Getting Used to Being [Fe]Male in Equestriaby SpacecowboyChaptersPrologueChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4PrologueNovember 22 To think, it’s already been almost six months since I found myself dropped into this world from some weird, freak event. Calling life eventful would be a gross understatement, as going from man to mare by itself was nuts, let alone becoming a ‘blank-flank’ (as the self-proclaimed Cutie Mark Crusaders dubbed it) alicorn who could be surpassed by any foal ability-wise. Still, Twilight and her friends have helped me progress a fair amount, even if I’m certain that I’ve shaved years off their lives from stress. I’m still extremely slow at learning magic; anything beyond basic levitation is a chore. Rarity’s claims are outlandish, like most of her words, but Twilight’s explanation makes sense. My mind just doesn’t quite think in the most conductive manner for spellcasting, so I can expect everything to be a pain. Flight has been a different story at least, thank goodness for the small things I suppose. I can hold a sedate pace for a few hours in any given day, although Dash still flies circles around me. She’s only nabbed me once and given me an intimate experience with corkscrews; Twilight had a nice chat with her after that. I still don’t know what was said, but Dash seems to turn green when I ask her if she plans to do it to me again. Life has been somewhat of a pain though. Anytime I go out into Canterlot, a bunch of ponies do the whole bow and scrape routine simply because I’m an alicorn. They don’t care that I have no part in their government, that I have no power period, and that their children are more of a threat than I am. They simply see an alicorn and react. Annoying as hell, and honestly it’s already beyond old. The nobles too, what a pain in the ass they are. Again, all because I’m an alicorn. I’d gladly give up the horn and magic just to be normal, but sadly that’s not an option. They’re all tripping over themselves to try and ‘nab me’ as their own for their silly power games. Even Blueblood has been hounding me, and he’s the most annoying of them all, if only because he has access to most of the castle. He tried sneaking into my room once, and only once. Dream repaid him by taking another run at his showering products. Celestia even got in on it and claimed that the poison joke antidote was out of stock, and it would be a few days before they got any in. I have to say, Blueblood as a mare is pretty hot in his own way. Incidentally enough, today is also • I let the quill drop from my magic to the table’s surface, a long sigh escaping from my lips. I blew one last puff of air on the bit of wet ink before closing the journal and stowing it back in the small cubby underneath the bed. It had kept it safe from Dream’s prying hooves so far; she had an aversion to going underneath the bed, so it served its purpose well. I really didn’t feel like writing the next part down, instead I felt that it called for a nice late night flight to try and sort through the thoughts running rampant in my mind. On my way to the balcony, I paused in front of the mirror, taking a moment to glance over myself. Sky blue eyes framed by a shade of lavender peered back, the large eyes showing an underlying weariness beneath the deceiving inquisitive look they always seemed to hold. A spiral horn, much like Twilight’s, jutted from my forehead, parting through the pink mane with its lone blue stripe running down its middle. At my side, large wings were folded, the edges of the feathers tinged in pink. This was me, and had been for the last six months. With one last glance at my reflection, I turned towards the balcony again. It was a small one, overlooking a few private gardens nestled in the back corners of the castle furthest away from the city. I was thankful for that, as it allowed me to come and go from this point without any prying eyes, without the reminder of who and what I was. I mean, I was secure with the new me, Aurora the alicorn rather than Elam the human, but beyond that my mind was a giant, jumbled mess most times, even if I did a decent job at fooling most everypony about it. Spreading my wings wide, I launched myself into the expansive night sky. I was hoping that if a late flight didn’t bring clarity, it would at least let me push off my problems until another day. I smiled as I felt the wind running through my feathers, and couldn’t help but chuckle at just how angst-ridden I sounded. Introspection is definitely not a strong suite of mine. I ignored the silhouettes of the patrolling guards, dark forms against an equally dark night, and made my way to a cloud high above the castle. The first snow was scheduled in just two days, and as such there were plenty of the fluffy cushions to pick from during this staging period. Nearly stumbling as I touched my hooves down onto one, I rolled onto my back and looked at the star-filled expanse above me. Something about the stars calmed me, bringing order into the chaos of my mind. Even as my vision jumped between the many bright specks of various colors, my thoughts began to fall in line. I sighed and let my wings splay outwards as I sank into the cushion of the cloud. Lazily, I reached up with a hoof and reached towards the stars, as if I hoped to grasp one within my hold. Since there was nothing to actually close around them now, I simply pretended to hold them on the edge of my hoof, chuckling as I did so. The steady beat of wings in the relatively quiet night drew attention towards the sky below me, and I rolled to my side in time to catch the visitor. “Good evening, Aurora. Mind if I join you?” Celestia politely asked, landing on the edge of the rather large cloud. I nodded and she walked closer, folding those massive wings of hers to her side. “So, what brings you up to my cloud tonight, Celestia? I doubt you just ‘happened by’ at this time of night,” I curiously asked, knowing full well that around this time is when she would usually be wrapping up the last bit of her day while eyeing her bed. I knew that she had purposely come here, but for what reason was unclear. Celestia took a seat next to me as I finished rolling over, with my stomach now to the cloud. I looked at her with a raised brow and received a smile in return, one that was warming and reassuring. “How are you doing tonight, Aurora?” she quietly asked me, and I just sighed in reply after a few seconds. She patiently waited for me to speak as I pondered. She was a deceiving perceptive pony, which only made sense given her position and age. Even though I spent very little time with her compared to everypony else, she was the first to catch on to my ever-growing dilemma. “Not too great, I suppose,” I finally muttered, moving my gaze from her to the town below, studying it. Lamps illuminated the mostly empty streets, and the only real activity was centered around the aptly named Night District. A warmth covered my back, and I tore my sight back to her, noticing the lone wing draped over me. I smiled a little bit at the friendly gesture before elaborating for her. “I mean, everything here is nice, some might even say it’s a utopia compared to Earth, really. But I miss a lot of things, and I’m starting to realize just how much more is ahead of me here still.” The muscles in her wings tightened slightly in reassurance as she met my eyes. “Such is life though, is it not, Aurora?” She wryly smiled, and I noted a glint of humor hidden in her eyes. “I can say from experience that there are many things in one’s past that we come to miss, regardless of whether it was a day ago, six months, or even a thousand years. Rather than lament over it though, I’ve found it’s much better to simply enjoy the memories. Saves a lot of stress.” I couldn’t help myself and began laughing. The notion of enjoying the memory of annoying commercials when thinking of a television was just a bit too much for me to handle. I knew that she was right, the only real thing I truly missed was visiting my parents’ graves, everything else back home was more a convenience than anything else. “As for the latter, it’s also a fact of life. I’ll admit that things are decidedly more complicated because of,” she waved a hoof at me, and I chuckled, “but even then, it’s only slightly more complicated than moving is, right?” “I don’t think people considered crossing dimensions and changing bodies as part of the moving process when deciding how complicated it’d be.” I rolled my eyes, eliciting a small chortle from Celestia. She removed her wing and stood up, a smile on her face. “Very true. Still, it’s food for thought, hopefully you find some use of it.” Celestia faced the night sky, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath before turning back to me. “Would you like to go for a quick flight? I wouldn’t mind the company before I turn in for the day.” Springing to my hooves in nearly record time, I filed away her words to think on them later. Sure, life was challenging here, but she made a good point. Plus, when faced with flying, there was always tomorrow to worry about everything else. I watched her drop from the cloud, spreading her wings into an easy glide, waiting for me to join her. With a small rush of adrenaline, I jumped off the cloud, allowing myself to momentarily freefall before snapping my wings open and arresting my fall. We calmly flew through the sky, keeping over the castle as we did so. It was enjoyable, the cool winter air gave just the smallest chill as we soared along. I stayed just to the side of Celestia, her large white form extremely visible in the pale light cast by Luna’s moon. Celestia closed the distance between us, a grin on her face as she somehow bopped me on the nose. While flying upside down I should add, it was pretty impressive, broken only by the words she spoke next. “You’re it, Aurora. Catch me, if you can,” she laughed and darted off, going at a speed that at least allowed me a chance to catch up with her. I followed her form with my eyes as I dashed off as quickly as I could, barely overtaking her. All thoughts blanked from my mind as the distance between us began to close, following her and mirroring almost every move she made. Although I lacked her finesse, taking turns much wider than she did and just generally looking like a drunken fool at the speed I was flying at, she kept the same speed. As the minutes passed, I finally came within reaching distance, stretching out a forehoof to tag her on the rear. Instead, I bowled her over in midair, briefly becoming entangled with her as she just laughed. I found myself floating within her magic as she smugly smiled at me, a twinkle in her eyes. A groan passed from my lips as she smirked before cutting off her magic, and I fell for a few moments before I caught myself, white filling my vision as I leveled out. I glared at her for a moment before joining her in laughter, thankful for the nice distraction she provided. We flew down towards her balcony as fatigue finally began to set in, the day’s toll finally coming to hit me. In order to catch up to Celestia I had to really kick it up to a speed that I couldn’t hold for too long, so I was more than ready for sleep now. She landed first, and then I touched down, nearly stumbling as I did so. “Aurora, just think on what I said, and sleep well tonight,” Celestia quietly spoke before walking into her room. As the doors to her balcony closed, I took to the air and swung around to my own room, completely missing the balcony and landing inside my room. With a careful amount of concentration I closed and latched the double doors that led outside with my magic. Sighing, I took the ties out of my mane and tail before climbing into bed, sprawling myself out on top of the covers. Limbs and hair everywhere, I sank into the soft cloud mattress, my consciousness slowly drifting into the sweet embrace of sleep. A final thought made its way into my mind before being replaced by gentle snores. Somehow, someway, I’ll find where I belong here… Author's Note AAAANGST! I can't write it very well, apparently. For those of you who are joining me from the first story, welcome and I hope you enjoy what I have in mind here. For new readers, welcome, and I hope that I can capture your interest and write a story you'll enjoy. Fortunately, this is about the heaviest I'm going on the angst. Tried mixing it up with some other stuff, hopefully I achieved what I was aiming to do. I'm going to be exploring the whole 'blank flank new alicorn in Equestria, and where she fits in at' concept here, too many people Gary/Mary Stu them, and I'd like to break some of that stigma. So, I hope you enjoy and stick around, and I'll see you next update! Chapter 1Author's Note Decided to split it, going for 5-7 thousand words per chapter in this story, a potential 12k + chapter was just too much for me. Hope y'all enjoy this, next chapter should be out in a few days. Again, sorry about the hiatus/burn-out almost immediately after posting this story up. Chapter 1 I found myself floating, complete and utter darkness encompassing everything. A pinprick of light formed below me, flecks of green visible in the far distance. As time passed, the speck grew outwards, slowly showing more of what lay beneath. I found streets beginning to take form, then buildings, and as I watched a jungle of concrete and steel sprang into existence underneath me far below my hooves. As more of it came together, I realized that not only was it a city from my past, but it was the city. The place that I had called home for so long before finding myself unceremoniously dumped into Equestria. My gaze wandered, following the familiar ribbons of asphalt through the city. Some locations stood out like beacons to my mind; the schools that I went to growing up, the ballpark where I first broke my arm, my house, and other various locations that held memories of the life I had given up. A wistful smile found its way to my face as I continued scanning the city below me. Sounds pulled my attention from below to above, where instead of the blue skies and familiar sun, another location began to unfold. Starting at the base of a large mountain that dominated the landscape around it, a winding path unfolded beneath my gaze, terminating at a set of ornate doors leading into a city of another sort. The buildings within the town seemed to gleam, the buildings lending an excellent foreground to the gleaming towers adorning the castle behind it. As my neck craned upwards to take in the sights, I could only think just how magnificent it was. If one were to take a snapshot of the view and put it directly to canvas, it truly would be one of the greatest pieces of art ever made, sure to make any other works pale in comparison. I let my gaze stray over the winding paths of cobblestone marking the streets of the grand city, my eyes lighting up when Donut Joe’s Bakery entered into sight. The familiar looking building had become a place of refuge at times; after all the new me loved to bury my concerns in sweets, and he had the best in town. As I continued to admire the wondrous city, a quiet sound from below reached my ears, extremely faint at first. Stringed instruments playing an unknown concert number drifted on the wind from the city below. I tried to ignore it, not caring much about what was behind me for what was in front of me, but it began to physically tug on me. A mixture of woodwinds entered into the piece, this time coming from above. They played a different tune, the two melodies offsetting each other and creating a rather discordant sound as they clashed. I felt both sides tugging at my very core, as if two ponies had each of my forehooves and were lightly tugging in opposite directions. I attempted to ignore one of them and move towards the city in the sky, intent on leaving the last vestiges of my old life behind. It refused to let go, however, the strings become more intense, the music becoming violent in nature as the tugging turned into a pulling sensation. The woodwinds from above retaliated, and the pulling and tugging quickly caused my discomfort to surge; an almost painful feeling now. The battle raged between them, the pain gradually increasing as I felt myself being pulled apart. Just when I thought it could not get any worse, trumpets entered the fray, lending their sounds to the violent cacophony of noise. They immediately began to crescendo, and I felt as if I were ready to fall apart from the pain. “Oh, this isn’t any good!” A voice broke the cacophony, the instruments ceasing their discordant playing and falling silent, the pain fleeing at last. A swirling portal of colors entered my sight as my vision cleared, Dream bouncing out of it. “There, nightmare’s s’all gone now!” she giggled a bit, bopping me on my nose. “You have some weird nightmares, Sis!” I was left speechless as she bounced back out through the portal, the swirling of colors disappearing as everything faded, my mind drifting back into a dreamless sleep. “Cannonball!” a voice exclaimed, waking me up from my sleep. The speaker sounded familiar, as did the word they said, but my tired mind simply could not process what it was, or how I was supposed to respond to it. Blearily my eyes opened in time to see a dark blur racing through the air towards me, causing me to jump in place. However, I was thoroughly wrapped up in my covers and only succeeded in flailing around for a moment before Dream slammed into my chest, both of her hooves wrapped around my barrel. “Good morning, Sis! It’s time to wake up, come on!” Dream pranced about on top of my chest, each impact actually rather light, what with the blanket cushioning the hits. After a few circles of this, she hopped off of me and decided to bop my nose with her hoof. As she pulled back, I chuckled and nuzzled her. Pulling back, I focused on removing myself from the covers. Dream’s wakeup call had me wide awake now, so it was relatively easy to extricate myself from the covers. I stretched, opening my mouth and letting out a very loud yawn, causing Dream to giggle. I closed my mouth and smacked my lips a few times for good measure, then turned to look at her. “So…” I began, looking at Dream with an almost predatory expression, “was jumping on me really necessary to wake me up?” “Umm… not really?” she squeaked out, an impish grin on her face belaying her attempt to appear as innocent as possible. I went in for the kill, my hooves seeking out her most ticklish spots as she tried to escape me. She attempted to escape the bed, but I managed to predict exactly where she would go and a hoof and a wingtip found her stomach. Dream collapsed in laughter moments later as I triumphantly stood over her, laughing along with her. I relented my attack after a minute or so, collapsing next to Dream as she recovered. “And that,” I smugly stated, a grin betraying my voice, “is for using me as a landing pad!” I hopped off the bed to let her recover from my attack, deciding to quickly clear up the bed-mane I was certain I had. A quick golden tie for my mane and tail thoroughly solved most of the issue of having hair everywhere, and I turned back to the bed, where Dream was standing on top, her tongue sticking out at me. I just laughed at the sight and blew a raspberry at her, stopping next to the bed. “Well, shall we go find some pancakes to slay, Dream?” Her eyes lit up like lights, the bright teal color a stark contrast to her midnight black coat. I turned around and began to walk out of the room, but stopped at the distinct lack of sounds coming from her. “Please?” Dream pleaded, a longing look on her face as she attempted to give me diabetes with her eyes. I sighed and walked next to the bed, allowing