Prince Theodore Blueblood hated tea, it was a fact he was always reminded everytime he had to meet ponies. For everypony there was a constant: Princess Celestia loved tea, so every noble and especially high-ranked ones like… a Prince must have the same sophisticated taste for tea. Princess Celestia had taught him that every tea is unique, the way the water is boiled, the impact of the tea cup and the kettle, the weather when the leaf is picked up, the pony that performs the operation, each parameter changed the taste. For Blueblood tea came with a variety of tastes like, this one is awful, this one is nearly as bad as the previous one or this one is not that bad I will be able to forget the taste after a glass of wine. There was only one parameter in tea that he could enjoy, it was the company. He liked taking tea with his adopted aunt, her stories about the past were always enthralling for the young Prince. There was also the fact that Celestia always drowned his tea with a lot of hot water, sugared hot water does not taste great but it is still better than having tea.
And now he was watching a young mare trying to make tea like his aunt. It was not the first time he was watching her and each time he could not refrain himself from smiling. This young mare had never taken any lesson like him for making tea, nor the proper stupid etiquette to follow for drinking said tea. She was not even from a noble family and still she was trying to make tea like she had seen her mentor do multiple times. This was a proof of the importance Celestia gave to this young mare, as very few ponies had the chance to drink tea made by Celestia. Most of the time, the tea was made by a specialised servant. There was having tea with Celestia, which was already a great honor, and having tea made by Celestia. He only knew three ponies that had this privilege : Princess Cadance, her and obviously himself.
His thoughts went back to her, the purple unicorn was nearly done boiling the water in the kettle with her magic. This was something he admired in the unicorn, not really the fact that she was probably one of the few unicorns that cared to learn to be able to heat with other various levels of heat than hot and warm, though she probably could have obtained any temperature she wanted. No, what he was admiring was the mix of determination and anxiety in her eyes, he never knew if she was anxious to please him or if it was just her drive to copy her mentor. He loved her eyes, they were like very few ponies he knew. That was probably what intrigued him the most the first time they got introduced. She was anxious, clearly having no idea how to deal with a Prince especially one around her age. She was polite, but there was no trace of jealousy or envy like most other ponies he had to deal with.
The Princess had asked him at the time to see if they would get along because they both shared the same passion for history and she had no friend. It was two years ago and he still remembered how the anxiety was replaced with passion and curiosity when he started talking about his history lessons. She had asked him many questions and when he could not answer they both headed to the library to research the answers. Well the research was more him carrying every book she could find related to the subject. He still remembered her face when she realised she had transformed a Prince of Equestria in a simple servant. It took forever for her to stop apologizing. She only stopped when he said the more time she spent apologizing the less time they had to read the books. That managed to get a smile of her. Still, despite a quite friendly start it took him two months for her to call him by his name when they were in private, and even more time for their conversation to start drifting to more personal information.
He got stopped in his reverie by the mare saying: “it’s almost ready”. It was far from ready, she just meant she had finished boiling the water, as getting the temperature right was already a small victory for her. As usual she waited for his approval to continue, he just nodded and she poured the tea leaves in the teapot. Now it was the waiting game, they did not talk, he just watched the young mare humming a tone, as she was probably counting the seconds in her head, again there was a small smile on her face but in her eyes he could still see her determination and concentration. It was something he liked in the mare too, she had a drive for knowledge and doing things right he rarely saw in ponies. He had always wondered if she was already like that before Celestia took her as a student. He knew her aunt had crazy high standards and expectations, as he himself was often overwhelmed by everything he had to learn to be a proper Prince and build his awful persona to mess with nobility. At first he had found that fun, but lately he started having issues finding time when he could stop being Prince Blueblood to be only Theodore, a young stallion that enjoyed simple things like books, occasional poetry and fencing. There were few ponies that addressed him as Theodore, and most of the time only in private occasions. These few ponies were, some trusted servants, Cadance, Celestia, two guard officers and obviously the mare in front of him.
Theodore Blueblood was not a jealous pony, it was hard to be jealous when you have nearly everything, well everything money can buy. But he was jealous of Cadance, because the more time he had spent with this purple mare, the more he found he wanted to share more than friendship with her. It was cruel because he was a noble, and she was just a commoner. Even though he could love her in private, he could never go around Canterlot and spend a nice afternoon with her. Cadance’s lover, Shining Armor was a royal guard and he was working hard to be an officer, so he knew Celestia could grant him a title like knight, so it was ok for Cadance to freely explore her love with him. But she was just a student, and Celestia’s protege was not a proper title. He knew he should have talked about this with Celestia but he didn’t know if that was breaking the stupid Prince persona he had to build. He did not even talk about that with Cadance, because he was afraid she would talk to Shining Armor. The royal guard did not know his true self and having to deal with an angry big brother before even having a chance to do anything was not a pleasant idea. Still he had no idea if the mare told her brother about their encounter. This was the internal debate he had with himself over the past two months. He had come with the conclusion it was better to love even in secret than do nothing and regret it.
