An Explosive Journey

Celestia, Throne Room

I sighed for what felt like the thousandth time, feeling as though I deserved a thousand-year break from all the stress that this job entails; as stated before, being a princess should be a punishment, not a privilege. Blueblood stood in front of me, scraping his hoof on the luxurious red carpet and looking ashamed of himself. Luna stood beside him, looking smug as ever; there are times that I wish I could just shoot her back to the moon every time she gets that look, as it is highly annoying.

"For the one-hundredth time Luna, before any judgment can be cast down to Blueblood, we need to confirm that it was actually him. I will scan his memories in order to make sure that it wasn't someone else who ordered the attack." Before Luna could react, I walked over to Blueblood and sifted through his memories of the past week, making sure that the day the order was allegedly made... which wasn't in his mind. Straightening back up, I looked over to Luna, who was now almost literally bouncing in place, most likely in anticipation of Blueblood's now nonexistent punishment.

"So sister, what is his punishment for causing a pony's near-death?" 'She is not going to like this...'

"Nothing Luna, because it wasn't Blueblood that asked his little gang to go attack Lyra." Luna was now doing her best impression of a fish, her jaw flapping up and down, her mind searching for the right words to say, finding nothing. Eventually though, she relented.

"Very well, if that is how it is, then there is nothing we can do... though we can't exactly let him go, he needs to be taught that a noblepony of his standing must be fair to all races within and without of Equestria's borders. He must be taught to treat others with the respect they deserve, instead of just thinking of himself all of the time. What do you say, 'Tia?"

"That is an excellent idea, and I know just who to knock some sense into him too."

Blueblood sagged on the floor when this was said, though I do not blame him; his actions must be punished - if not for the attempted murder, then for his discriminating actions against those that are not ponies, and against other ponies that are not himself.

"Blueblood, please look at me," Blueblood looked up and into my eyes, trapping his gaze, "you will be sent to Ponyville, where you will be disciplined by the one you have wronged the most. Whatever punishment is dished out by his hands, is completely justified and sanctioned. There is no getting out of this either, your title of prince and your nobility status are hereby stripped, and you will have a place to stay provided to you in Ponyville, though after Nova deems your discipline is complete, you will take over whatever bills there are that come with owning a home. Equios knows that I've let you stay in the palace too long now."

Before Blueblood could speak out about his punishment for being crude, I teleported him off to his soon to be former room, and sent a letter to Nova, detailing the events, and explaining that Blueblood will be in his charge during his discipline, and to expect him in a few hours. Finding nothing else to do otherwise, I trotted off to my own room, flopped onto the bed after shedding my regalia, and took a long deserved nap. The country could survive a few hours without me…

Nova, Books 'n Branches

John and Lyra were sitting off in another part of the library, discussing Luna knows what, meanwhile Spike, Twilight and I were engaged in a deadly staring contest, one that could possibly set the treehouse on fire with how intense it was. It was a battle of cunning, wits, and pure skills... The tension was so thick that one would need a white-hot blade to cut through the air around us... One wrong move, and the universe could shatter in an instant!

"Bullshit." I looked at Twilight in astonishment;

"Sparkles, how could you say such a thing!?"

Twilight deadpanned, "Easy, I counted the cards based on what's already been called."

Spike just slouched in his seat even more than he already has within the last half hour, groaning in frustration, "Twilight, the game isn't really fun with you counting cards, it's based on skills with both reading ponies' faces and being able to deceive the other players basically. You're playing cheap." I couldn't help but agree with Spike on that one.

"He's right, ya know... I doubt that many ponies want to play poker with you due to your habits." This caused Twilight to shrink back in her seat and bring forth a blush on her face. "Wait, seriously!? Twilight, you seriously need to stop counting cards, what do you think would happen if you went into a Las Pegasus casino?"

Spike stood up on the chair and raised his hand to show that he wanted to interject, "Actually, one of Twilight's old classmates works at a casino, and spread word of her being a huge bookworm, she's been officially banned from all card tables in the entire city, unless she can sign a promissory note to indicate that she will not count the cards... sadly, she does it without even thinking, so that rules out poker tournaments, which stinks because we could use the extra bits, what with her science experiments sometimes causing damage to the library." Spike's comment at the end earned him a glare from Twilight, but she wasn't protesting that, so it must've been true.

'Dang, she's even more nerdier than I thought.'

"Hey John, isn't it time that I bring you back home? Cause I don't want you to have to deal with all the crap that comes with randomly disappearing from your home."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. See you guys later, it's been fun."