her to clamber onto my back. I gave her a moment to get situated before turning back around and leaving the room. “Hi ho, ‘Rory!” she exclaimed, and looking back I noticed she had a single hoof pointed down the hall that led to the dining room. Laughing, I set off towards food at a sedate pace, thinking on a few things. The nightmare I had was a somewhat reoccurring one, although it had been getting less frequent as time passed on. I kept telling myself that I enjoyed everything about this world, even with the crazy first month I had. After all, I had a nice group of ponies to call my friends, and some I could even call family. Even with all of the holes that still needed to be filled in, what was there to dislike? Sure, there would always be things I missed from before, but honestly they paled in comparison to having a family again. At this thought I turned my head and gave Dream a brief nuzzle, which she leaned into. She truly was an amazing filly, and I was more than happy to think of her as family. I had always been a single child, so having a sibling was a new experience, especially now that she truly was a filly in and out. At one point she had quite a few memories left over from Nightmare Moon and Luna, but those had finally completely disappeared. Now she was just an extremely ordinary filly, well except the whole alicorn bit. I flared up my magic, opening the doors into the dining room, nodding absently at the guard posted at the door. “Good morning, all.” I quietly greeted as Dream glided off my back, her hooves clattering loudly on the tiled floor. I took a seat next to Celestia as I watched Dream shuffle into her seat between Twilight and Luna. “Good morning, Dream,” Luna lovingly spoke, her voice completely filled with warmth, “I hope you did not wake Aurora up by jumping on her, right?” I did my best to contain my laughter as Dream attempted to stammer out a reply, causing Luna’s lips to tighten around the corners a bit. She and Twilight had been attempting to reign in some of Dream’s behavior, and jumping up and down on sleeping ponies was currently at the top of their list. From what I understand, Dream had woken them up that way after the two of them had fudged an experiment that left them both quite bruised. I could hear their voices clear through the walls that morning; it was quite comical, although I think they both managed to scare Dream quite a bit. “Good morning to you as well, Aurora,” Celestia quietly spoke into my ear, drawing me from my thoughts as I focused on her, “I hope that your mood is much better this morning? You seemed quite down last night; I hope that I was able to help you.” “Eh…” I started, taking a moment to concentrate on getting some pancakes on my plate, “I had another nightmare, same thing again. Overall though, I’m feeling pretty good this morning.” I rubbed at the spot where Dream had landed on me, grinning slightly. “Well, mostly good I should say. I had a ball of energy give me a rather quick wake-up call.” Celestia and I both laughed rather heavily, drawing the attention of Twilight and Luna, who had apparently just finished scolding Dream. They had basically become her parent figures, as she was technically born from a part of Luna. Twilight had explained its full dynamics to me one day when I made the mistake of asking her about it; needless to say it simply was what it was. I do not think that my brain could survive that lecture again. “Good morning, Aurora,” Twilight and Luna both said at the same time as I finally took a bite of my pancakes. I just chuckled and waved at first, doing the polite thing and not speaking while I had half of a waffle coated in syrupy goodness crammed in my muzzle. “I hope that Dream didn’t wake you up too violently, Aurora.” Twilight spoke alone this time, a small glare directed at the filly in question. I swallowed, grinning at Twilight. “Relax a little bit, let your mane down, Twilight,” I playfully chided, “I mean, I am her sister, right? So, if she wants to wake me up like that, it’s fair game.” Dream’s eyes seemed to light up again, and I internally laughed. “However, she just needs to remember that it means I can do similar things to her.” I menacingly raised my hooves, making tickling sounds, causing everypony at the table to break out into laughter. “Very well, Aurora. But if she breaks anything again, don’t say I didn’t warn you, okay?” Twilight briefly stuck her tongue out at me before focusing on her pancakes. Luna went to take a bite, but then paused and looked at me with a confused look in her eyes. “Pray tell, what exactly did Twilight mean when she said again?” I exchanged looks with Twilight, Celestia and Dream before breaking out into laughter again. Luna simply looked on in confusion the entire time, at least until I could get myself back under control. “Well, remember when you went on that diplomatic mission to Gryphonia for a month?” Luna nodded in reply, and I continued with a smile on my face. “Well,” I began, drawing it out as Luna leaned forward a bit in her seat, “while you were gone, one of my magic lessons involved levitating rubber spheres without crushing them. I kind of slipped and sent it flying across the room. We ended that day a little bit early, and I had a very nice bruise on my chest. I found out the next morning it was actually a cracked rib when Dream landed on me and turned it into a broken one.” Luna looked at me oddly, then again that might have been because I had a rather goofy grin on my face at the moment. “What? Don’t judge, Luna… Equestrian pain-killers are some amazing things!” I broke out into laughter again, remembering how time seemed to be much, much slower for those three days I was laid up while healing. Luna hummed to herself, a thoughtful expression on her face. “I see,” she slowly replied, turning to look towards Dream and Twilight. “And why was I not informed about this upon my return?” Luna queried, her brow raised as she stared at them. I just chuckled, waving my hoof at her. “No big deal, Luna. Stuff happens. You need to learn to relax a little bit.” I stuck my tongue out at her before, in what could very well be a moment of extreme stupidity, focused hard and gently tapped her in the face with one of her own, still untouched pancakes. She turned around to look at it, her mouth partially open, and before she could utter a word I stuck it in her muzzle. The entire table went deathly silent, everypony frozen as Luna sat there, a pancake partially in her mouth, the glow from my magic gone. Finally, she simply chewed on it, and after a few moments swallowed. “I must say, this needs syrup,” she simply stated, a light smile on her face as I let myself relax. She shot me a devilish grin when nopony else was looking though, and I figured that I might want to watch my back in the near future. “Aurora, I’ve been meaning to tell you this, but when you’ve got some free time I need to go over some of the results of the experiments we ran last month, okay?” Twilight asked as she refilled her coffee mug, the now full cup lingering under her nose. I took a look to Dream, and thought for a moment about what I had to do for the day. I had long since moved past simply waking up, magic lessons, flying lessons, history lessons, and then going to sleep. Now some days I had hours of free time, some of which I spent going down into Canterlot and spending with Dream. “I think I’ll be free after dinner, Twilight,” I slowly stated, sorting out the plans I had for the day in my mind, “I’m taking Dream down to play with the other foals at the Second Chance Orphanage after breakfast, and probably won’t be back until lunch, and I want to practice either flying or magic after that.” The orphanage was a place that I had stumbled upon merely by chance. I had taken to walking through the streets of Canterlot in the evenings, as the majority of traffic dominated the daylight hours. While on one such walk, I heard crying coming from one of the many parks in the city and stumbled upon a small pegasus filly. It took a little bit of time, but I managed to get her to tell me her name. Once Comet Burst opened up to me, I offered to take her home after her tears had stopped. I was quite surprised to learn that she lived in an orphanage, and after dropping Comet off I spent some time talking to the matron, who was coincidentally called Matron. The chance meeting at night turned into weekly visits to visit Comet and the rest of the foals. Dream had asked to come along one day, and now she had a whole group of friends her age that we visited a few times every week. A voice pulled me from my thoughts, loud and full of excitement. “Oh, we’re going to see Comet today?!” Dream asked, beginning to bounce up and down in her seat. I laughed, nodding my head. “Yes, but first… you need to finish your breakfast. That includes your vegetables, by the way.” I stuck my tongue out at Dream, who looked at the small pile of carrots and greens that Luna had snuck onto her plate. I still found it pretty funny that she disliked most vegetables, with a few exceptions. She was quite a picky eater it seems. The rest of the breakfast passed in small talk, every one of us content to finish our breakfast so that we could all move on with our day. I got up and pushed my seat back in a bit, finishing off the last of my orange juice before setting the now empty glass on the table’s surface. “Well, I hope you all have a good day. Who should I bug to escort the two of us there?” I asked Celestia as Dream came up to my side. “Hmm,” Celestia brought a hoof up to her chin as she thought for a moment. After a few seconds, a sly grin formed on her muzzle. “Aurora, if you go down to the Guard’s Barracks, I believe you’ll find Shining Armor there. If he puts up any resistance, you can just drop my name. I think he could use the time around foals.” I chuckled at her choice, nodding my assent. “Thanks, Celestia. Try your best to smite some nobles, please? It might make things a bit easier for me.” I goofily grinned, somewhat hoping that she would indeed blast one or two of those pathetic excuses for ponies out of existence. Most of them were quite the whining, sniveling snob types who thought the world existed for them. Plus, the fact that increasingly more of them were trying to tie me up in a ribbon for their respective family’s status. That might have colored my opinion just a little bit. I looked towards Dream, who had a big, goofy grin on her face. I lightly chuckled at the sight, causing her to realize that I had been staring. “Sis, I need to get some stuff from my room, can I just go there while you get the guards?” I mussed her many lightly with a forehoof, laughing as she tried to dodge it. I finally relented after a few moments, a small smile on my face. “Sure thing, Dream. You want me to pick you up from the garden?” She nodded her agreement, and with a nod of my own she took off. I watched her scampering form quickly retreat, a smile still present the entire time. Once she left my sight, I turned around and left through the door on the opposite side of the room. I navigated my way through the corridors, pausing to say hi to a guard here and there. While I still did not know many of them, I had become friends with a couple of the ones living at the castle. It all began one night over a barrel of Applejack’s best special cider, and by special I mean one hell of an alcohol by volume content. One poker game later and I had a small group of friends in the castle guard, even if one of them left with a black eye that night after sneaking a feel of my rear end. That had been about a month back, and now I could tell a few guards apart from the others, even with the armor that made them all look uniform. Turning another corner, I entered the wing of the castle that was used almost exclusively by the Royal Guard. Eating, sleeping, training, relaxing… you think of it, they could do it here. A lot of the younger members actually lived in this part of the castle, something to do with it being easier for the single stallions and mares without any attachments. I never really asked for the full details, but it was a pretty interesting set-up. Luckily, the offices were at the front of everything, and as I approached the door a sky-blue unicorn stallion grinned and opened the door. “Hey there, Breeze, I’m looking for Shining Armor, he around?” I asked, returning his grin as I bumped his offered hoof. His full name was actual Gentle Breeze, but for the obvious reasons everypony referred to him as Breeze. He was easily my closest friend in the guard, which was quite humorous as he had been the pony I gave the shiner to the first time I hung with them. “Yup, he’s slinking around somewhere in the offices,” Breeze replied with a chuckle, slightly tossing his head towards the interior. “I think he still has it in his mind that if he doesn’t come down to check on us, we’ll just fall apart or something.” Breeze and I began laughing. I had heard many tales of how the former Captain of the Guard essentially ‘babied’ his former charges. It was quite endearing to some, although they wasted no time in joining everypony when the mothering jokes began flying around. “Well, I’m here to take him off your hooves, at least for a little bit. I’d say that maybe you could get some work done, but looks like you’ve got some downtime, eh?” “Actually, I was just on break, but the moment I heard that you would be going into Canterlot I made sure to scamper back here as quickly as I could. Hopefully I can tag along again, sure beats doing paperwork!” I just snorted in amusement as I began to follow him inside in search of Shining Armor. Following a trail of pointed hooves, we found Shining Armor within a minute or two. It really was not that hard, truthfully, as he was a rather commanding presence in any room, and when surrounded by guards it really showed. Breeze knocked on the doorway of the office Shining was in, causing him to look up. “Aurora, Breeze, how are you two doing?” he greeted us with a smile, moving a bunch of loose papers into a neat stack on the desk. “Well, I’m looking to head into town, and Celestia told me I should get you to come along. You know, we’ll need a sacrifice for the kids and all, and I guess she thought you’d fit the bill.” I just laughed at the look on his face, causing him to sigh. “I’m not getting out of this, am I?” he stated, barely forming it into a question. I just smiled, doing my best to keep from breaking out into laughter as I took in the expression of relief on the pony’s face that had been talking to Shining before we interrupted them. “Nope! Apparently she thought it’d be a good idea, so might as well come along quietly!” I jerked my head towards Breeze as I rested a leg over Shining’s neck in a totally platonic manner. “And this guy here wants to tag along too, give us some extra muscle too.” Shining just sighed and worked my hoof off his neck. “Very well, I’ll be ready in ten. Just need to find one more guard to come along, just in case. Twilight told me those nobles are only getting worse, maybe having two guards and me around will deter them for a bit, hey?” I sadly chuckled, shaking my head. “I doubt that an entire army would stop some of them. I still don’t get what part of ‘I have no interest in relationships or anything remotely resembling them’ they don’t understand…” I trailed off, a fun thought coming to mind. “Maybe we need to make an example of one? I figure a horn to an eye would be a good statement, yes?” I managed to elicit a few laughs from everypony gathered, although Shining also ended up shaking his head. “They’d probably still come back even then. Maybe I could talk to Aunt Luna about sending them to her moon… nah, they’d dirty such a wondrous thing, I doubt she’d go for it.” “I’ll meet you in the garden just inside the residential area, okay?” I asked, getting ready to turn around. Once Shining nodded, I left to let him and Breeze get ready for the foray into town. As I began walking, I thought on the garden that we would all be gathering at. Probably the best thing about this garden was that it was located in a spot that only a few ponies had any access to, outside of the guard. Being so close to our rooms, nopony had any business being there. It was open to the elements, with flowers of all varieties planted. Basically, any time I wanted to have some of the outdoors without the hassle that went along with going into Canterlot, I could just come here and relax for a few hours. It was also a nice place for games of tag, as Dream and I did quite frequently. All said, it was a place where I could just let go for a bit, a rather nice luxury at times. Dream was already waiting for me, a small package next to her side. She and Comet had gotten extremely close, and the two had taken to exchanging small gifts every other week or so. I was kind of curious as to what Dream had put together this time; she had made a point to ensure nopony knew what it was and to make it on her own without any help. I walked up to her side, playfully bumping her with a forehoof. “Ready to go I take it?” Dream nodded in excitement, a massive smile plastered on her face. “We should be good to go in a few minutes. Shining Armor and Breeze are getting ready.” No sooner than I had said that did they enter, Breeze with a smirk on his face. “Or we’re ready to go now, it looks like.” Dream gracefully hopped up onto my back as they approached us. Carefully, I picked up the package and held it out to Breeze. “Here you go, make yourself useful!” He rolled his eyes, but accepted the box and carefully stowed it away in the small bag strapped to his back. Turning to Shining, I just smirked at him. “Are you ready to go and visit some foals, Prince? Think of this as… practice for the real thing.” “You’re trouble, you know that?” he quipped, one hoof over his face as he shook his head. I just laughed, knowing full well that Celestia had asked me to bring him along because Cadance apparently had been nagging him about children for some time. I just think that she was also playing a mostly harmless prank on him as well, either way it did not really matter too much to me. It just meant that maybe he could wear them down for me first. We left the castle through the main gates, the sounds of a city in full swing reaching our ears. It was mid-morning now, meaning that everything was in action, and the streets were relatively full with ponies running about on their errands and business. As we walked along, a lot of them stopped and stared at us, but at least they were not all focused on me. Shining Armor made a really good patsy that way; he was basically a national hero and a lot more interesting than me, the random blank-flank alicorn, fortunately. For me, anyways, although it was pretty obvious that he had long since gotten used to the stares that still made me feel extremely self-conscious. We passed through the commercial hub that was centered around the castle’s gates and turned into a quieter, residential area of the city. Here there were less ponies walking about, and the sounds from the market were a distant din that rapidly diminished the further in we walked. The layout of the city was quite ingenious, as they had a few markets, each one surrounded mostly by residential areas. It allowed ponies to never be too far from the shopping they needed to do, and ensured that the ponies selling their goods all had a pretty level playing field. The rest of our route took us through winding swaths of residential roads, both sides lined with houses of various constructs. It still amused and amazed me to see a house made of clouds sitting between another made of wood and another of stone. Even with the varied materials