He was cut again by the young mare “It’s ready, I hope it will be right this time”, she then poured their two cups and proceeded by asking as she was levitating the sugar trail “Sugar?”
“One please”, he answered. trying to smile. He was not a master of faking emotion yet, but still he sometimes wondered if he genuinely smiled often recently. Surely he could smile when he managed to humiliate other nobles but it was more a smile of contempt than him being happy. Well lately he was enjoying humiliating young mares that their mother tried to propose to him. Celestia never gave him instructions on how to act toward this so he had chosen to remain the stupid egocentric Prince that only loves himself. It was serving him well because this way he still got a chance to pursue his true love. Well it might be too soon to call her his true love but from all the young mares he had met, she was the only one he felt something more than just wanting her in his bed. It was not that she was not beautiful but he actually enjoyed talking to a mare that was smart and not just a dumb groomed young lady willing to marry a Prince whose conversation rounded about “Can you believe what my servant did? He brought me my blue jewel instead of my red, that totally does not match my yellow dress.”
Slowly he took his first sip, the tea fell in the category “I don’t care the taste, I love the mare that did it”, and he had decided today was the day he would tell her the three words he should have said two months ago. He did not even care if she loved him or not, he wanted to be honest with her and tell her how much she meant to him. After swallowing his first sip of tea he spoke with a serious tone.
“Twilight”, the young mare let her tea cup rest in its saucer, Blueblood could see some trace of anxiety, did he speak too firmly? Did she think I blame her for something? To try to ease the situation he added :
“I have something important to tell you”, this time he chose a more gentle tone. He was getting anxious too, but tried not to show it. He failed to notice the mare was becoming nervous too.
“I am happy to be your friend, but”, he still had trouble to tell what he wanted to tell her so he took another huge sip of his tea to get some courage, again he failed to notice the blush on the mare cheek. He swallow the tea and this time that was it, no coming back he just said the three word he wanted to tell her.
“I hate tea”, Blueblood congratulated himself to have said that without hesitation nor any flinch in his tone, but the following silence made him realise his mistake. It was not what he had wanted to say and now he had no idea what to do next. He had mentally prepared some scenarios according to her reaction, rebuttal, offer to stay friends? acceptance, maybe propose a date. Now he was just lost.
There was only silence in the room, but Blueblood got cut from his mental battle when he heard the unicorn slowly sobbing and crying. Her head was lowered toward the table in front of her. A nice Prince would play the gentlepony offering a handkerchief so she could wipe her tears. Prince Blueblood would maybe laugh for making a young mare cry. But Theodore Blueblood did what he felt right, he left his cushion to lay next to her and put his foreleg around the mare to hug her and bring the mare head in his chest.
With a smoothing voice he said to her : “Why are you crying?”
There was a small time before she stopped crying to reply, but she did not repulse the sudden embrace, “You hate tea”, there was a bit of regret in her voice as she was watching the floor but kept her head in the stallion chest.
“Yes, I hate tea”, Blueblood did not want to press her with his sentiment and what he really wanted to tell her and just restated what he had said previously, maybe the embrace was too intimate already but he was just comforting a crying friend right?
“I...tried hard every time, to...make you love my tea. To make you smile with my tea, but I am not good enough for you?”
Blueblood was quite puzzled, he never expected to be treated like a Prince from her, he never felt superior to her. This might be the first time she realized she was only a commoner. He wanted to understand “Why?”
“Because, because”, Blueblood felt the young mare was on the verge of crying again but she removed her head from his chest to look at him in the eyes, “I think I love you Theodore”.
Theodore felt a great warmth in his heart but he also felt stupid. He was the one that wanted to say these words and the stupid tea made him say how he felt about the stupid beverage. He knew at this point there was a better thing to do than speak. He closed the remaining distance between them, making his lips meet with the mare’s own lips.
When he broke the kiss, he look at her in the eyes and simply said with a genuine smile, “I love you Twilight Sparkle, and you make the best tea I ever tasted”.
