Blue Heart walked into the library the day after their rather personal conversation. He seemed oddly aloof, but Twilight Velvet wrote it off as him being preoccupied by private matters. Perhaps he would tell her later, or perhaps not, but regardless, she wasn’t particularly worried. He didn’t appear to be particularly conflicted.

She met him at their usual time in their usual spot. To her surprise, he wasn’t studying, but rather glancing back and forth between a scroll he was levitating, and the titles of books he had placed on the table. To her even greater surprise, a middle-aged unicorn mare was sitting on the floor and watching him. Judging by his nonchalance, Twilight assumed that perhaps the two knew each other.

“Good evening, ma’am, sir,” she nodded to the two. “My name is Twilight Velvet Sparkle and I’m a librarian here. Do you require any assistance with anything?”

Blue Heart didn’t even look up from his work, and the mare only stared back her, her expression stolid.

“Well alright, then,” Twilight forced herself to maintain a professional smile. “I’ll just—”

“Good bye,” was all the middle-aged mare said before getting up. Twilight watched her go, thoroughly confused.

“That was strange,” she said as she approached Blue Heart. “Who was that?”

“Nopony you should concern yourself with,” he mumbled, crossing something items off his checklist.

“Uh, alright, if you say so, Blue Heart.”

He paused in his work and finally looked at her. He looked rather annoyed and raised an eyebrow.

Twilight furrowed her brow. “Is something the matter?” she asked, not appreciating the look he was giving her.

He blinked, his countenance contorting into a look of distaste.

“What?” she pressed.

“Never mind,” he went back to his checklist, sighing like a tired, exasperated parent. “I would like to check out these books.”

“You’re not going to study here?” Twilight questioned in surprise.

“My business is my own, Mrs. ‘Sparkle,’” he stated before rolling up his parchment. “Now check out these books for me,” he ordered.

“Blue Heart, what, in Celestia’s mane, has gotten into you?”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m a patron, you’re a librarian, so could you please just do your job?”

“This isn’t like you,” Twilight said as she narrowed her eyes. “Just who are you?”

He bared his teeth in a snarl. “You dare disobey your prince?” he snapped.

“The prince?” she repeated. “I have no idea what you—”

He yanked off his scarf and instantly the glamour disappeared, revealing Prince Blueblood CIX, nephew and heir to the goddess of the sun, Queen Celestia. He quickly wrapped the scarf back around his neck and Blue Heart came back.

“Now that we got that business out of the way, Mrs. ‘Sparkle,’ check. Out. My. Books.”

“You’re not Blue Heart—”

“No, I just showed you I’m the Thunderbird!” he snapped, sarcasm dripping from his tone.

“— because Blue Heart is a good friend of mine, and he would never—”

“Friend?” the colt sneered. “You think that you’re friends with me? I’d call that claim rich, but considering you literally lost your husband a fortune, I’m afraid ‘rich’ isn't the word for it.”

Twilight Velvet’s jaw dropped in shock. “Blue Heart, how could you say that?!”

“I only speak the truth,” he huffed. “Unlike you, with your nonsense about us being friends.”

“Why in the singing bells of Tambelon are acting like this?” she demanded. “We spoke just fine last night and every night before that—”

“Because I didn’t know I was wasting my breath on a peasant,” Blue Heart interrupted.

Twilight’s voice hitched in her throat before a fury rose within her. “What did you just call me?”

He looked her straight in the eye. “Peasant,” he repeated, not at all cowed by her anger.

“And since when has that ever mattered to you?” Twilight questioned. “From the day we first met, it was clear as Celestia’s day.”

“Hardly,” he replied. “You had the name Sparkle, so I knew you were related to House Sparkle. I merely presumed you were enchanted by the simple life of plebeians and wanted to get a taste for it before returning back to— to what did you call it? The gilded cage?”

“Well, this is my life, Blue Heart! I’m a librarian and proud!”

“Proud?” he repeated. “So mean to tell me that you’re proud that you cost a son of House Sparkle his family and status? You’re proud that you got a stallion disowned from a life—?”

“Night Light made his choice!”

“Just like I’m going to make mine: I do not wish to pursue a friendship with the likes of you,” Blue Heart stated.

“I— what?!”

“You heard me. I’m going to wash my hooves of you.”

“Blue Heart, how could you—?”