and craftsmanship, it still felt like everything belonged, a place that one would love to live in. It was definitely a stark contrast to the noble-infested section of the city, as I had dubbed the upper crust’s homes. The last turn came into sight, and we found ourselves on a dead-end cobbled road. Dream slipped off my back as we came to the last stretch of street, darting ahead of us for the main door of the large stone building at the end of the road. I chuckled at the sight, my gaze moving to rest on the painted wooden sign staked into the ground, quietly reading it aloud. “Second Chance Orphanage.” Chapter 2Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Chapter 3On the short flight back to the castle, Dream’s sounds of excitement slowly petered out as exhaustion from the morning’s activities claimed the little filly. She had spent quite some time running around, so it only made sense that an afternoon nap would be in order. As I looked down towards the streets, I made a note to stop by her room first. I spotted Breeze’s form down below, running through the streets in an attempt to keep up with me in the sky. Quietly chuckling, I made certain to keep my pace and altitude low enough so that he could easily keep up with me; it’s not like I was in any real danger flying over Canterlot in the middle of the day, after all. I carefully landed in front of the castle gates and craned my head around to look at my passenger, a gentle smile coming to my face as I noticed that she had managed to fall asleep, even while on my back mid-flight. Breeze ran up to me a few seconds later, a somewhat irate expression on his face. Bringing a hoof up to my mouth in the universal sign for silence, I motioned to Dream on my back with a twist of my head, and his expression gave way to resignation, a light sigh and a shake of his head his reply. “Welcome back, Princess Aurora,” one of the guards stationed at the front gate spoke as we passed inside. His voice was low, as he had noticed Dream asleep on my back. “Princess Celestia would like to see you at your earliest convenience.” Turning to my companion, the guard smiled a bit, and I pretended to ignore the suggestive wink. “Welcome back, Breeze.” Sighing, I simply shook my head a bit. My friendship with Breeze was apparently being seen as potentially something more, as every guard knew the story of how Shining Armor had managed to capture Cadance’s heart. It led a lot to think that the same could repeat itself, even though Breeze had specifically stated his intentions were otherwise. It was simply another thing I was coming to ignore as Breeze was a friend, nothing more. It was a bit reassuring to me having a few stallions as friends though; there were just too many mares around, myself included. Being able to hang out with the guards was a nice reprieve since many of them were stallions. “Well, I’ll catch you around, Breeze,” I softly spoke as I turned to check if Dream was still asleep as we entered the main foyer, heading towards the private residential area. Breeze nodded with a light smile on his face. “Take care, Aurora. If you need a guard for escorting, I’m your stallion any time.” He finished his remark with a mock bow, and I repressed the desire to reach over and hit him again. “Really though, I hope you enjoy the rest of the day. And thanks for getting me out of the castle; that definitely beat the standard guard posting duty.” Breeze chuckled and waved before heading off in his own direction, a light bounce in his step. Sighing again, something I found myself doing a lot of, I made my way to Dream’s room without wasting any more time. I had no idea what Celestia wanted to see me about, but I might as well let Dream enjoy her afternoon nap. Setting her down gently on the bed with my magic, I tucked her in and lightly kissed her on the forehead, smiling as she dug into the mattress and covers a bit. Quietly closing her door behind me, I followed the hallway back out to the main castle foyer, walking to the first guard. I rolled my eyes at his salute as I stopped in front of him, a wry chuckle escaping him. “Good afternoon, Princess Aurora. How can I help you?” “I was told Celestia wanted to see me, do you know where I can find her at right now?” An interesting thing of note is that it seemed every Royal Guardspony inside the castle knew the location of Celestia, Luna, and Twilight at all times, regardless of where they were posted. It was another thing I’d simply chalked up to magic and stopped questioning. There seemed to be a lot of things that fell into that category, but I knew better than to ask about it, as word would inevitably lead back to Twilight, and she would dedicate a lovely hour or three block of time during our next lesson to explain in excruciating detail how it worked, who came up with it and when, what other things it was used for, and other things that fried my mind. While I had been internally running off on a tangent, the guardspony had been using a bit of that magic to talk with other guards to pinpoint Celestia’s location. “It looks like she’s currently in the guest study across from her own. Do you want an—” Cutting him off with a hoof, I spoke up. “No, thank you. I know where it’s at, and there’s no need for an escort inside of the castle. Thanks though.” I turned around and headed for the closest staircase, thinking on what Celestia could want. There wasn’t anything that stuck out to me, so it was a complete mystery. The walk itself was rather short, as once I got up to the next floor the room in question was almost right there. There were a lot of offices up here, and it seemed that the ones most used were the closest to the stairs. I raised a hoof and knocked on the door loudly, smiling to the two guards stationed in front of it, a clear sign that Celestia was within. “Celestia, it’s me, Aurora. May I come in?” A click reached my ears, and moments later the door swung inwards. “Ah, Aurora, I’m so glad to see you. Did you enjoy your morning trip?” Celestia looked up from a small table, its surface covered with a few spread out papers. Walking inside, I took a seat on a couch that she’d motioned a hoof towards. “Yeah, I did. It was extremely relaxing, plus Dream got a chance to play around with all of the foals there for a while. And Shining Armor, well, you should’ve seen it.” I grinned a bit, sinking into the sofa. “Let’s just say that I made sure to include a few extra bits to fix the two Shining-sized holes in the fence as a result of feeding him to the foals.” Celestia and I both laughed at that, a mischievous smile on her face. “I’m glad to hear that. He’s been a bit high-strung about having foals with Cadance, so I thought a bit of experience with some children would help him out.” She waved a hoof as she straightened out the few papers on the desk. “But, that’s not why I asked to see you. I figured that I’d be a bit more proactive at helping you with your issues with the nobles, get you educated a bit on them.” I waited for her to continue, a curious look on my face. When it became clear she wasn’t going to, I rolled my eyes at her. “Well, what is it?” “Oh, give it a few more seconds, Aurora, you’ll see…” Celestia spoke, holding out a hoof as if she had a watch on it. That grin was still on her face, and I just sighed and sank back into the sofa, closing my eyes. A noise outside drew my attention, the quiet clop of hooves on the marbled floor growing louder, stopping just outside the room. Moments later, a voice called out to greet Celestia, and anger flooded my system. “Good afternoon, Aunt. You wanted to see me?” Blueblood’s voice questioned, my eyes immediately opening as I jumped to my hooves and stared at him. “And, ah… good afternoon, Princess Aurora.” His voice was a bit hesitant, but actually respectful for once. “Excellent, now that the two of you are here,” Celestia began after clearing her throat to draw our attention, “I can go ahead and address the issue at hoof. Aurora, you’re getting tired of various nobles approaching you for dates and marriage contracts, correct?” I nodded my head at her question, a curious look on my face. “And Nephew, I understand that you’re now looking to find a wife and properly settle down. I figured I’d go ahead and play matchmaker, I’ve got reservations at that fancy Prench restaurant just outside the castle gates for you both for seven o’clock tonight.” “What?!” I cried out, my words mirroring Blueblood’s. Before I could even begin my line of questioning, Celestia burst out into laughter, pointing at both of us. I growled, walking up to her with an angry look on my face. Celestia playfully stuck her tongue out at me, blowing a raspberry right into my face. “Oh, Aurora… I did tell you that I would start a prank war with you given time, did I not? Consider this the first move of many to come. As they say, the ball is now in your court.” I just groaned, sitting back on my haunches. A quick glance over showed that Blueblood was still standing there, slack-jawed and a far-off look in his eyes from Celestia’s words. “In all seriousness, I did call you here for that reason, dealing with the nobles, that is,” Celestia remarked, lightly hitting Blueblood back into the present with her magic. “Please, take a seat, and I’ll explain to the both of you, as Blueblood will be of great aid in this matter.” Blueblood recovered and took a seat on a sofa well away from my own choice of seat. “I will, Aunt? How?” I was extremely curious as to that answer as well. Thus far, the only thing that Blueblood had been was a pain in the ass, so for him to be a help, well, that was rather unexpected. Celestia got one of those smiles on her face, the one that visibly said it was best to not get on her bad side as she launched into her explanation. I visibly gulped, listening. “Well, I’m not sure if you are aware or not, Aurora, but Blueblood, despite his many character flaws, is quite intelligent and stays up to date on the political currents, so to speak. There may only be one or two ponies with more knowledge of them, and they are most likely some of the ponies seeking to bind you to them. So, my lovely nephew is going to help you navigate those murky waters. “Now, with that said, I’m sure he has enough of an idea to take things from here. I’m running a bit behind on a few things that need my oversight, so I’ll leave you two alone to discuss the matter.” Celestia got up from the desk, picking up a few pieces of paper while leaving some on the desk. As she passed me she paused, smiling at me while sporting a large grin. “And oh, I was serious about the reservations. Seven o’clock sharp, they’re aware that royalty will be dining with them and they are so looking forward to your company, Aurora, Nephew.” She laughed, walking out the door. “It might turn into a scandal if you don’t show, so I’d suggest you do, and show up in your finest~” Celestia nearly sang before closing the door behind her. When I finally drew my attention away from the door and towards Blueblood, I noticed how he seemed to be actively trying to hide in the couch, although he was failing miserably at it. “A-Aurora…” he stammered out, trying to string together words. I sighed and sat back, thinking to myself while waiting for him to compose himself. While it was nice that Blueblood might be able to help me out with this problem, it seemed to create a few more of its own. Primarily that he was a lecherous bastard, figuratively speaking, and then to top it off, Celestia had basically set us up on a dinner date that was public knowledge. As far as pranks go, I think that Celestia set the bar pretty high on her first go, which only made me concerned as to what she might scheme up in the future. “Aurora?” Blueblood’s hesitant voice pulled me from my thoughts, and I realized that I had a rather nasty grimace on my face, as if I’d just eaten some spoiled produce. I wiped the look away and replaced it with one that didn’t have him thinking I was about to murder him in a messy fashion as if I didn’t care about being caught. Sighing, I looked towards him. “Yes? Are you happy, now that Celestia has railroaded me into a date with you? I seem to recall quite a few choice phrases you used to describe me, and none of them were very nice.” I spat at him in anger, not very thrilled at the prospect of working with him. He merely fidgeted in his seat for a few moments, a somewhat crestfallen look on his face. “Aurora, I merely wish to apologize for my… past transgressions. I had fallen into a habit of seeing mares as nothing more than objects to manipulate and use, and I am sorry that I included you in that category as well.” My wings stopped moving in agitation as I heard his words, almost not believing them at first. If it hadn’t been for the fact that a large amount of shame and regret appeared to be splattered all across his features, I wouldn’t have believed him. “Why?” I asked, the single word filled with curiosity, animosity and disbelief. Blueblood fidgeted around for a few seconds at first, not even meeting me in the eye. The silence stretched on for what seemed to be an eternity as I awaited an explanation. After a few minutes, he finally spoke, softly and with a bit of sadness in his voice. “My… my mother just passed away, Aurora. She chastised me for my behavior even as she said that she loved me, and dearly hoped that I would grow to be an even better stallion than I am today.” Needless to say, I found myself rather floored. There’d been quiet whispers here and there, but that was the typical castle life. If one were to believe everything heard within these walls, then I would have been pregnant with triplets sired by half the guard. I’m still not sure how that one got started, but needless to say I hadn’t thought much of those quiet whispers. Blueblood’s father must have kept it an extremely quiet and closed affair for word to not have spread. “I’m sorry to hear that, Blueblood.” Getting up, I walked over to him, gently lifting his head up to have his eyes meet mine. “I’m guessing you loved her very much, right?” He simply nodded in reply as he cried, and I could see the fresh grief written all over his face. “Well, I’ll gladly accept your help then, Blue,” I replied, lending my shoulder for him to cry on. Losing a family member, especially a parent, was a harsh thing to go through, so I could set aside my dislike of him for the moment. My mind wandered off, once more thinking back to a conversation I’d held with Celestia last month. Immortality was as much a curse as it was a blessing; I came to find out as she recounted a few of her more promising students that she’d taken over the years. When I’d asked her how she handled the loss, I got the saddest looking smile that I’ve ever seen in my life. She didn’t give me a reply that night, but it was a strong indication that it wasn’t easy. Ever since that conversation, the mention of death would bring to mind that conversation, making me wonder how I would handle it. As it stood now, it was still rather impossible to even fathom, the notion of living forever. It was a concept that belonged in fantasy fiction novels, not in real life. My musings were cut short as Blueblood finally stopped crying though, looking at me with a look of thanks. “Aurora… thank you. It’s been hard these last few days, and well, I really don’t have anypony to go to outside of family. For obvious reasons, no mare wants to be around me, and I’ve realized that the ponies that I thought were friends were nothing more than tools, whether it was me attempting to use them or them using me.” He wiped off his cheeks and coughed a few times, his gaze settling on my flank for a few moments before he quickly shifted it to the clock in the room with an embarrassed cough. I set a hoof on his shoulder as I stood up. “Blueblood, everyone deserves a second chance… well, almost everyone. Consider this me giving you that second chance; please make your mother proud. I’d hate to come to like you a bit only to have you turn right back into that douchebag and make me have to set Dream loose on you.” Moving back to give him some space, I glanced over to the clock as well and made a point to ignore the pale look that crossed his face. The time was already rather late, and I wanted a bit of time to myself before this evening, not to mention the fact that the restaurant in question was the ‘up’ of upscale, so I needed to wear something. It was going to be quite the pain in the ass, needless to say. The muffled sound of hooves on carpet reached my ears as Blueblood got up. “And about this dinner, uh, I’m sorry that Aunt set us up like this. She is completely aware of the fact that I’m trying to change too.” He shuffled his hooves against the carpet as he paced a bit. “I don’t think that there’s enough time to discuss the issue at hoof, so we can do that during dinner and at least make it somewhat useful. I’d also recommend you bring a guard you trust, Aurora. It should help dispel any illusions or misconceptions about us, um, dating, and will also give somepony to help… keep me in check if I slip any.” “I think I have just the guardspony in mind, Blueblood. When and where should we meet up?” I began moving towards the door, madly grinning at the thought of putting Breeze through this. Plus, I wanted to enlist his help to come up with ideas to prank Celestia back, so it killed two birds with one stone. Blueblood was humming a bit, looking lost in thought for a few seconds. “If the reservation is for seven, then I’d have to say a quarter till. It’s not that far from the castle’s gates, so that should have us arriving early, but not too much so.” I turned and nodded, ready to open the door and leave as he spoke back up again. “And oh, I’d appreciate it if what I said here stays between us, please? It’s not something that I want everypony to know about yet, my mother’s last words to me that is... I’ll see you later tonight, Aurora.” Waving a hoof in the air as I opened the door I gave him my response. “Sure thing, Blueblood. Stay strong, and I’ll see ya later,” I finished speaking as I walked out the door, laying out the path back to the guard’s barracks. I wasn’t exactly sure how he’d take it, but Breeze was going to get the chance to eat some fancy food as well… The hour was late, and I was currently fidgeting on my hooves in front of the mirror in my room. An hour ago, one of Celestia’s aides had shown up to ‘help me prepare’ as she put it. I made a note in my head to ensure that whatever prank I came up with was thoroughly humiliating, and the more ponies it could be in front of, the better. My mane and tail were both a tangled mess of curls that the aid referred to as appealing, somehow. Not only that, but a pale blue dress currently called my body home, the soft fabric a bit snug and covering up most of my body with the exception of my wings. I was beyond uncomfortable, and even with Breeze there I was uncertain if the illusion of this being a date could be shattered with how I looked. “You can go ahead and leave now, you’ve done plenty,” I growled at the aid, having voiced my protests numerous times during the time she’d been working. Giggling, she finally departed as I sighed and looked at the clock, noticing that it was twenty till seven now. That meant that I still had enough time to mope for another minute or two before I needed to leave. After the obligatory extra minute or two of moping had passed, I left my room, nearly bumping into Twilight and Luna, both of whom sported massive grins. “Oh wow, Aurora… Looking good!” they spoke in unison, to which I simply stared at them as I imagined boring a hole through their heads. They’d heard about tonight fairly quickly, and I assumed that Celestia had told them