The Path to Decay

Twilight and her friends made it to the Canterlot train station after what felt like a long time to walk from the palace to the station, Twilight was glad to be able to sit down once they got aboard.

"7 tickets to Dodge Junction, please." Twilight told the ticket booth operator.

"Alright, that'll be 40 bits, ma'am." replied the booth operator.

Twilight handed the booth operator the bits needed, which both Dash and Pinkie chipped in for, and the booth operator handed them their tickets.

"Train leaving for Dodge Junction in 10 minutes" spoke the conductor over the loudspeaker, alerting all of those going to Dodge Junction to board as soon as possible.

"Well, this is our cue to go girls." Twilight said.

As soon as everyone was aboard, Twilight felt an unnerving feeling, a single bead of sweat rolled down her forehead and her stomach felt uneasy, something she had not felt since Discord had returned and taken over Ponyville.

"C'mon egghead, you don't wanna miss the train!" shouted Dash to Twilight.

As soon as she said that, Twilight snapped out of her worried state and boarded the train, on their way to Dodge Junction, and on their way ultimately to the Mernallian Empire.

Dark stratocumulus clouds loomed over the Mernallian Empire, the sky was a dark shade of scarlet red, and thunder could be heard cracking throughout the kingdom. A large, ominous palace completely devoid of hue was sitting off in the distance, surrounded by decaying wildlife and the now destroyed blood-red diamond statue that had stood on the far left side of the palace.

Inside this palace, it had looked to be medieval by the gothic chandeliers lit only by candles, the aged grey brick walls surrounding with torches hanging off them to see in the night, and in the throne room were stained-glass windows from the days of King Slifer's reign as king. But there was one subtle difference, since sitting in the palace's throne room, protected by his unicorn and pegasi guards was the masochistic unicorn king himself: King Morior.

King Morior was surely a grotesque sight to see, as he wasn't the typical type of evil tyrant, at least according to his appearance. He wore a ponytail, a jet black vest and his black tribal eyeliner. But his physical appearance was quite a sight, as he had two steel limbs crafted by his guards when his left front leg and right hind leg were ultimately decayed by a strange type of flesh eating disease and had to be removed, and there were still physical signs on his left hind leg of the disease ravaging his unicorn body, as his left hind leg bone is quite clearly visible. He also had fangs, a cream coat and a short, black tail. His horn a decayed black at the botton with a forest green tip to match his eyes, and his teardrop cutie mark quite similar to his father's diamond cutie mark. Like father, like son.

"Servant, I am hungry. Fetch me something delectible to feast upon!" shouted Morior in a deep raspy, but commanding voice.

"As you wish, your majesty" weakly replied his butler, who was nothing but a slave to him.

"And as for you, Regal Will, my favorite unicorn guardian. I shall treat you and your pegasus friend over here to a nice banquet tomorrow in my honor for working your royal hindquarters off to defend me and the kingdom's rule!" proclaimed Morior to his unicorn guard, Regal Will.

"Thank you very much, your majesty. It means a lot to me!" said Regal, very ecstatic to hear such good news come from his king.

"Yes, thank you millions, oh mighty one!" replied the pegasus guard, Cairo.

"Oh, it feels great to be king!" roared Morior, before letting out an ominous fit of laughter.

"I must go check on the dungeon to see how my favorite prisoner is doing, she was quite the hassle to capture but she's mine, all mine!" bursted Morior, before continuing to laugh again.

"I'm going to see my princess..."

"Cadance....."

On the train to Dodge Junction, Twilight's friends were talking about comical things that happened to them earlier in the week.

"Heh, yesterday I managed to cut my hoof open on a piece of glass in the kitchen last night." giggled Pinkie.

"Why is that so funny Pinkie Pie?" asked Rainbow.

"Well, my brain goes super duper silly in the night time that I forget to turn on a light, and when I forget to do that sometimes I'll bump into or step on things I don't see, and have you ever stept on so-" Pinkie replied rapidly before having her mouth covered by Applejack's hoof.

"Slow down, girl." Applejack rebuttled.

"Hehe, sorry..." giggled Pinkie, feeling a little embarassed.

"Don't worry Pinkie, we've all had something like that happen. Even I can remember the night I left a sewing needle out and stepped hoof-first onto it."

"What happened next, did you whine about your fashion career being over?" Rainbow teased Rarity.

Rarity simply looked at Rainbow with an unhappy look, Rainbow could tell she didn't find that comment funny.

"Aw come on, lighten up Rarity I'm just teasin'." replied Rainbow.

As the others went on their way to discuss their week, Twilight was just staring out the window, her melancholic expression told a story on how she was very unsure of what would happen this time, since this was something she hadn't encountered in a long time.

Twilight just put her face to the window to watch the sun slowly setting as they were almost at their destination. After 10 minutes of this, Spike came over to talk to Twilight.

"What's the matter Twilight? You've been sitting there for ten minutes now not saying a word." Spike politely asked Twilight.

