’s castle. I searched for Twilight, or anyone, but found no one. I went outside and saw chaos. I saw ponies running, as well as royal guards. At first, I thought they were trying to help the ponies, but then I realized they were chasing them. Then, one of the guards saw me and roared, “THERE HE IS!! IN THE CASTLE!!!” As soon as he said that, I closed the doors, locked them, then ran to the portal room. I decided to see if the princess knew what was going on, though I should have realized the princess wasn’t an option if her guards were out to get me.

I went through the portal and ran to the throne room. I opened the doors and got to my knees, trying to catch my breath.

“Hello-” The pony started, but I held up my hand and said, “Hold up.” I took a few more breaths, stood up and said, “Princess, what’s-” I paused when I saw who was on the throne.

“No, you mean Queen. King Johnny, how is it going?” she said.

“Chrysi, what’s going?” I asked.

“I am the new ruler, right now, of Canterlot, but soon, I will be the RULER OF EQUESTRIA!!!” She announced, her voice booming through the throne room.

“No, you’re not Celestia…” It all made sense now, why ‘Celestia’s’ guards were attacking Ponyville, why they were trying to get me, why Celestia wasn’t here, it all made sense now!

“So that means you-”

“-Overtook Celestia.” She grinned, finishing my sentence.

“No, you wouldn’t. You’re good!”

“That’s what you thought.”

“But why?”

“I’ll explain. Guards, get him.”

If there was a time to panic, it’s now.

“No, I won’t fall victim to you!” I said, rushing out of the room. I decided to go as far down as I could.

The best place I figured I could go was down into the dungeons underneath the castle. I ran down there. On the second to last floor of the dungeons, the Mane Six, Spike, Starlight, and Puppet were there.

“Johnny!” Spike gasped. Everyone else got to their feet and hooves.

“Listen, I can’t talk for too long, the guards are behind me. But I Pinkie Promise that I will get you guys out of here.” I continued running, and when I got to the bottom level, I saw Discord, Luna and Celestia.

“Guys, listen, I’m sorry about all of this. I Pinkie Promise I’ll free you guys.”

“It’s over, Johnny. You can’t do anything.” Luna muttered in defeat.

“Yes, I can. I will set you free, along with everyone else.”

I saw the guards out of the corner of my eye.

“Listen, I have a trumpet and I’m not afraid to use it! Do you-"

As I was talking, one of the guards used their magic to lift the trumpet out of my hand. I looked at my hand for a second, and said, “I took karate when I was five for two months. I’ll take you on.” I ran towards them and blacked out for a second. I woke up as I was being lifted up in the air by magic, and as we were walking up the stairs, I saw three empty cells next to Discord, then I fell back asleep.

In my dream, it was just white. Everything was white. Then, I saw Luna descending from the ‘sky’?

“Luna, are you and Celestia alright?”

“Yes, we are alright. Johnny, I want to thank you for everything that you’ve done while you are here.”

“Luna, why are you saying this?”

“Because there is nothing we can do against Chrysalis.”

“Yes, there is. Listen, I brought my necklace with me, so I can use the Panzer Soldat suit.”

“Then, why didn’t I see it with you?”

“Because it’s in my pants.”

“Why is it in your pants?”

“If Chrysi saw it on me, she would have taken it. Luna, I Pinkie Promised that I would get you all out, and I don’t break Pinkie Promises. Listen, I saw three empty cells next to Discord. I thought about it, and it adds up. One cell for Cadence, one for Shining Armor, and one for Thorax. I will get out, but I need to warn them first. Don’t tell Celestia or Discord this, unless no one is in the room, got it?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, I’m pretty sure they’re waking me up. I’ll see you again at some point. Tell the others in their sleep.”

“Alright, see you later.”

“Bye, Luna!”

I opened my eyes to Chrysi telling me to wake up. “You’re finally up. Now, where were we?”

“We were at the point where I escape.” I snarked, booking it towards the door. Chrysi picked me up with her magic and said, “Not this time.”

She pulled me towards her, glaring at me, only inches away from my face as her magic lifted me by the hands. “We were at the part where I tell you how I did this. See, while I was with you, I’ve been taking in the love you gave off. Your love for music, your love for the band, your love for playing at shows, and recently, your love for Puppet. I don’t think I’ve ever met somepony or something like you. Now here’s the deal, I would like for you to rule Equestria with me, but if you’re going to do that I can’t have you pulling stunts like you did earlier, do you understand?”

I didn’t say anything. I just stared at her.

“I said, ‘DO YOU-” she stopped for a few seconds and just grimaced at me. “Guards, please leave the room for a second.”

When they left, she put me down, and said, “Johnny, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“There’s something wrong, I saw that tear.”

Tears began to fill up my eyes. “How could you do this, Chrysi? All these ponies are i-innocent, and you just go and lock them u-up. A lot of them have families, and you just... thr-throw them in cages. How, Chrysi? Why?” I was sobbing now. She walked over to me, hugged me and murmured, “It’s alright. You just haven’t seen anything like this before. It’s a lot to take in. But think about it, we can get anything we want now. Remember how you went to go audition to play at a concert? You can play in front of everypony now. It’ll be exactly like a concert.”

“It might, but it isn’t right! I would rather have fifty ponies come to our concert because they like our music, than have everypony in existence be at the concert because they’re being forced to be there.”

“Yeah, but if they like your music, they’ll want to come back.” She said. I could tell she was trying to brighten my mood, but it wasn’t working.

“Where’s my room?”

“Our room? I’ll show it to you. You’re going to love it.” It might not have been a surprise, but the room was Celestia’s room.

“You took Celestia’s room?”

“Yeah, it was the biggest bedroom in the castle. What do you think?” She redecorated the entire room. On one half of the room, the walls were black and green, and mine hadn’t changed at all. “I left your side the same in case you wanted to add your own design.”

“Thanks.” I had to give her some credit. At least she cared a bit and was thinking about me.

“Oh, you’re going to love this next room.” We walked down a few halls until we got to a door. “Alright, close your eyes.” She said, and I warily went along with it. When I opened them, I couldn’t believe what I saw.

“A theater?” I gasped.

“Yep. You and your band can perform here anytime you want.”

“Oh my gosh,” I gasped, tears running down my face. “Thank you so much.” I wrapped her in a hug, a pang of regret striking me as I did it.

It might have hurt to do, but we had to share the bed. Luckily, it was big enough where I could stay on one side and she could stay on the other, and we weren’t touching.

“Good night, Johnny.” She said.

“Good night, Chrysi. I should warn you, I sing in my sleep.”

“That’s perfectly fine.” She then turned off the light.

In my dream, it was white once again. Though, Princess Luna was already here.

“What happened?”

“It wasn’t good, Luna. She wants me to rule Equestria with her.”

“What?”

“I know. I’m so sorry about all this.” I said, hugging her.

“It’s alright. You didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“I did though! She said she used my love to overthrow Celestia.”

She just stood there for a second, taken by surprise.

“It doesn’t get much better. She took Celestia’s bedroom as hers, and she tried to c-comfort me by saying that now we can get w-w-whatever we want.” I took some deep breaths, and continued. “Listen, I’m going to come up with a plan, and I’ll get you guys out. For now, I just need to convince Chrysi that nothing is going on, then I can get you guys out. I just need you guys to stay strong, and don’t be bothered too much about what Chrysi says. She wants to get under your skin; she wants you to fear her, but you can’t. Tell that to the others, and try to stay strong. I’ll see you later.”

“Good luck, Johnny!” I waved and she disappeared into the air.