both as the cherry on top of everything else. “Don’t tempt me to include you two in the prank I’m working on to get back at Celestia…” I softly spoke while glaring at them. Luna waved her hoof in the air, a humorous look on her face. “Oh, relax, Aurora. We understand that you were set up on this faux date by my sister. She did claim that she would begin pranking you in the future, and this is quite majestic as far as pranks go. Besides, I understand that our bratty nephew will be helping educate you about a certain dilemma, hmm?” she rambled on a bit, finally stopping with a light smile on her face. Twilight apparently felt the need to chime in as well as I rolled my eyes at Luna. “And, if for whatever reason he isn’t helpful for you, Aurora, then,” she shrugged her shoulders, “just let us know, I’m certain Dream would just love the chance to have some fun with Blueblood again.” Twilight sported a massive grin by the end of her words; I had a feeling that she was still holding a grudge over something that’d happened between one of her friends and Blueblood years ago. “He seemed sincere enough; it’s simply that I just don’t like the fact that Celestia felt the need to make it into a public affair. I mean, all I did was ride her around the castle. In the middle of the day… during court… Okay, so maybe this is a little bit justified. Still sucks, though.” I finished with a sigh, lightly shaking my head, which caused the curls to bounce around a bit. Uugh, that was going to bug me all night, no doubt about it. Luna nodded as she chuckled. “Exactly. I figure she wouldn’t have done this to you had Blueblood not been sincere in wanting to turn things around. She’s not that cruel... But, don’t let us hold you up any longer, I’m sure you’re most curious to hear what he has to tell you tonight.” Luna and Twilight waved with small smirks on their face. I rolled my eyes again and made my way to the castle gates, ready to get this long day over with already. It was a short walk there, and the first thing that caught my attention was an ornate carriage waiting for me. Blueblood and Breeze were nearby, uneasily eying each other as I walked up. Both of them were wearing suits, which still caused me to snicker at the sight. Pants on ponies just seem weird, no matter how you look at it. I smirked at Breeze once they realized I was there, knowing that this was way out of his comfort zone as well. “Hey, Breezy, looking sharp,” I poked at him with a small smirk. “Seriously though, thanks a lot for agreeing to this. I’m sure that you’d probably prefer to be guarding a pond or something over this.” The smirk fell from my face as I used my magic to straighten myself out. “This is a bloody nightmare…” He rolled his eyes at me as I stopped walking. “It was an inventory storeroom, actually. Still not sure which one I would’ve preferred, but since you asked me so nicely…” he chuckled, shaking his head. “This is the one and only time though. I hate dressing up, you have no idea.” I lightly laughed, grinning a bit. “Yeah yeah, I’ll just owe you one for once.” Before I could speak again, Blueblood walked up, a light smile on his face. “Evening, Aurora. You look quite stunning, I must say. Whoever decided to curl your mane made an excellent decision.” He seemed sincere enough, and his eyes seemed to stay on my face rather than straying as they typically did. I returned his smile, slightly nodding my head. Sighing, I looked over to the carriage. “Well… let’s get the show on the road then, I guess? Although, is that really necessary? I mean, what’s so wrong with walking the block or two to the restaurant?” Blueblood immediately nodded. “Yes, it is necessary, Aurora. Appearance is an extremely large part of your overall public image. Since the general public is not aware of your true background and believes you to be a foreign-born alicorn who has moved to Equestria, you cannot give off any illusions of weakness that the nobles can attempt to capitalize on. That means that if you are going to a fancy dinner, an official function, traveling on business, et cetera, you need to fit the part. In this case, with how dressed you are, yes you need a carriage,” he calmly explained as he opened the carriage door, moving to the side. “After you, Princess.” I shot them both a look of horror before getting inside that carriage, somewhat surprised at how spacious it was. As I took a seat, Blueblood and Breeze both entered, taking a seat across from me. “Hopefully we can get through this without incident…” I muttered under my breath, squirming uncomfortably thanks to the annoying dress I was wearing. Breeze let out a sigh, looking over at Blueblood for a moment. “So… I was told that you’re going to help Aurora out with the trouble she’s been having with the nobles? They’ve been getting pretty persistent lately, even visiting the orphanage she likes to visit.” Rolling my eyes, I saw Blueblood give a curt nod to Breeze. “Indeed, that I am. If there’s something to know about a noble family, I know it. Even some things that shouldn’t be known. Because of that, I am aware of which ponies she can ignore and those she needs to outplay. Currently, there are only three houses that I consider a true threat to her. While most would love to gain the power of having you, Aurora, they don’t want to tempt making enemies out of the current two most powerful houses. There’s one that’s also so desperate that they simply do not care, as they are most likely on the verge of collapse here within the next year or two without extreme intervention.” The carriage coming to a stop put a hold to the conversation. “We can continue this discussion in full detail though once we’re seated,” Blueblood remarked, getting out and holding the door open with a hoof extended. “Princess,” he respectfully spoke, strongly hinting that I take his hoof to get out. A chuckle from Breeze took my attention for a moment, and I caught a tongue extended at me with a mirthful look. With a not too gentle kick backwards that nopony could see, I accepted Blueblood’s hoof and left the carriage, which appeared to have literally stopped right on the doorstep of this fancy restaurant with a foreign name that I couldn’t pronounce. Breeze exited a few seconds later, a slightly pained look on his face which elicited a smirk from me. As we walked inside, we were greeted by a fine dressed pony in what looked like a tux who also had a weird mustache, making the entire ensemble look a bit ridiculous. “Ah, welcome Prince and Princess… and their guest,” he remarked with an extremely heavy accent, looking over at Breeze with a curious look, “to Le Nourriture Palais! I am the owner, Gilded Plate, and your seats are right this way, if you will follow me.” Cringing a bit at the heavy accent to his words, I followed Blueblood and Breeze, doing my best to ignore the stares that we were receiving from most of the patrons as we were brought to a private, and quiet, room in the back of the restaurant. “Our head chef will be out here shortly to take your orders, should you need anything simply call and I shall come,” he spoke, pointing out a small button next to the door within hoof’s reach from Blueblood’s seat. “That was… uncomfortable,” I remarked as I took a seat, looking at Breeze and Blueblood. “Is it typical that the owner of a restaurant comes and seats you in a private room like this? And that the head chef comes out to take the order? It just seems so ridiculous…” “You’re going to have to get used to that as time passes, sorry to say. I mean, you’re royalty whether you like it or not, Aurora, and it lets them feel better to be able to treat you as such. Does that make sense?” Breeze remarked, shrugging his shoulders slightly. “One of the things they teach us as guards is that even though some of you, alicorns that is, don’t see yourselves as such, the general public sees what you are and respects that, if nothing else. Some ponies are actually uncomfortable treating alicorns as actual ponies… just ask Twilight about it, if you haven’t had that discussion yet. Sure, you can still have your friends and such, but the public sees you as a figure of power and treats you as such.” Blueblood lightly clapped his hooves together. “Extremely well said, Breeze, I believe it is? This is why you should get used to the royal treatment, Aurora. I understand that you don’t leave the palace too much with the exception of your weekly trips to the orphanage, so you haven’t truly interacted with the public on a wide scale yet. Most ponies do feel quite uncomfortable treating you like any other pony, because you are not any other pony.” The conversation was once again cut short, this time by the arrival of a large unicorn mare, a white chef’s hat atop her blonde mane and a peach coat mostly hidden by a chef’s uniform. “Good evening everypony, and thank you for visiting our establishment today. I am Chef Doubt Fire, and I will be in charge of cooking your meals this evening.” She kept talking for another minute or two, but I drowned her out as I snuck glances around the room instead, a bit put off by how fancy it looked. It was as if whoever was in charge of decorating this room tried too hard and simply decided to make it look like twenty-four carat explosive diarrhea had occurred. It seemed that Breeze had noticed my inattention as I heard him order a simple drink and some sort of salad for me. Once the chef finally left, Blueblood cleared his throat. “So, as I was saying earlier, there are only really three families right now that I would be concerned about: The Bladewings, the Shieldwalls, and the Ironbanks. Which of the three would you like to hear about first?” Breeze let out a low whistle. “Those are some pretty heavy names right there… I know that the Shieldwalls own and run the companies that manufacture all of our guard armor, as well as the enchantments on them, and they have quite a bit of pull,” he remarked, messing with his water glass a bit. Sighing, I looked at the two stallions in front of me for a few seconds, thinking. “Blueblood, you mentioned that one of them was desperate… desperation makes individuals do extreme things, so could you fill me in on that family first?” Nodding his head, he set down his glass and launched into his explanation. “The Bladewing family is a very old noble house, one of the few remaining that was around during the true founding of Equestria. They made their existence off of weapons; until two centuries ago they were a very powerful house as the premier weaponsmiths of Equestria. However, during their efforts to expand their operations beyond Equestria, they reached out to one of the gryphon aeries and supplied them with weapons. Those same weapons were used by that aerie to not only completely destroy three rival aeries, but also the complete destruction of four new towns on the border we shared with them. The head of their family stood by their decision of selling those weapons and didn’t show any remorse, which led to extreme public backlash. Each successive generation seems to have inherited that pony’s stupidity, selling to anything that could provide money, and now they’re at a point that they have just enough bits left to sustain themselves for another year or two before they are completely broke.” “So… they basically turned the family business into arms dealing, which bit them in the ass once, I would assume, their reputable and repeat customers stopped coming back for more, leaving just those on the fringes of society as their sole customers?” I reasoned out. It sounded like they deserved to disappear if they were that stupid. It still amazed me at how much Celestia let go on under her nose, her only explanation for it all was that micromanaging an entire country would suck ass, and the nobles, even the stupid ones, helped alleviate a lot of those responsibilities. “Precisely. Aunt refuses to disband any noble house no matter what they might do as far as I know, so the Bladewings were simply left to naturally fall into bankruptcy. Which right now, every house wants to see happen. They’re under the impression, however, that ‘bagging’ you, perhaps by any means necessary, would allow them to make a comeback. I honestly think they’re the most dangerous to you because of that.” Blueblood explained, a bit of a thoughtful look on his face. A quiet rap at the door redirected everypony’s attention as the owner entered a few moments after the knock. He had a bottle of wine in hoof and a cheery, goofy grin on his face. “Good evening once again, here we have a thirty-year-old chateau from my own personal stock,” he spoke as he uncorked it and began to fill up the glasses at the table. There was an uneasy silence as he flitted about, as our conversation definitely wasn’t something any of us wanted shared beyond ourselves. I quietly thanked him as he filled my glass, resisting the urge to punch him out and shave that damn mustache off his face. Unfortunately, he seemed to be done as I was about to follow through on my urges. “And again, please remember. Should you need anything, simply let me know. Enjoy!” he cheerily chipped in with that annoying accent before leaving us in peace once again. “That accent… makes me want to punch a kitten or something every time I hear it,” I grumbled out, staring at the wine in front of me. “So, anyways… Bladewings are desperate and dangerous. Meaning they’re probably going to try stupid things. Fun,” I finished in a deadpan tone, looking at the wine again before taking a sip of it. “You should be safe from anything they can try, although I’d recommend maybe adding a guard or three for when you visit the orphanage. They’ve been associating more and more with ponies of ill repute the closer to the end they get, but within the castle there’s no way they can attempt anything. Be careful with Grey Blade though, he’s the one you’ll have to watch out for. He’s the current head of what’s left of their house.” Blueblood sniffed his drink before taking a small sip of it and sighing. The name Grey jostled something that Matron had told me. “Huh, I think that he had actually stopped by the orphanage already. Matron threatened to call the guards and have them arrest him for taking a wrong interest in the children though, he ran off pretty quickly after that.” I chuckled a bit, smiling at the thought. Breeze and Blueblood chuckled as well, both of them shaking their heads. “It sounds like he might be planning something already then. So, definitely be careful, Aurora,” Blueblood warned, going quiet as the main course came out. Seems I’d spaced out more than I’d thought, but luckily Breeze had ordered me something that, while looking downright ridiculous, still tasted good. Once the chef left the room, Blueblood spoke back up. “The other two houses will simply be persistent. There’s a fair chance that they’ll hound you for years if need be, if you keep yourself open to it. Things like gifts, invitations to events and visits to the castle to specifically see you are probably going to be common. Both families will probably be looking to send their eldest son after your hoof in marriage, or even just to get you pregnant. A child, even out of wedlock, is a powerful bargaining tool to all three houses.” “As if I’d let that happen!” I couldn’t help it, I broke down laughing. “Breeze here would have a better chance than they would, and he already knows that’ll never happen!” After I managed to get myself back under control, I looked over to Blueblood. “So, what you’re basically telling me is that they’ll be nuisances, but in the end there’s really nothing too much to worry about. I’m thinking it’ll be easier to just make an example of one of them… too bad Celestia won’t let me. I didn’t even mention killing, just breaking a leg or two…” I joked, a bit relieved. My mind had built this up into a seemingly massive issue when it was something small. I had made a mountain out of a molehill, as they’d say. I turned my attention towards my food, in a good mood now. I could even overlook the fact that this dinner might be misconstrued as a date by the ponies that saw us enter. Hell, I could almost completely overlook Celestia’s prank at the moment as I focused simply on enjoying my meal. “That does sound about right, Aurora… although do you think you could have realized that without proverbially trampling all over my balls?” Breeze whined, causing me to just look up and grin at him. He huffed and rolled his eyes even as a smiled crept over his face, and once more I was thankful at how much of a good friend he was. The meal continued on in relative silence, a bit of small talk here and there now that the main focus had been thrown out there. Blueblood made mention of discussing it again at a later date, but for now we were done, thankfully. The food was gone in a pitifully short amount of time; like every fancy restaurant that thought themselves to be special, in the end one paid way too much for way too little. With a relaxed sigh I got up at the end of the meal, looking over to Breeze and Blueblood. They’d seemed to get along rather well, and once more I was glad that I nagged him until he agreed to come along. Since he was easily the guard I spent the most time with, having him know all of the information Blueblood had divulged would only help me in the future, and it seemed that the two of them had hit it off rather well. Who knows, perhaps I even managed to facilitate giving Blueblood a friendship that wasn’t aimed at his status for once. “Well, shall we depart then?” Breeze asked, moving over to the door and getting ready to open it. I nodded and looked to Blueblood, who mimicked the same gesture. Breeze held the door open for me, and the quiet chatter in the main dining room of the restaurant died once again as the three of us left. It was a short trip back to the castle, and I couldn’t stop yawning the entire way back. It’d been a bit of a busy day for me, moreso than usual anyways, and I was ready for some sleep. As I left the carriage, I yawned again and looked at the two stallions. “For a prank, that dinner wasn’t entirely all that bad,” I tiredly spoke, smiling just a little bit. “Hope you two have a good night, I’m just gonna fly from here. Quicker.” Without even waiting to hear their response I spread my wings and took to the sky, quickly coming to my balcony and getting into my room. Once again, the nagging thought of how smart it was to have open access to the rooms like this popped into my head for a moment as I quickly shrugged my way out of the dress before dropping onto the bed, sinking into the comfortable mattress. My eyes closed as I welcomed the embrace of sleep, my mind empty for once as my consciousness quickly fled. I found myself woken up once again by Dream crashing into me. “Uugh, Dream… it’s too early for this,” I groaned out, opening my eyes to find hers staring into mine. “Explain this, Sis! I thought you hated that annoying Bluey!” Dream angrily exclaimed, holding something up in my face. It took me a few seconds to find my bearing as I swatted at whatever it was that Dream had. I groaned, blinking a few times to try and clear my vision from having just woken up as I found the object right back in my face. “Okay, okay, give me a few moments, Dream, please?” I sat up and yawned before turning my attention to the thing she’d put right up in my face, which turned out to be the early morning edition of the Canterlot Times. Turning it around and unfolding it, my heart stopped when I saw the front page and the big, massive bolded letters of the main article. ‘Foreign Princess and Player Prince Forming a Herd with an Unknown Stallion?’ “CELESTIA!” Author's Note I'm a terrible, terrible person for taking so long. Thanks to ReFro for editing. Was a bit rusty, but hopefully good even so. Chapter 4Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