"I'm just nervous and scared, what if we don't make it out in one piece? What if Celestia is disappointed in me? What if she's so disappointed she won't continues my studies? What if-" Twilight frantically questioned before being silenced by one of Spike's claws.

"Relax Twilight, you've just had a very stressful day today with this whole "Mernallian Empire" business, maybe we should get some rest once we get to Dodge Junction, I heard Applejack say that Cherry Jubilee has a special resting area set for us." Spike told Twilight.

"Hmm, yeah maybe I just need some rest, thanks Spike." said Twilight, taking in her dragon's advice.

The train finally arrived in Dodge Junction after what felt like a 10 hour trip. After they all got off the train, they wondered what they were going to do next, since only AJ, Twilight and Spike knew where they were staying.

"So AJ, where are we going to get some shut-eye?" Rainbow wondered.

"Ah asked Cherry Jubilee if she could set us up with a place tah sleep, and she said that she's got a lil' room upstairs in the factory that can fit us." Applejack came back to Rainbow.

"Eugh, I just hope it's not all stained from cherries and dirt from muddy hooves." moaned Rarity, known to hate dirt and messes.

"Ah relax sugarcube, it's as clean as can be." replied Applejack.

"Applejack, you made it!" cheerfully shouted Cherry Jubilee, waiting there for the ponies.

"Heya, miss Jubilee!" said Applejack.

"And ah see you have yer little friends with ya!" commented Cherry Jubilee.

"She sure does, Cherry Jubilee. Now can we see this guest room? I'm pooped." Rainbow added.

"I think we're all worn out, Dashie." responded Pinkie, calling Rainbow by her little pet name "Dashie".

"Well, the room is upstairs, make yerselves comfortable, wake-up call is at 8 am!" Cherry Jubilee told the ponies.

"Thanks again, miss Jubilee for setting this up at such short notice." thanked Applejack.

"Don't mention it, sweetheart."

King Morior had ventured down into the palace's catacombs, followed by Regal Will and Cairo, to overlook his prisoners. Morior, much like his father, would have his guards take people to the dungeons for even asking for more to eat, as the Mernallian Empire's citizens were very under-nourished. It was a gut-wrenching sight, but it was hard to walk down the street without seeing a pony either lying dead on the pavement due to starvation, or ponies being starved to a point where they have started to cannibalize to survive for even a day longer.

Morior first walked past the cell block, marked with the letter "C". The letters meant nothing special than to seperate the many of cells that Morior's father had built during his rule. The cell blocks stretched from A to Z, each cell block holding 20 cells each, which would be 520 cells total, enough to fit half of the population of the empire back then oddly enough.

He made his way to cell C-18, which being held inside was one of the ponies he had locked up for trying to assassinate Morior by collapsing his castle's main balcony, which ended up killing 3 citizens and leaving Morior unharmed.

Morior simply scoffed and mocked this pony for his foiled attempt at an assassination.

"Pfft hahahaha, I guess I'm one slippery fish in a barrel for you, my simple-minded FOOL!" Morior screamed at his prisoner.

He has walked past C-19 due to it being empty and went straight for cell C-20, which inside contained the crystal princess herself; Princess Cadance. The rotting king simply spit on the floor and began to taunt Cadance, who he had captured rather difficultly but still laughed it off as if it was such a simple task.

"Well well well, look who we have here. Princess Cadance, the once powerful crystal princess is now under my control!" taunted the king.

"You'll never get away with this, Morior! As we speak, Princess Celestia is finding a way to get me out-"

"SILENCE!" shouted Morior, blasting Cadance to the wall with his magic.

Cadance hit the wall and collapsed to the ground, feeling sore and weak from suffering a magical blast from the king. She tried using her magic to break herself free from her cell, but found that there was something on her horn preventing her from casting any magic.

"Oh, I see our wittle pwincess is twying to do her magic." taunted Morior, speaking to her like a foal to rub it in.

"You see my dear, I have fitted your horn with a special inhibitor ring that prevents you from casting any magical spell that you know. It's quite simple to manufacture but it does it's job to the highest degree" explained Morior, clearly an expert on the subject.

"Why are you doing this to me?" asked Cadance.

"It's quite simple, my dear. You have strong connections to Princess Celestia, the overlord of Equestria, and I also know you are married to the brother of Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor. They are both two powerful adversaries and they would only get in the way of my reign as king, maybe even wanting me gone. And we can't allow that to happen, now can we?" questioning Morior.

"Twilight and her friends will be here to stop you, King Morior. You will not keep me here forever!" roared Cadance.

Morior simply laughed out loud and walked away, completely disregarding Cadance's last statement. Cadance's rage built up so much that she erupted and slammed her front hooves into the wall beside her, hurting her hooves and making her collapse on the ground once again. At this point, she had started to cry.

She felt weak, alone, with no one to help her....

Or was that last statement false?