Twilight and I started setting up the spell, while Lyra, John, and Spike milled about the library, either reading or doing various things that I never paid much attention to. A few moments later and there was a swirling vortex in front of us, this time it hopefully led to the correct time and place. Throwing caution to the wind, I ran right into it, not caring about its location; what greeted me was the familiar sight of my old bedroom, exactly how it was left. I went back through and dragged John back to where he belonged, and sent him home. Knowing that I couldn't stay long without being noticed, I jumped through back to Equestria, and closed off the link. With John back home, there wasn't much to worry about, aside from making sure Twilight kept her mouth shut about what I showed her; it wouldn't do good for her to spread the knowledge that her adventures with her friends were recorded and viewed by billions.

Before I could turn towards the door and call Lyra's attention, there was a message that arrived via Spike; Twilight read the letter, and blushed, seeing that it was for me. I gave a small laugh which only served to deepen her blush caused by embarrassment.

"You know Twilight, where I come from, reading someone else's mail is considered a felony," her face took on a look of shock, and she started brimming with tears, "though we're not there, and it had to be opened and read in order to determine who it was for. You didn't do anything wrong, Twilight." With those words said, Twilight calmed herself down, and gave me the letter.

'Nova, this letter is for you and you only; Blueblood has been questioned, as well as having his memories read, and it has been determined that he himself did not commit the crime of ordering the death of Lyra Heartstrings, but someone has taken his form and done so in his place. Though this is true, it is still necessary for Blueblood to be punished for his intolerance towards other races and those that are less wealthy than him. You will be in charge of his discipline, and any and all actions taken are sanctioned, so long as it isn't deliberate torture. I trust that you will lead him on the correct path'

Lyra asked me the overly obvious question… or she was about to.

"So -" I interrupted her however.

"What does the letter say? It seems that even though it was not truely the Blueblood we all know and loath, he still needs to be punished, due to his prejudice ways towards those that are different from him. I get to be his drill sergeant." I felt a smirk appear on my face as I said that last part, mostly because it means that I basically get to do what I want to him, aside from just straight up torturing him.

Lyra had another comment to make on the subject matter though, "Just don't go all 'war face' on him, please?"

"Pffffffffft no, I'm not gonna do that to him, I'm just gonna go all Dragon Ball Z style training on him, for the most part." Lyra smiled a little bit, while Twilight looked a little confused as to what I meant when I made that reference. I waved her off, "Don't worry about it Twi, it's nothing important, well not overly important anyway."

"Alright, as long as you don't do anything dangerous."

I was about to answer when Lyra stole the words right from my mouth, "The definition of dangerous is up for interpretation. It's all a matter of perspective, Sparkler." Well, everything aside from the pet name she just called Twilight by...

Twilight thought for a second, before she realized what Lyra just called her. Any of the faces she makes are just so adorkable. "Wait, what did you call me, Lyra?"

"You heard me, Sparkler." Lyra snickered, causing Twilight's anger to rise - something that I didn't want to push too far. It's too bad that Lyra wasn't sharing the same thought at the moment.

"Lyra, do you really think that it's a good idea to call her Sparkler? So what if she didn't have a good grasp of magic when she first started out? Everyone progresses at their own pace, there's no helping it. Honestly, I'm kind of disappointed with you for making that comment. It's not very friendly to call someone by a derogatory name; add bringing up someone's faults from when they were starting out with learning magic, and it just becomes an even worse thing to do. What I would like you to do, is go apologize to her. How you do so is up to you, but it should be done."

Lyra immediately regretted what she did, from what I could tell; she walked over to Twilight and gestured to give her a hug to apologize, the receiver of said hug looking at me with a question written all over her face, and I nodded before she could even open her mouth to tell me it wasn't really that necessary. The two of them hugged it out, looking really adorable in the process.

Figuring the two of them would be busy for a while, talking things out and reminiscing about the past, I walked to another part of the library, and took a seat on one of the chairs. I called up the interface that I had used to tinker with spells the first time, and began messing with a few, making some new ones. If you need an idea as to what it looks like, think Visual Studio.

'Alright, I need something to create a sort of simulation environment for combat training. Don't wanna do it without either a ward or a sim, as that would bring about risk of property damage, as well as personal harm on both sides. Hmm, maybe I should ask Twily about meshing spells together...'

"Hey Twilight, do you think it would be advisable to intertwine a healing spell with a healing ward?"

"Probably not. Trying to pull of a simulation spell, a good one anyway, would be a feat in itself; they're really hard to cast properly. What's different with them, is that there's no spell misfire or blowback if you cast it wrong, so you wouldn't know if it was done right until something went wrong. Adding on a healing ward would just be adding more trouble to the mix. I know why you're asking about them, and I would advise against doing so."

"Huh. Thanks anyway. Hey Lyra, you wanna get going back to your place? I don't really need anything to prepare for Blueblood's arrival."

"Sure, I guess."

Lyra and I gave Twilight a hug, and then we departed for her house. The walk through the town was quiet, pleasant. The air was nice and warm, not a cloud in the sky, aside from the one Rainbow uses to nap on, and the town wasn't that busy today. All in all, things were nice. It seemed a little too peaceful for my taste...