PrologueNovember 22 To think, it’s already been almost six months since I found myself dropped into this world from some weird, freak event. Calling life eventful would be a gross understatement, as going from man to mare by itself was nuts, let alone becoming a ‘blank-flank’ (as the self-proclaimed Cutie Mark Crusaders dubbed it) alicorn who could be surpassed by any foal ability-wise. Still, Twilight and her friends have helped me progress a fair amount, even if I’m certain that I’ve shaved years off their lives from stress. I’m still extremely slow at learning magic; anything beyond basic levitation is a chore. Rarity’s claims are outlandish, like most of her words, but Twilight’s explanation makes sense. My mind just doesn’t quite think in the most conductive manner for spellcasting, so I can expect everything to be a pain. Flight has been a different story at least, thank goodness for the small things I suppose. I can hold a sedate pace for a few hours in any given day, although Dash still flies circles around me. She’s only nabbed me once and given me an intimate experience with corkscrews; Twilight had a nice chat with her after that. I still don’t know what was said, but Dash seems to turn green when I ask her if she plans to do it to me again. Life has been somewhat of a pain though. Anytime I go out into Canterlot, a bunch of ponies do the whole bow and scrape routine simply because I’m an alicorn. They don’t care that I have no part in their government, that I have no power period, and that their children are more of a threat than I am. They simply see an alicorn and react. Annoying as hell, and honestly it’s already beyond old. The nobles too, what a pain in the ass they are. Again, all because I’m an alicorn. I’d gladly give up the horn and magic just to be normal, but sadly that’s not an option. They’re all tripping over themselves to try and ‘nab me’ as their own for their silly power games. Even Blueblood has been hounding me, and he’s the most annoying of them all, if only because he has access to most of the castle. He tried sneaking into my room once, and only once. Dream repaid him by taking another run at his showering products. Celestia even got in on it and claimed that the poison joke antidote was out of stock, and it would be a few days before they got any in. I have to say, Blueblood as a mare is pretty hot in his own way. Incidentally enough, today is also • I let the quill drop from my magic to the table’s surface, a long sigh escaping from my lips. I blew one last puff of air on the bit of wet ink before closing the journal and stowing it back in the small cubby underneath the bed. It had kept it safe from Dream’s prying hooves so far; she had an aversion to going underneath the bed, so it served its purpose well. I really didn’t feel like writing the next part down, instead I felt that it called for a nice late night flight to try and sort through the thoughts running rampant in my mind. On my way to the balcony, I paused in front of the mirror, taking a moment to glance over myself. Sky blue eyes framed by a shade of lavender peered back, the large eyes showing an underlying weariness beneath the deceiving inquisitive look they always seemed to hold. A spiral horn, much like Twilight’s, jutted from my forehead, parting through the pink mane with its lone blue stripe running down its middle. At my side, large wings were folded, the edges of the feathers tinged in pink. This was me, and had been for the last six months. With one last glance at my reflection, I turned towards the balcony again. It was a small one, overlooking a few private gardens nestled in the back corners of the castle furthest away from the city. I was thankful for that, as it allowed me to come and go from this point without any prying eyes, without the reminder of who and what I was. I mean, I was secure with the new me, Aurora the alicorn rather than Elam the human, but beyond that my mind was a giant, jumbled mess most times, even if I did a decent job at fooling most everypony about it. Spreading my wings wide, I launched myself into the expansive night sky. I was hoping that if a late flight didn’t bring clarity, it would at least let me push off my problems until another day. I smiled as I felt the wind running through my feathers, and couldn’t help but chuckle at just how angst-ridden I sounded. Introspection is definitely not a strong suite of mine. I ignored the silhouettes of the patrolling guards, dark forms against an equally dark night, and made my way to a cloud high above the castle. The first snow was scheduled in just two days, and as such there were plenty of the fluffy cushions to pick from during this staging period. Nearly stumbling as I touched my hooves down onto one, I rolled onto my back and looked at the star-filled expanse above me. Something about the stars calmed me, bringing order into the chaos of my mind. Even as my vision jumped between the many bright specks of various colors, my thoughts began to fall in line. I sighed and let my wings splay outwards as I sank into the cushion of the cloud. Lazily, I reached up with a hoof and reached towards the stars, as if I hoped to grasp one within my hold. Since there was nothing to actually close around them now, I simply pretended to hold them on the edge of my hoof, chuckling as I did so. The steady beat of wings in the relatively quiet night drew attention towards the sky below me, and I rolled to my side in time to catch the visitor. “Good evening, Aurora. Mind if I join you?” Celestia politely asked, landing on the edge of the rather large cloud. I nodded and she walked closer, folding those massive wings of hers to her side. “So, what brings you up to my cloud tonight, Celestia? I doubt you just ‘happened by’ at this time of night,” I curiously asked, knowing full well that around this time is when she would usually be wrapping up the last bit of her day while eyeing her bed. I knew that she had purposely come here, but for what reason was unclear. Celestia took a seat next to me as I finished rolling over, with my stomach now to the cloud. I looked at her with a raised brow and received a smile in return, one that was warming and reassuring. “How are you doing tonight, Aurora?” she quietly asked me, and I just sighed in reply after a few seconds. She patiently waited for me to speak as I pondered. She was a deceiving perceptive pony, which only made sense given her position and age. Even though I spent very little time with her compared to everypony else, she was the first to catch on to my ever-growing dilemma. “Not too great, I suppose,” I finally muttered, moving my gaze from her to the town below, studying it. Lamps illuminated the mostly empty streets, and the only real activity was centered around the aptly named Night District. A warmth covered my back, and I tore my sight back to her, noticing the lone wing draped over me. I smiled a little bit at the friendly gesture before elaborating for her. “I mean, everything here is nice, some might even say it’s a utopia compared to Earth, really. But I miss a lot of things, and I’m starting to realize just how much more is ahead of me here still.” The muscles in her wings tightened slightly in reassurance as she met my eyes. “Such is life though, is it not, Aurora?” She wryly smiled, and I noted a glint of humor hidden in her eyes. “I can say from experience that there are many things in one’s past that we come to miss, regardless of whether it was a day ago, six months, or even a thousand years. Rather than lament over it though, I’ve found it’s much better to simply enjoy the memories. Saves a lot of stress.” I couldn’t help myself and began laughing. The notion of enjoying the memory of annoying commercials when thinking of a television was just a bit too much for me to handle. I knew that she was right, the only real thing I truly missed was visiting my parents’ graves, everything else back home was more a convenience than anything else. “As for the latter, it’s also a fact of life. I’ll admit that things are decidedly more complicated because of,” she waved a hoof at me, and I chuckled, “but even then, it’s only slightly more complicated than moving is, right?” “I don’t think people considered crossing dimensions and changing bodies as part of the moving process when deciding how complicated it’d be.” I rolled my eyes, eliciting a small chortle from Celestia. She removed her wing and stood up, a smile on her face. “Very true. Still, it’s food for thought, hopefully you find some use of it.” Celestia faced the night sky, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath before turning back to me. “Would you like to go for a quick flight? I wouldn’t mind the company before I turn in for the day.” Springing to my hooves in nearly record time, I filed away her words to think on them later. Sure, life was challenging here, but she made a good point. Plus, when faced with flying, there was always tomorrow to worry about everything else. I watched her drop from the cloud, spreading her wings into an easy glide, waiting for me to join her. With a small rush of adrenaline, I jumped off the cloud, allowing myself to momentarily freefall before snapping my wings open and arresting my fall. We calmly flew through the sky, keeping over the castle as we did so. It was enjoyable, the cool winter air gave just the smallest chill as we soared along. I stayed just to the side of Celestia, her large white form extremely visible in the pale light cast by Luna’s moon. Celestia closed the distance between us, a grin on her face as she somehow bopped me on the nose. While flying upside down I should add, it was pretty impressive, broken only by the words she spoke next. “You’re it, Aurora. Catch me, if you can,” she laughed and darted off, going at a speed that at least allowed me a chance to catch up with her. I followed her form with my eyes as I dashed off as quickly as I could, barely overtaking her. All thoughts blanked from my mind as the distance between us began to close, following her and mirroring almost every move she made. Although I lacked her finesse, taking turns much wider than she did and just generally looking like a drunken fool at the speed I was flying at, she kept the same speed. As the minutes passed, I finally came within reaching distance, stretching out a forehoof to tag her on the rear. Instead, I bowled her over in midair, briefly becoming entangled with her as she just laughed. I found myself floating within her magic as she smugly smiled at me, a twinkle in her eyes. A groan passed from my lips as she smirked before cutting off her magic, and I fell for a few moments before I caught myself, white filling my vision as I leveled out. I glared at her for a moment before joining her in laughter, thankful for the nice distraction she provided. We flew down towards her balcony as fatigue finally began to set in, the day’s toll finally coming to hit me. In order to catch up to Celestia I had to really kick it up to a speed that I couldn’t hold for too long, so I was more than ready for sleep now. She landed first, and then I touched down, nearly stumbling as I did so. “Aurora, just think on what I said, and sleep well tonight,” Celestia quietly spoke before walking into her room. As the doors to her balcony closed, I took to the air and swung around to my own room, completely missing the balcony and landing inside my room. With a careful amount of concentration I closed and latched the double doors that led outside with my magic. Sighing, I took the ties out of my mane and tail before climbing into bed, sprawling myself out on top of the covers. Limbs and hair everywhere, I sank into the soft cloud mattress, my consciousness slowly drifting into the sweet embrace of sleep. A final thought made its way into my mind before being replaced by gentle snores. Somehow, someway, I’ll find where I belong here… Author's Note AAAANGST! I can't write it very well, apparently. For those of you who are joining me from the first story, welcome and I hope you enjoy what I have in mind here. For new readers, welcome, and I hope that I can capture your interest and write a story you'll enjoy. Fortunately, this is about the heaviest I'm going on the angst. Tried mixing it up with some other stuff, hopefully I achieved what I was aiming to do. I'm going to be exploring the whole 'blank flank new alicorn in Equestria, and where she fits in at' concept here, too many people Gary/Mary Stu them, and I'd like to break some of that stigma. So, I hope you enjoy and stick around, and I'll see you next update!
Chapter 1Author's Note Decided to split it, going for 5-7 thousand words per chapter in this story, a potential 12k + chapter was just too much for me. Hope y'all enjoy this, next chapter should be out in a few days. Again, sorry about the hiatus/burn-out almost immediately after posting this story up. Chapter 1 I found myself floating, complete and utter darkness encompassing everything. A pinprick of light formed below me, flecks of green visible in the far distance. As time passed, the speck grew outwards, slowly showing more of what lay beneath. I found streets beginning to take form, then buildings, and as I watched a jungle of concrete and steel sprang into existence underneath me far below my hooves. As more of it came together, I realized that not only was it a city from my past, but it was the city. The place that I had called home for so long before finding myself unceremoniously dumped into Equestria. My gaze wandered, following the familiar ribbons of asphalt through the city. Some locations stood out like beacons to my mind; the schools that I went to growing up, the ballpark where I first broke my arm, my house, and other various locations that held memories of the life I had given up. A wistful smile found its way to my face as I continued scanning the city below me. Sounds pulled my attention from below to above, where instead of the blue skies and familiar sun, another location began to unfold. Starting at the base of a large mountain that dominated the landscape around it, a winding path unfolded beneath my gaze, terminating at a set of ornate doors leading into a city of another sort. The buildings within the town seemed to gleam, the buildings lending an excellent foreground to the gleaming towers adorning the castle behind it. As my neck craned upwards to take in the sights, I could only think just how magnificent it was. If one were to take a snapshot of the view and put it directly to canvas, it truly would be one of the greatest pieces of art ever made, sure to make any other works pale in comparison. I let my gaze stray over the winding paths of cobblestone marking the streets of the grand city, my eyes lighting up when Donut Joe’s Bakery entered into sight. The familiar looking building had become a place of refuge at times; after all the new me loved to bury my concerns in sweets, and he had the best in town. As I continued to admire the wondrous city, a quiet sound from below reached my ears, extremely faint at first. Stringed instruments playing an unknown concert number drifted on the wind from the city below. I tried to ignore it, not caring much about what was behind me for what was in front of me, but it began to physically tug on me. A mixture of woodwinds entered into the piece, this time coming from above. They played a different tune, the two melodies offsetting each other and creating a rather discordant sound as they clashed. I felt both sides tugging at my very core, as if two ponies had each of my forehooves and were lightly tugging in opposite directions. I attempted to ignore one of them and move towards the city in the sky, intent on leaving the last vestiges of my old life behind. It refused to let go, however, the strings become more intense, the music becoming violent in nature as the tugging turned into a pulling sensation. The woodwinds from above retaliated, and the pulling and tugging quickly caused my discomfort to surge; an almost painful feeling now. The battle raged between them, the pain gradually increasing as I felt myself being pulled apart. Just when I thought it could not get any worse, trumpets entered the fray, lending their sounds to the violent cacophony of noise. They immediately began to crescendo, and I felt as if I were ready to fall apart from the pain. “Oh, this isn’t any good!” A voice broke the cacophony, the instruments ceasing their discordant playing and falling silent, the pain fleeing at last. A swirling portal of colors entered my sight as my vision cleared, Dream bouncing out of it. “There, nightmare’s s’all gone now!” she giggled a bit, bopping me on my nose. “You have some weird nightmares, Sis!” I was left speechless as she bounced back out through the portal, the swirling of colors disappearing as everything faded, my mind drifting back into a dreamless sleep. “Cannonball!” a voice exclaimed, waking me up from my sleep. The speaker sounded familiar, as did the word they said, but my tired mind simply could not process what it was, or how I was supposed to respond to it. Blearily my eyes opened in time to see a dark blur racing through the air towards me, causing me to jump in place. However, I was thoroughly wrapped up in my covers and only succeeded in flailing around for a moment before Dream slammed into my chest, both of her hooves wrapped around my barrel. “Good morning, Sis! It’s time to wake up, come on!” Dream pranced about on top of my chest, each impact actually rather light, what with the blanket cushioning the hits. After a few circles of this, she hopped off of me and decided to bop my nose with her hoof. As she pulled back, I chuckled and nuzzled her. Pulling back, I focused on removing myself from the covers. Dream’s wakeup call had me wide awake now, so it was relatively easy to extricate myself from the covers. I stretched, opening my mouth and letting out a very loud yawn, causing Dream to giggle. I closed my mouth and smacked my lips a few times for good measure, then turned to look at her. “So…” I began, looking at Dream with an almost predatory expression, “was jumping on me really necessary to wake me up?” “Umm… not really?” she squeaked out, an impish grin on her face belaying her attempt to appear as innocent as possible. I went in for the kill, my hooves seeking out her most ticklish spots as she tried to escape me. She attempted to escape the bed, but I managed to predict exactly where she would go and a hoof and a wingtip found her stomach. Dream collapsed in laughter moments later as I triumphantly stood over her, laughing along with her. I relented my attack after a minute or so, collapsing next to Dream as she recovered. “And that,” I smugly stated, a grin betraying my voice, “is for using me as a landing pad!” I hopped off the bed to let her recover from my attack, deciding to quickly clear up the bed-mane I was certain I had. A quick golden tie for my mane and tail thoroughly solved most of the issue of having hair everywhere, and I turned back to the bed, where Dream was standing on top, her tongue sticking out at me. I just laughed at the sight and blew a raspberry at her, stopping next to the bed. “Well, shall we go find some pancakes to slay, Dream?” Her eyes lit up like lights, the bright teal color a stark contrast to her midnight black coat. I turned around and began to walk out of the room, but stopped at the distinct lack of sounds coming from her. “Please?” Dream pleaded, a longing look on her face as she attempted to give me diabetes with her eyes. I sighed and walked next to the bed, allowing