“You served your purpose in helping to prepare me for the entrance exam, so I’m done with you.”

“Done with me?! What am I, some soiled bandage?”

“Hardly,” the colt rolled his eyes. “I sincerely doubt a soiled bandage could ever force some pony to live the rest of their lives in mediocrity.”

“Blu—!”

“I am the horn of the queen!” he cut in. “When I assume all of my responsibilities, I’m going to need actual allies in court, not some nopony librarian who writes foal’s books in her spare time. When I thought you were a Sparkle— a real Sparkle—, I had every intention of providing everything for you and your foals: distinguished spots at private academies and schools, royal favors, esteemed positions in Castle Canterlot. But now I’ve changed my mind. You can do nothing for me, so I will do nothing for you. Good bye, Mrs. ‘Sparkle.’ Seeing how you refuse to render your services onto me, I think I shall continue my studies in the royal library in the castle. Have a pleasant life, madam.”

And he left with his muzzle in the air, leaving a stunned and hurt Twilight Velvet behind.

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Prince Blueblood met the middle-aged mare at their designated meeting point in the Canterlot Public Library.

“Do not cry,” the princess commanded as she dropped the sound-silencing barrier she had placed over Twilight and him. “Do not speak. Be as blank as freshly fallen snow. ”

And he did just that.

They walked back to his apartment in the castle and the moment Princess Blueblood clicked the door shut behind them, he dove into his bed and began to sob uncontrollably.

The decrepit mare’s eyes softened as she watched her nephew cry. “You have learned many valuable lessons today,” she told him as she moved to sit down on the arm chair by his bed.

“I-I do-don’t care!” he hiccupped into the pillow.

“I know it hurts,” she whispered, her tone gentle. “But it had to be done. You can’t keep spending time with a pony who can’t help you in your battle against Nightmare Moon. You can only make time for those who can.”

“Tw-Twilight was my best friend!” he argued. “She was the only one who ever treated me so nicely!”

The princess grimaced and looked away, unable to bear the sight of the heart-broken colt. “I’m sorry, nephew, but it is as I’ve told you before: you cannot be selfish. You need to focus on yourself and on real allies, ones who can fight underneath you in the coming battle.”

She waited for him to respond, but all Prince Blueblood did was cry.

“Despite your inexperience, you have shown me that you have great aptitude in many important skills needed to be king.”

“Like what?” he spat, finally looking at her with blood-shot eyes.

“Sacrifice,” she stated. “A quick wit. Composure. You’ve impressed me today, nephew.”

He flopped back down into his pillow and continued to sob in silence.

“You willfully surrendered your friendship with that Twilight Sparkle mare. You’re tongue was sharp and fast when you were cutting her down. You maintained the correct faces for when you severed your ties with her, and when you needed to appear controlled. You have done well.”

“I don’t care how well I did, I just want Twilight,” he whimpered.

Princess Blueblood sighed. “You were just like the queen today.”

He sniffed and wiped his mucus ridden muzzle with a leg. “What?”

“When the queen banished Nightmare Moon into the moon, she went through the exact same thing you’re going through, though on a much grander scale. It hurts to lose a friend, but Nightmare Moon, despite her jealousy and rage, was still Celestia’s sister, and Celestia still loves her, despite all that she did. The queen had to make a great sacrifice for not only Equestria, but for Equus. She had to be quick-witted to defeat Nightmare Moon, for that evil god was surely far more powerful than her. And she had to maintain her composure. If she didn’t, then Equus still would have suffered from the lack of movement of the sun and moon.”

Blueblood the Younger hugged a pillow. “She went through this?”

“Indeed, but unlike you, she did not have the luxury of no responsibilities.”

“I see,” he murmured.

“Even after a thousand years, the queen still bears the burden of that one faithful day. I wish that you did not have to go through something similar, but—”

“I am Blueblood,” he stated, as he sat up and went to the bathroom. “My personal feelings are irrelevant.”

She heard him run the water and listened to him splash his face. “Nephew, I—”

“Could you please glamour my scarf into a different looking colt?” he asked as he came back. “I need to continue my studies and I’ve already wasted enough time today.”

“I will do as you ask, though I am not sure how productive you’re going to be after—”

“Nightmare Moon is coming and I barely know anything about magic,” he told her. “Time is something we do not have.”

Author's Note

Please point out any typos.