her to clamber onto my back. I gave her a moment to get situated before turning back around and leaving the room. “Hi ho, ‘Rory!” she exclaimed, and looking back I noticed she had a single hoof pointed down the hall that led to the dining room. Laughing, I set off towards food at a sedate pace, thinking on a few things. The nightmare I had was a somewhat reoccurring one, although it had been getting less frequent as time passed on. I kept telling myself that I enjoyed everything about this world, even with the crazy first month I had. After all, I had a nice group of ponies to call my friends, and some I could even call family. Even with all of the holes that still needed to be filled in, what was there to dislike? Sure, there would always be things I missed from before, but honestly they paled in comparison to having a family again. At this thought I turned my head and gave Dream a brief nuzzle, which she leaned into. She truly was an amazing filly, and I was more than happy to think of her as family. I had always been a single child, so having a sibling was a new experience, especially now that she truly was a filly in and out. At one point she had quite a few memories left over from Nightmare Moon and Luna, but those had finally completely disappeared. Now she was just an extremely ordinary filly, well except the whole alicorn bit. I flared up my magic, opening the doors into the dining room, nodding absently at the guard posted at the door. “Good morning, all.” I quietly greeted as Dream glided off my back, her hooves clattering loudly on the tiled floor. I took a seat next to Celestia as I watched Dream shuffle into her seat between Twilight and Luna. “Good morning, Dream,” Luna lovingly spoke, her voice completely filled with warmth, “I hope you did not wake Aurora up by jumping on her, right?” I did my best to contain my laughter as Dream attempted to stammer out a reply, causing Luna’s lips to tighten around the corners a bit. She and Twilight had been attempting to reign in some of Dream’s behavior, and jumping up and down on sleeping ponies was currently at the top of their list. From what I understand, Dream had woken them up that way after the two of them had fudged an experiment that left them both quite bruised. I could hear their voices clear through the walls that morning; it was quite comical, although I think they both managed to scare Dream quite a bit. “Good morning to you as well, Aurora,” Celestia quietly spoke into my ear, drawing me from my thoughts as I focused on her, “I hope that your mood is much better this morning? You seemed quite down last night; I hope that I was able to help you.” “Eh…” I started, taking a moment to concentrate on getting some pancakes on my plate, “I had another nightmare, same thing again. Overall though, I’m feeling pretty good this morning.” I rubbed at the spot where Dream had landed on me, grinning slightly. “Well, mostly good I should say. I had a ball of energy give me a rather quick wake-up call.” Celestia and I both laughed rather heavily, drawing the attention of Twilight and Luna, who had apparently just finished scolding Dream. They had basically become her parent figures, as she was technically born from a part of Luna. Twilight had explained its full dynamics to me one day when I made the mistake of asking her about it; needless to say it simply was what it was. I do not think that my brain could survive that lecture again. “Good morning, Aurora,” Twilight and Luna both said at the same time as I finally took a bite of my pancakes. I just chuckled and waved at first, doing the polite thing and not speaking while I had half of a waffle coated in syrupy goodness crammed in my muzzle. “I hope that Dream didn’t wake you up too violently, Aurora.” Twilight spoke alone this time, a small glare directed at the filly in question. I swallowed, grinning at Twilight. “Relax a little bit, let your mane down, Twilight,” I playfully chided, “I mean, I am her sister, right? So, if she wants to wake me up like that, it’s fair game.” Dream’s eyes seemed to light up again, and I internally laughed. “However, she just needs to remember that it means I can do similar things to her.” I menacingly raised my hooves, making tickling sounds, causing everypony at the table to break out into laughter. “Very well, Aurora. But if she breaks anything again, don’t say I didn’t warn you, okay?” Twilight briefly stuck her tongue out at me before focusing on her pancakes. Luna went to take a bite, but then paused and looked at me with a confused look in her eyes. “Pray tell, what exactly did Twilight mean when she said again?” I exchanged looks with Twilight, Celestia and Dream before breaking out into laughter again. Luna simply looked on in confusion the entire time, at least until I could get myself back under control. “Well, remember when you went on that diplomatic mission to Gryphonia for a month?” Luna nodded in reply, and I continued with a smile on my face. “Well,” I began, drawing it out as Luna leaned forward a bit in her seat, “while you were gone, one of my magic lessons involved levitating rubber spheres without crushing them. I kind of slipped and sent it flying across the room. We ended that day a little bit early, and I had a very nice bruise on my chest. I found out the next morning it was actually a cracked rib when Dream landed on me and turned it into a broken one.” Luna looked at me oddly, then again that might have been because I had a rather goofy grin on my face at the moment. “What? Don’t judge, Luna… Equestrian pain-killers are some amazing things!” I broke out into laughter again, remembering how time seemed to be much, much slower for those three days I was laid up while healing. Luna hummed to herself, a thoughtful expression on her face. “I see,” she slowly replied, turning to look towards Dream and Twilight. “And why was I not informed about this upon my return?” Luna queried, her brow raised as she stared at them. I just chuckled, waving my hoof at her. “No big deal, Luna. Stuff happens. You need to learn to relax a little bit.” I stuck my tongue out at her before, in what could very well be a moment of extreme stupidity, focused hard and gently tapped her in the face with one of her own, still untouched pancakes. She turned around to look at it, her mouth partially open, and before she could utter a word I stuck it in her muzzle. The entire table went deathly silent, everypony frozen as Luna sat there, a pancake partially in her mouth, the glow from my magic gone. Finally, she simply chewed on it, and after a few moments swallowed. “I must say, this needs syrup,” she simply stated, a light smile on her face as I let myself relax. She shot me a devilish grin when nopony else was looking though, and I figured that I might want to watch my back in the near future. “Aurora, I’ve been meaning to tell you this, but when you’ve got some free time I need to go over some of the results of the experiments we ran last month, okay?” Twilight asked as she refilled her coffee mug, the now full cup lingering under her nose. I took a look to Dream, and thought for a moment about what I had to do for the day. I had long since moved past simply waking up, magic lessons, flying lessons, history lessons, and then going to sleep. Now some days I had hours of free time, some of which I spent going down into Canterlot and spending with Dream. “I think I’ll be free after dinner, Twilight,” I slowly stated, sorting out the plans I had for the day in my mind, “I’m taking Dream down to play with the other foals at the Second Chance Orphanage after breakfast, and probably won’t be back until lunch, and I want to practice either flying or magic after that.” The orphanage was a place that I had stumbled upon merely by chance. I had taken to walking through the streets of Canterlot in the evenings, as the majority of traffic dominated the daylight hours. While on one such walk, I heard crying coming from one of the many parks in the city and stumbled upon a small pegasus filly. It took a little bit of time, but I managed to get her to tell me her name. Once Comet Burst opened up to me, I offered to take her home after her tears had stopped. I was quite surprised to learn that she lived in an orphanage, and after dropping Comet off I spent some time talking to the matron, who was coincidentally called Matron. The chance meeting at night turned into weekly visits to visit Comet and the rest of the foals. Dream had asked to come along one day, and now she had a whole group of friends her age that we visited a few times every week. A voice pulled me from my thoughts, loud and full of excitement. “Oh, we’re going to see Comet today?!” Dream asked, beginning to bounce up and down in her seat. I laughed, nodding my head. “Yes, but first… you need to finish your breakfast. That includes your vegetables, by the way.” I stuck my tongue out at Dream, who looked at the small pile of carrots and greens that Luna had snuck onto her plate. I still found it pretty funny that she disliked most vegetables, with a few exceptions. She was quite a picky eater it seems. The rest of the breakfast passed in small talk, every one of us content to finish our breakfast so that we could all move on with our day. I got up and pushed my seat back in a bit, finishing off the last of my orange juice before setting the now empty glass on the table’s surface. “Well, I hope you all have a good day. Who should I bug to escort the two of us there?” I asked Celestia as Dream came up to my side. “Hmm,” Celestia brought a hoof up to her chin as she thought for a moment. After a few seconds, a sly grin formed on her muzzle. “Aurora, if you go down to the Guard’s Barracks, I believe you’ll find Shining Armor there. If he puts up any resistance, you can just drop my name. I think he could use the time around foals.” I chuckled at her choice, nodding my assent. “Thanks, Celestia. Try your best to smite some nobles, please? It might make things a bit easier for me.” I goofily grinned, somewhat hoping that she would indeed blast one or two of those pathetic excuses for ponies out of existence. Most of them were quite the whining, sniveling snob types who thought the world existed for them. Plus, the fact that increasingly more of them were trying to tie me up in a ribbon for their respective family’s status. That might have colored my opinion just a little bit. I looked towards Dream, who had a big, goofy grin on her face. I lightly chuckled at the sight, causing her to realize that I had been staring. “Sis, I need to get some stuff from my room, can I just go there while you get the guards?” I mussed her many lightly with a forehoof, laughing as she tried to dodge it. I finally relented after a few moments, a small smile on my face. “Sure thing, Dream. You want me to pick you up from the garden?” She nodded her agreement, and with a nod of my own she took off. I watched her scampering form quickly retreat, a smile still present the entire time. Once she left my sight, I turned around and left through the door on the opposite side of the room. I navigated my way through the corridors, pausing to say hi to a guard here and there. While I still did not know many of them, I had become friends with a couple of the ones living at the castle. It all began one night over a barrel of Applejack’s best special cider, and by special I mean one hell of an alcohol by volume content. One poker game later and I had a small group of friends in the castle guard, even if one of them left with a black eye that night after sneaking a feel of my rear end. That had been about a month back, and now I could tell a few guards apart from the others, even with the armor that made them all look uniform. Turning another corner, I entered the wing of the castle that was used almost exclusively by the Royal Guard. Eating, sleeping, training, relaxing… you think of it, they could do it here. A lot of the younger members actually lived in this part of the castle, something to do with it being easier for the single stallions and mares without any attachments. I never really asked for the full details, but it was a pretty interesting set-up. Luckily, the offices were at the front of everything, and as I approached the door a sky-blue unicorn stallion grinned and opened the door. “Hey there, Breeze, I’m looking for Shining Armor, he around?” I asked, returning his grin as I bumped his offered hoof. His full name was actual Gentle Breeze, but for the obvious reasons everypony referred to him as Breeze. He was easily my closest friend in the guard, which was quite humorous as he had been the pony I gave the shiner to the first time I hung with them. “Yup, he’s slinking around somewhere in the offices,” Breeze replied with a chuckle, slightly tossing his head towards the interior. “I think he still has it in his mind that if he doesn’t come down to check on us, we’ll just fall apart or something.” Breeze and I began laughing. I had heard many tales of how the former Captain of the Guard essentially ‘babied’ his former charges. It was quite endearing to some, although they wasted no time in joining everypony when the mothering jokes began flying around. “Well, I’m here to take him off your hooves, at least for a little bit. I’d say that maybe you could get some work done, but looks like you’ve got some downtime, eh?” “Actually, I was just on break, but the moment I heard that you would be going into Canterlot I made sure to scamper back here as quickly as I could. Hopefully I can tag along again, sure beats doing paperwork!” I just snorted in amusement as I began to follow him inside in search of Shining Armor. Following a trail of pointed hooves, we found Shining Armor within a minute or two. It really was not that hard, truthfully, as he was a rather commanding presence in any room, and when surrounded by guards it really showed. Breeze knocked on the doorway of the office Shining was in, causing him to look up. “Aurora, Breeze, how are you two doing?” he greeted us with a smile, moving a bunch of loose papers into a neat stack on the desk. “Well, I’m looking to head into town, and Celestia told me I should get you to come along. You know, we’ll need a sacrifice for the kids and all, and I guess she thought you’d fit the bill.” I just laughed at the look on his face, causing him to sigh. “I’m not getting out of this, am I?” he stated, barely forming it into a question. I just smiled, doing my best to keep from breaking out into laughter as I took in the expression of relief on the pony’s face that had been talking to Shining before we interrupted them. “Nope! Apparently she thought it’d be a good idea, so might as well come along quietly!” I jerked my head towards Breeze as I rested a leg over Shining’s neck in a totally platonic manner. “And this guy here wants to tag along too, give us some extra muscle too.” Shining just sighed and worked my hoof off his neck. “Very well, I’ll be ready in ten. Just need to find one more guard to come along, just in case. Twilight told me those nobles are only getting worse, maybe having two guards and me around will deter them for a bit, hey?” I sadly chuckled, shaking my head. “I doubt that an entire army would stop some of them. I still don’t get what part of ‘I have no interest in relationships or anything remotely resembling them’ they don’t understand…” I trailed off, a fun thought coming to mind. “Maybe we need to make an example of one? I figure a horn to an eye would be a good statement, yes?” I managed to elicit a few laughs from everypony gathered, although Shining also ended up shaking his head. “They’d probably still come back even then. Maybe I could talk to Aunt Luna about sending them to her moon… nah, they’d dirty such a wondrous thing, I doubt she’d go for it.” “I’ll meet you in the garden just inside the residential area, okay?” I asked, getting ready to turn around. Once Shining nodded, I left to let him and Breeze get ready for the foray into town. As I began walking, I thought on the garden that we would all be gathering at. Probably the best thing about this garden was that it was located in a spot that only a few ponies had any access to, outside of the guard. Being so close to our rooms, nopony had any business being there. It was open to the elements, with flowers of all varieties planted. Basically, any time I wanted to have some of the outdoors without the hassle that went along with going into Canterlot, I could just come here and relax for a few hours. It was also a nice place for games of tag, as Dream and I did quite frequently. All said, it was a place where I could just let go for a bit, a rather nice luxury at times. Dream was already waiting for me, a small package next to her side. She and Comet had gotten extremely close, and the two had taken to exchanging small gifts every other week or so. I was kind of curious as to what Dream had put together this time; she had made a point to ensure nopony knew what it was and to make it on her own without any help. I walked up to her side, playfully bumping her with a forehoof. “Ready to go I take it?” Dream nodded in excitement, a massive smile plastered on her face. “We should be good to go in a few minutes. Shining Armor and Breeze are getting ready.” No sooner than I had said that did they enter, Breeze with a smirk on his face. “Or we’re ready to go now, it looks like.” Dream gracefully hopped up onto my back as they approached us. Carefully, I picked up the package and held it out to Breeze. “Here you go, make yourself useful!” He rolled his eyes, but accepted the box and carefully stowed it away in the small bag strapped to his back. Turning to Shining, I just smirked at him. “Are you ready to go and visit some foals, Prince? Think of this as… practice for the real thing.” “You’re trouble, you know that?” he quipped, one hoof over his face as he shook his head. I just laughed, knowing full well that Celestia had asked me to bring him along because Cadance apparently had been nagging him about children for some time. I just think that she was also playing a mostly harmless prank on him as well, either way it did not really matter too much to me. It just meant that maybe he could wear them down for me first. We left the castle through the main gates, the sounds of a city in full swing reaching our ears. It was mid-morning now, meaning that everything was in action, and the streets were relatively full with ponies running about on their errands and business. As we walked along, a lot of them stopped and stared at us, but at least they were not all focused on me. Shining Armor made a really good patsy that way; he was basically a national hero and a lot more interesting than me, the random blank-flank alicorn, fortunately. For me, anyways, although it was pretty obvious that he had long since gotten used to the stares that still made me feel extremely self-conscious. We passed through the commercial hub that was centered around the castle’s gates and turned into a quieter, residential area of the city. Here there were less ponies walking about, and the sounds from the market were a distant din that rapidly diminished the further in we walked. The layout of the city was quite ingenious, as they had a few markets, each one surrounded mostly by residential areas. It allowed ponies to never be too far from the shopping they needed to do, and ensured that the ponies selling their goods all had a pretty level playing field. The rest of our route took us through winding swaths of residential roads, both sides lined with houses of various constructs. It still amused and amazed me to see a house made of clouds sitting between another made of wood and another of stone. Even with the varied materials and craftsmanship, it still felt like everything belonged, a place that one would love to live in. It was definitely a stark contrast to the noble-infested section of the city, as I had dubbed the upper crust’s homes. The last turn came into sight, and we found ourselves on a dead-end cobbled road. Dream slipped off my back as we came to the last stretch of street, darting ahead of us for the main door of the large stone building at the end of the road. I chuckled at the sight, my gaze moving to rest on the painted wooden sign staked into the ground, quietly reading it aloud. “Second Chance Orphanage.”
Chapter 3On the short flight back to the castle, Dream’s sounds of excitement slowly petered out as exhaustion from the morning’s activities claimed the little filly. She had spent quite some time running around, so it only made sense that an afternoon nap would be in order. As I looked down towards the streets, I made a note to stop by her room first. I spotted Breeze’s form down below, running through the streets in an attempt to keep up with me in the sky. Quietly chuckling, I made certain to keep my pace and altitude low enough so that he could easily keep up with me; it’s not like I was in any real danger flying over Canterlot in the middle of the day, after all. I carefully landed in front of the castle gates and craned my head around to look at my passenger, a gentle smile coming to my face as I noticed that she had managed to fall asleep, even while on my back mid-flight. Breeze ran up to me a few seconds later, a somewhat irate expression on his face. Bringing a hoof up to my mouth in the universal sign for silence, I motioned to Dream on my back with a twist of my head, and his expression gave way to resignation, a light sigh and a shake of his head his reply. “Welcome back, Princess Aurora,” one of the guards stationed at the front gate spoke as we passed inside. His voice was low, as he had noticed Dream asleep on my back. “Princess Celestia would like to see you at your earliest convenience.” Turning to my companion, the guard smiled a bit, and I pretended to ignore the suggestive wink. “Welcome back, Breeze.” Sighing, I simply shook my head a bit. My friendship with Breeze was apparently being seen as potentially something more, as every guard knew the story of how Shining Armor had managed to capture Cadance’s heart. It led a lot to think that the same could repeat itself, even though Breeze had specifically stated his intentions were otherwise. It was simply another thing I was coming to ignore as Breeze was a friend, nothing more. It was a bit reassuring to me having a few stallions as friends though; there were just too many mares around, myself included. Being able to hang out with the guards was a nice reprieve since many of them were stallions. “Well, I’ll catch you around, Breeze,” I softly spoke as I turned to check if Dream was still asleep as we entered the main foyer, heading towards the private residential area. Breeze nodded with a light smile on his face. “Take care, Aurora. If you need a guard for escorting, I’m your stallion any time.” He finished his remark with a mock bow, and I repressed the desire to reach over and hit him again. “Really though, I hope you enjoy the rest of the day. And thanks for getting me out of the castle; that definitely beat the standard guard posting duty.” Breeze chuckled and waved before heading off in his own direction, a light bounce in his step. Sighing again, something I found myself doing a lot of, I made my way to Dream’s room without wasting any more time. I had no idea what Celestia wanted to see me about, but I might as well let Dream enjoy her afternoon nap. Setting her down gently on the bed with my magic, I tucked her in and lightly kissed her on the forehead, smiling as she dug into the mattress and covers a bit. Quietly closing her door behind me, I followed the hallway back out to the main castle foyer, walking to the first guard. I rolled my eyes at his salute as I stopped in front of him, a wry chuckle escaping him. “Good afternoon, Princess Aurora. How can I help you?” “I was told Celestia wanted to see me, do you know where I can find her at right now?” An interesting thing of note is that it seemed every Royal Guardspony inside the castle knew the location of Celestia, Luna, and Twilight at all times, regardless of where they were posted. It was another thing I’d simply chalked up to magic and stopped questioning. There seemed to be a lot of things that fell into that category, but I knew better than to ask about it, as word would inevitably lead back to Twilight, and she would dedicate a lovely hour or three block of time during our next lesson to explain in excruciating detail how it worked, who came up with it and when, what other things it was used for, and other things that fried my mind. While I had been internally running off on a tangent, the guardspony had been using a bit of that magic to talk with other guards to pinpoint Celestia’s location. “It looks like she’s currently in the guest study across from her own. Do you want an—” Cutting him off with a hoof, I spoke up. “No, thank you. I know where it’s at, and there’s no need for an escort inside of the castle. Thanks though.” I turned around and headed for the closest staircase, thinking on what Celestia could want. There wasn’t anything that stuck out to me, so it was a complete mystery. The walk itself was rather short, as once I got up to the next floor the room in question was almost right there. There were a lot of offices up here, and it seemed that the ones most used were the closest to the stairs. I raised a hoof and knocked on the door loudly, smiling to the two guards stationed in front of it, a clear sign that Celestia was within. “Celestia, it’s me, Aurora. May I come in?” A click reached my ears, and moments later the door swung inwards. “Ah, Aurora, I’m so glad to see you. Did you enjoy your morning trip?” Celestia looked up from a small table, its surface covered with a few spread out papers. Walking inside, I took a seat on a couch that she’d motioned a hoof towards. “Yeah, I did. It was extremely relaxing, plus Dream got a chance to play around with all of the foals there for a while. And Shining Armor, well, you should’ve seen it.” I grinned a bit, sinking into the sofa. “Let’s just say that I made sure to include a few extra bits to fix the two Shining-sized holes in the fence as a result of feeding him to the foals.” Celestia and I both laughed at that, a mischievous smile on her face. “I’m glad to hear that. He’s been a bit high-strung about having foals with Cadance, so I thought a bit of experience with some children would help him out.” She waved a hoof as she straightened out the few papers on the desk. “But, that’s not why I asked to see you. I figured that I’d be a bit more proactive at helping you with your issues with the nobles, get you educated a bit on them.” I waited for her to continue, a curious look on my face. When it became clear she wasn’t going to, I rolled my eyes at her. “Well, what is it?” “Oh, give it a few more seconds, Aurora, you’ll see…” Celestia spoke, holding out a hoof as if she had a watch on it. That grin was still on her face, and I just sighed and sank back into the sofa, closing my eyes. A noise outside drew my attention, the quiet clop of hooves on the marbled floor growing louder, stopping just outside the room. Moments later, a voice called out to greet Celestia, and anger flooded my system. “Good afternoon, Aunt. You wanted to see me?” Blueblood’s voice questioned, my eyes immediately opening as I jumped to my hooves and stared at him. “And, ah… good afternoon, Princess Aurora.” His voice was a bit hesitant, but actually respectful for once. “Excellent, now that the two of you are here,” Celestia began after clearing her throat to draw our attention, “I can go ahead and address the issue at hoof. Aurora, you’re getting tired of various nobles approaching you for dates and marriage contracts, correct?” I nodded my head at her question, a curious look on my face. “And Nephew, I understand that you’re now looking to find a wife and properly settle down. I figured I’d go ahead and play matchmaker, I’ve got reservations at that fancy Prench restaurant just outside the castle gates for you both for seven o’clock tonight.” “What?!” I cried out, my words mirroring Blueblood’s. Before I could even begin my line of questioning, Celestia burst out into laughter, pointing at both of us. I growled, walking up to her with an angry look on my face. Celestia playfully stuck her tongue out at me, blowing a raspberry right into my face. “Oh, Aurora… I did tell you that I would start a prank war with you given time, did I not? Consider this the first move of many to come. As they say, the ball is now in your court.” I just groaned, sitting back on my haunches. A quick glance over showed that Blueblood was still standing there, slack-jawed and a far-off look in his eyes from Celestia’s words. “In all seriousness, I did call you here for that reason, dealing with the nobles, that is,” Celestia remarked, lightly hitting Blueblood back into the present with her magic. “Please, take a seat, and I’ll explain to the both of you, as Blueblood will be of great aid in this matter.” Blueblood recovered and took a seat on a sofa well away from my own choice of seat. “I will, Aunt? How?” I was extremely curious as to that answer as well. Thus far, the only thing that Blueblood had been was a pain in the ass, so for him to be a help, well, that was rather unexpected. Celestia got one of those smiles on her face, the one that visibly said it was best to not get on her bad side as she launched into her explanation. I visibly gulped, listening. “Well, I’m not sure if you are aware or not, Aurora, but Blueblood, despite his many character flaws, is quite intelligent and stays up to date on the political currents, so to speak. There may only be one or two ponies with more knowledge of them, and they are most likely some of the ponies seeking to bind you to them. So, my lovely nephew is going to help you navigate those murky waters. “Now, with that said, I’m sure he has enough of an idea to take things from here. I’m running a bit behind on a few things that need my oversight, so I’ll leave you two alone to discuss the matter.” Celestia got up from the desk, picking up a few pieces of paper while leaving some on the desk. As she passed me she paused, smiling at me while sporting a large grin. “And oh, I was serious about the reservations. Seven o’clock sharp, they’re aware that royalty will be dining with them and they are so looking forward to your company, Aurora, Nephew.” She laughed, walking out the door. “It might turn into a scandal if you don’t show, so I’d suggest you do, and show up in your finest~” Celestia nearly sang before closing the door behind her. When I finally drew my attention away from the door and towards Blueblood, I noticed how he seemed to be actively trying to hide in the couch, although he was failing miserably at it. “A-Aurora…” he stammered out, trying to string together words. I sighed and sat back, thinking to myself while waiting for him to compose himself. While it was nice that Blueblood might be able to help me out with this problem, it seemed to create a few more of its own. Primarily that he was a lecherous bastard, figuratively speaking, and then to top it off, Celestia had basically set us up on a dinner date that was public knowledge. As far as pranks go, I think that Celestia set the bar pretty high on her first go, which only made me concerned as to what she might scheme up in the future. “Aurora?” Blueblood’s hesitant voice pulled me from my thoughts, and I realized that I had a rather nasty grimace on my face, as if I’d just eaten some spoiled produce. I wiped the look away and replaced it with one that didn’t have him thinking I was about to murder him in a messy fashion as if I didn’t care about being caught. Sighing, I looked towards him. “Yes? Are you happy, now that Celestia has railroaded me into a date with you? I seem to recall quite a few choice phrases you used to describe me, and none of them were very nice.” I spat at him in anger, not very thrilled at the prospect of working with him. He merely fidgeted in his seat for a few moments, a somewhat crestfallen look on his face. “Aurora, I merely wish to apologize for my… past transgressions. I had fallen into a habit of seeing mares as nothing more than objects to manipulate and use, and I am sorry that I included you in that category as well.” My wings stopped moving in agitation as I heard his words, almost not believing them at first. If it hadn’t been for the fact that a large amount of shame and regret appeared to be splattered all across his features, I wouldn’t have believed him. “Why?” I asked, the single word filled with curiosity, animosity and disbelief. Blueblood fidgeted around for a few seconds at first, not even meeting me in the eye. The silence stretched on for what seemed to be an eternity as I awaited an explanation. After a few minutes, he finally spoke, softly and with a bit of sadness in his voice. “My… my mother just passed away, Aurora. She chastised me for my behavior even as she said that she loved me, and dearly hoped that I would grow to be an even better stallion than I am today.” Needless to say, I found myself rather floored. There’d been quiet whispers here and there, but that was the typical castle life. If one were to believe everything heard within these walls, then I would have been pregnant with triplets sired by half the guard. I’m still not sure how that one got started, but needless to say I hadn’t thought much of those quiet whispers. Blueblood’s father must have kept it an extremely quiet and closed affair for word to not have spread. “I’m sorry to hear that, Blueblood.” Getting up, I walked over to him, gently lifting his head up to have his eyes meet mine. “I’m guessing you loved her very much, right?” He simply nodded in reply as he cried, and I could see the fresh grief written all over his face. “Well, I’ll gladly accept your help then, Blue,” I replied, lending my shoulder for him to cry on. Losing a family member, especially a parent, was a harsh thing to go through, so I could set aside my dislike of him for the moment. My mind wandered off, once more thinking back to a conversation I’d held with Celestia last month. Immortality was as much a curse as it was a blessing; I came to find out as she recounted a few of her more promising students that she’d taken over the years. When I’d asked her how she handled the loss, I got the saddest looking smile that I’ve ever seen in my life. She didn’t give me a reply that night, but it was a strong indication that it wasn’t easy. Ever since that conversation, the mention of death would bring to mind that conversation, making me wonder how I would handle it. As it stood now, it was still rather impossible to even fathom, the notion of living forever. It was a concept that belonged in fantasy fiction novels, not in real life. My musings were cut short as Blueblood finally stopped crying though, looking at me with a look of thanks. “Aurora… thank you. It’s been hard these last few days, and well, I really don’t have anypony to go to outside of family. For obvious reasons, no mare wants to be around me, and I’ve realized that the ponies that I thought were friends were nothing more than tools, whether it was me attempting to use them or them using me.” He wiped off his cheeks and coughed a few times, his gaze settling on my flank for a few moments before he quickly shifted it to the clock in the room with an embarrassed cough. I set a hoof on his shoulder as I stood up. “Blueblood, everyone deserves a second chance… well, almost everyone. Consider this me giving you that second chance; please make your mother proud. I’d hate to come to like you a bit only to have you turn right back into that douchebag and make me have to set Dream loose on you.” Moving back to give him some space, I glanced over to the clock as well and made a point to ignore the pale look that crossed his face. The time was already rather late, and I wanted a bit of time to myself before this evening, not to mention the fact that the restaurant in question was the ‘up’ of upscale, so I needed to wear something. It was going to be quite the pain in the ass, needless to say. The muffled sound of hooves on carpet reached my ears as Blueblood got up. “And about this dinner, uh, I’m sorry that Aunt set us up like this. She is completely aware of the fact that I’m trying to change too.” He shuffled his hooves against the carpet as he paced a bit. “I don’t think that there’s enough time to discuss the issue at hoof, so we can do that during dinner and at least make it somewhat useful. I’d also recommend you bring a guard you trust, Aurora. It should help dispel any illusions or misconceptions about us, um, dating, and will also give somepony to help… keep me in check if I slip any.” “I think I have just the guardspony in mind, Blueblood. When and where should we meet up?” I began moving towards the door, madly grinning at the thought of putting Breeze through this. Plus, I wanted to enlist his help to come up with ideas to prank Celestia back, so it killed two birds with one stone. Blueblood was humming a bit, looking lost in thought for a few seconds. “If the reservation is for seven, then I’d have to say a quarter till. It’s not that far from the castle’s gates, so that should have us arriving early, but not too much so.” I turned and nodded, ready to open the door and leave as he spoke back up again. “And oh, I’d appreciate it if what I said here stays between us, please? It’s not something that I want everypony to know about yet, my mother’s last words to me that is... I’ll see you later tonight, Aurora.” Waving a hoof in the air as I opened the door I gave him my response. “Sure thing, Blueblood. Stay strong, and I’ll see ya later,” I finished speaking as I walked out the door, laying out the path back to the guard’s barracks. I wasn’t exactly sure how he’d take it, but Breeze was going to get the chance to eat some fancy food as well… The hour was late, and I was currently fidgeting on my hooves in front of the mirror in my room. An hour ago, one of Celestia’s aides had shown up to ‘help me prepare’ as she put it. I made a note in my head to ensure that whatever prank I came up with was thoroughly humiliating, and the more ponies it could be in front of, the better. My mane and tail were both a tangled mess of curls that the aid referred to as appealing, somehow. Not only that, but a pale blue dress currently called my body home, the soft fabric a bit snug and covering up most of my body with the exception of my wings. I was beyond uncomfortable, and even with Breeze there I was uncertain if the illusion of this being a date could be shattered with how I looked. “You can go ahead and leave now, you’ve done plenty,” I growled at the aid, having voiced my protests numerous times during the time she’d been working. Giggling, she finally departed as I sighed and looked at the clock, noticing that it was twenty till seven now. That meant that I still had enough time to mope for another minute or two before I needed to leave. After the obligatory extra minute or two of moping had passed, I left my room, nearly bumping into Twilight and Luna, both of whom sported massive grins. “Oh wow, Aurora… Looking good!” they spoke in unison, to which I simply stared at them as I imagined boring a hole through their heads. They’d heard about tonight fairly quickly, and I assumed that Celestia had told them both as the cherry on top of everything else. “Don’t tempt me to include you two in the prank I’m working on to get back at Celestia…” I softly spoke while glaring at them. Luna waved her hoof in the air, a humorous look on her face. “Oh, relax, Aurora. We understand that you were set up on this faux date by my sister. She did claim that she would begin pranking you in the future, and this is quite majestic as far as pranks go. Besides, I understand that our bratty nephew will be helping educate you about a certain dilemma, hmm?” she rambled on a bit, finally stopping with a light smile on her face. Twilight apparently felt the need to chime in as well as I rolled my eyes at Luna. “And, if for whatever reason he isn’t helpful for you, Aurora, then,” she shrugged her shoulders, “just let us know, I’m certain Dream would just love the chance to have some fun with Blueblood again.” Twilight sported a massive grin by the end of her words; I had a feeling that she was still holding a grudge over something that’d happened between one of her friends and Blueblood years ago. “He seemed sincere enough; it’s simply that I just don’t like the fact that Celestia felt the need to make it into a public affair. I mean, all I did was ride her around the castle. In the middle of the day… during court… Okay, so maybe this is a little bit justified. Still sucks, though.” I finished with a sigh, lightly shaking my head, which caused the curls to bounce around a bit. Uugh, that was going to bug me all night, no doubt about it. Luna nodded as she chuckled. “Exactly. I figure she wouldn’t have done this to you had Blueblood not been sincere in wanting to turn things around. She’s not that cruel... But, don’t let us hold you up any longer, I’m sure you’re most curious to hear what he has to tell you tonight.” Luna and Twilight waved with small smirks on their face. I rolled my eyes again and made my way to the castle gates, ready to get this long day over with already. It was a short walk there, and the first thing that caught my attention was an ornate carriage waiting for me. Blueblood and Breeze were nearby, uneasily eying each other as I walked up. Both of them were wearing suits, which still caused me to snicker at the sight. Pants on ponies just seem weird, no matter how you look at it. I smirked at Breeze once they realized I was there, knowing that this was way out of his comfort zone as well. “Hey, Breezy, looking sharp,” I poked at him with a small smirk. “Seriously though, thanks a lot for agreeing to this. I’m sure that you’d probably prefer to be guarding a pond or something over this.” The smirk fell from my face as I used my magic to straighten myself out. “This is a bloody nightmare…” He rolled his eyes at me as I stopped walking. “It was an inventory storeroom, actually. Still not sure which one I would’ve preferred, but since you asked me so nicely…” he chuckled, shaking his head. “This is the one and only time though. I hate dressing up, you have no idea.” I lightly laughed, grinning a bit. “Yeah yeah, I’ll just owe you one for once.” Before I could speak again, Blueblood walked up, a light smile on his face. “Evening, Aurora. You look quite stunning, I must say. Whoever decided to curl your mane made an excellent decision.” He seemed sincere enough, and his eyes seemed to stay on my face rather than straying as they typically did. I returned his smile, slightly nodding my head. Sighing, I looked over to the carriage. “Well… let’s get the show on the road then, I guess? Although, is that really necessary? I mean, what’s so wrong with walking the block or two to the restaurant?” Blueblood immediately nodded. “Yes, it is necessary, Aurora. Appearance is an extremely large part of your overall public image. Since the general public is not aware of your true background and believes you to be a foreign-born alicorn who has moved to Equestria, you cannot give off any illusions of weakness that the nobles can attempt to capitalize on. That means that if you are going to a fancy dinner, an official function, traveling on business, et cetera, you need to fit the part. In this case, with how dressed you are, yes you need a carriage,” he calmly explained as he opened the carriage door, moving to the side. “After you, Princess.” I shot them both a look of horror before getting inside that carriage, somewhat surprised at how spacious it was. As I took a seat, Blueblood and Breeze both entered, taking a seat across from me. “Hopefully we can get through this without incident…” I muttered under my breath, squirming uncomfortably thanks to the annoying dress I was wearing. Breeze let out a sigh, looking over at Blueblood for a moment. “So… I was told that you’re going to help Aurora out with the trouble she’s been having with the nobles? They’ve been getting pretty persistent lately, even visiting the orphanage she likes to visit.” Rolling my eyes, I saw Blueblood give a curt nod to Breeze. “Indeed, that I am. If there’s something to know about a noble family, I know it. Even some things that shouldn’t be known. Because of that, I am aware of which ponies she can ignore and those she needs to outplay. Currently, there are only three houses that I consider a true threat to her. While most would love to gain the power of having you, Aurora, they don’t want to tempt making enemies out of the current two most powerful houses. There’s one that’s also so desperate that they simply do not care, as they are most likely on the verge of collapse here within the next year or two without extreme intervention.” The carriage coming to a stop put a hold to the conversation. “We can continue this discussion in full detail though once we’re seated,” Blueblood remarked, getting out and holding the door open with a hoof extended. “Princess,” he respectfully spoke, strongly hinting that I take his hoof to get out. A chuckle from Breeze took my attention for a moment, and I caught a tongue extended at me with a mirthful look. With a not too gentle kick backwards that nopony could see, I accepted Blueblood’s hoof and left the carriage, which appeared to have literally stopped right on the doorstep of this fancy restaurant with a foreign name that I couldn’t pronounce. Breeze exited a few seconds later, a slightly pained look on his face which elicited a smirk from me. As we walked inside, we were greeted by a fine dressed pony in what looked like a tux who also had a weird mustache, making the entire ensemble look a bit ridiculous. “Ah, welcome Prince and Princess… and their guest,” he remarked with an extremely heavy accent, looking over at Breeze with a curious look, “to Le Nourriture Palais! I am the owner, Gilded Plate, and your seats are right this way, if you will follow me.” Cringing a bit at the heavy accent to his words, I followed Blueblood and Breeze, doing my best to ignore the stares that we were receiving from most of the patrons as we were brought to a private, and quiet, room in the back of the restaurant. “Our head chef will be out here shortly to take your orders, should you need anything simply call and I shall come,” he spoke, pointing out a small button next to the door within hoof’s reach from Blueblood’s seat. “That was… uncomfortable,” I remarked as I took a seat, looking at Breeze and Blueblood. “Is it typical that the owner of a restaurant comes and seats you in a private room like this? And that the head chef comes out to take the order? It just seems so ridiculous…” “You’re going to have to get used to that as time passes, sorry to say. I mean, you’re royalty whether you like it or not, Aurora, and it lets them feel better to be able to treat you as such. Does that make sense?” Breeze remarked, shrugging his shoulders slightly. “One of the things they teach us as guards is that even though some of you, alicorns that is, don’t see yourselves as such, the general public sees what you are and respects that, if nothing else. Some ponies are actually uncomfortable treating alicorns as actual ponies… just ask Twilight about it, if you haven’t had that discussion yet. Sure, you can still have your friends and such, but the public sees you as a figure of power and treats you as such.” Blueblood lightly clapped his hooves together. “Extremely well said, Breeze, I believe it is? This is why you should get used to the royal treatment, Aurora. I understand that you don’t leave the palace too much with the exception of your weekly trips to the orphanage, so you haven’t truly interacted with the public on a wide scale yet. Most ponies do feel quite uncomfortable treating you like any other pony, because you are not any other pony.” The conversation was once again cut short, this time by the arrival of a large unicorn mare, a white chef’s hat atop her blonde mane and a peach coat mostly hidden by a chef’s uniform. “Good evening everypony, and thank you for visiting our establishment today. I am Chef Doubt Fire, and I will be in charge of cooking your meals this evening.” She kept talking for another minute or two, but I drowned her out as I snuck glances around the room instead, a bit put off by how fancy it looked. It was as if whoever was in charge of decorating this room tried too hard and simply decided to make it look like twenty-four carat explosive diarrhea had occurred. It seemed that Breeze had noticed my inattention as I heard him order a simple drink and some sort of salad for me. Once the chef finally left, Blueblood cleared his throat. “So, as I was saying earlier, there are only really three families right now that I would be concerned about: The Bladewings, the Shieldwalls, and the Ironbanks. Which of the three would you like to hear about first?” Breeze let out a low whistle. “Those are some pretty heavy names right there… I know that the Shieldwalls own and run the companies that manufacture all of our guard armor, as well as the enchantments on them, and they have quite a bit of pull,” he remarked, messing with his water glass a bit. Sighing, I looked at the two stallions in front of me for a few seconds, thinking. “Blueblood, you mentioned that one of them was desperate… desperation makes individuals do extreme things, so could you fill me in on that family first?” Nodding his head, he set down his glass and launched into his explanation. “The Bladewing family is a very old noble house, one of the few remaining that was around during the true founding of Equestria. They made their existence off of weapons; until two centuries ago they were a very powerful house as the premier weaponsmiths of Equestria. However, during their efforts to expand their operations beyond Equestria, they reached out to one of the gryphon aeries and supplied them with weapons. Those same weapons were used by that aerie to not only completely destroy three rival aeries, but also the complete destruction of four new towns on the border we shared with them. The head of their family stood by their decision of selling those weapons and didn’t show any remorse, which led to extreme public backlash. Each successive generation seems to have inherited that pony’s stupidity, selling to anything that could provide money, and now they’re at a point that they have just enough bits left to sustain themselves for another year or two before they are completely broke.” “So… they basically turned the family business into arms dealing, which bit them in the ass once, I would assume, their reputable and repeat customers stopped coming back for more, leaving just those on the fringes of society as their sole customers?” I reasoned out. It sounded like they deserved to disappear if they were that stupid. It still amazed me at how much Celestia let go on under her nose, her only explanation for it all was that micromanaging an entire country would suck ass, and the nobles, even the stupid ones, helped alleviate a lot of those responsibilities. “Precisely. Aunt refuses to disband any noble house no matter what they might do as far as I know, so the Bladewings were simply left to naturally fall into bankruptcy. Which right now, every house wants to see happen. They’re under the impression, however, that ‘bagging’ you, perhaps by any means necessary, would allow them to make a comeback. I honestly think they’re the most dangerous to you because of that.” Blueblood explained, a bit of a thoughtful look on his face. A quiet rap at the door redirected everypony’s attention as the owner entered a few moments after the knock. He had a bottle of wine in hoof and a cheery, goofy grin on his face. “Good evening once again, here we have a thirty-year-old chateau from my own personal stock,” he spoke as he uncorked it and began to fill up the glasses at the table. There was an uneasy silence as he flitted about, as our conversation definitely wasn’t something any of us wanted shared beyond ourselves. I quietly thanked him as he filled my glass, resisting the urge to punch him out and shave that damn mustache off his face. Unfortunately, he seemed to be done as I was about to follow through on my urges. “And again, please remember. Should you need anything, simply let me know. Enjoy!” he cheerily chipped in with that annoying accent before leaving us in peace once again. “That accent… makes me want to punch a kitten or something every time I hear it,” I grumbled out, staring at the wine in front of me. “So, anyways… Bladewings are desperate and dangerous. Meaning they’re probably going to try stupid things. Fun,” I finished in a deadpan tone, looking at the wine again before taking a sip of it. “You should be safe from anything they can try, although I’d recommend maybe adding a guard or three for when you visit the orphanage. They’ve been associating more and more with ponies of ill repute the closer to the end they get, but within the castle there’s no way they can attempt anything. Be careful with Grey Blade though, he’s the one you’ll have to watch out for. He’s the current head of what’s left of their house.” Blueblood sniffed his drink before taking a small sip of it and sighing. The name Grey jostled something that Matron had told me. “Huh, I think that he had actually stopped by the orphanage already. Matron threatened to call the guards and have them arrest him for taking a wrong interest in the children though, he ran off pretty quickly after that.” I chuckled a bit, smiling at the thought. Breeze and Blueblood chuckled as well, both of them shaking their heads. “It sounds like he might be planning something already then. So, definitely be careful, Aurora,” Blueblood warned, going quiet as the main course came out. Seems I’d spaced out more than I’d thought, but luckily Breeze had ordered me something that, while looking downright ridiculous, still tasted good. Once the chef left the room, Blueblood spoke back up. “The other two houses will simply be persistent. There’s a fair chance that they’ll hound you for years if need be, if you keep yourself open to it. Things like gifts, invitations to events and visits to the castle to specifically see you are probably going to be common. Both families will probably be looking to send their eldest son after your hoof in marriage, or even just to get you pregnant. A child, even out of wedlock, is a powerful bargaining tool to all three houses.” “As if I’d let that happen!” I couldn’t help it, I broke down laughing. “Breeze here would have a better chance than they would, and he already knows that’ll never happen!” After I managed to get myself back under control, I looked over to Blueblood. “So, what you’re basically telling me is that they’ll be nuisances, but in the end there’s really nothing too much to worry about. I’m thinking it’ll be easier to just make an example of one of them… too bad Celestia won’t let me. I didn’t even mention killing, just breaking a leg or two…” I joked, a bit relieved. My mind had built this up into a seemingly massive issue when it was something small. I had made a mountain out of a molehill, as they’d say. I turned my attention towards my food, in a good mood now. I could even overlook the fact that this dinner might be misconstrued as a date by the ponies that saw us enter. Hell, I could almost completely overlook Celestia’s prank at the moment as I focused simply on enjoying my meal. “That does sound about right, Aurora… although do you think you could have realized that without proverbially trampling all over my balls?” Breeze whined, causing me to just look up and grin at him. He huffed and rolled his eyes even as a smiled crept over his face, and once more I was thankful at how much of a good friend he was. The meal continued on in relative silence, a bit of small talk here and there now that the main focus had been thrown out there. Blueblood made mention of discussing it again at a later date, but for now we were done, thankfully. The food was gone in a pitifully short amount of time; like every fancy restaurant that thought themselves to be special, in the end one paid way too much for way too little. With a relaxed sigh I got up at the end of the meal, looking over to Breeze and Blueblood. They’d seemed to get along rather well, and once more I was glad that I nagged him until he agreed to come along. Since he was easily the guard I spent the most time with, having him know all of the information Blueblood had divulged would only help me in the future, and it seemed that the two of them had hit it off rather well. Who knows, perhaps I even managed to facilitate giving Blueblood a friendship that wasn’t aimed at his status for once. “Well, shall we depart then?” Breeze asked, moving over to the door and getting ready to open it. I nodded and looked to Blueblood, who mimicked the same gesture. Breeze held the door open for me, and the quiet chatter in the main dining room of the restaurant died once again as the three of us left. It was a short trip back to the castle, and I couldn’t stop yawning the entire way back. It’d been a bit of a busy day for me, moreso than usual anyways, and I was ready for some sleep. As I left the carriage, I yawned again and looked at the two stallions. “For a prank, that dinner wasn’t entirely all that bad,” I tiredly spoke, smiling just a little bit. “Hope you two have a good night, I’m just gonna fly from here. Quicker.” Without even waiting to hear their response I spread my wings and took to the sky, quickly coming to my balcony and getting into my room. Once again, the nagging thought of how smart it was to have open access to the rooms like this popped into my head for a moment as I quickly shrugged my way out of the dress before dropping onto the bed, sinking into the comfortable mattress. My eyes closed as I welcomed the embrace of sleep, my mind empty for once as my consciousness quickly fled. I found myself woken up once again by Dream crashing into me. “Uugh, Dream… it’s too early for this,” I groaned out, opening my eyes to find hers staring into mine. “Explain this, Sis! I thought you hated that annoying Bluey!” Dream angrily exclaimed, holding something up in my face. It took me a few seconds to find my bearing as I swatted at whatever it was that Dream had. I groaned, blinking a few times to try and clear my vision from having just woken up as I found the object right back in my face. “Okay, okay, give me a few moments, Dream, please?” I sat up and yawned before turning my attention to the thing she’d put right up in my face, which turned out to be the early morning edition of the Canterlot Times. Turning it around and unfolding it, my heart stopped when I saw the front page and the big, massive bolded letters of the main article. ‘Foreign Princess and Player Prince Forming a Herd with an Unknown Stallion?’ “CELESTIA!” Author's Note I'm a terrible, terrible person for taking so long. Thanks to ReFro for editing. Was a bit rusty, but hopefully good even so.
