"Prince Blueblood!" The voice of Princess Celestia echoed throughout Canterlot Castle, carrying through the many halls and into the quarters of Prince Blueblood. He looked up from his mirror and groaned. The prince did not like to be interrupted, especially in the middle of one of his meticulous grooming sessions. However, his better judgement told him to go see what his aunt wanted, and he got up with a sigh.
He trotted into his aunt's throne room, and Celestia looked at him, her face stone cold. "We have a lot to talk about." she said sternly, and Blueblood's eyes widened in shock.
"Wh-why?" he gasped, putting a hoof to his chest in surprise. "I am a perfect gentlepony."
"That is debatable." Celestia muttered under her breath, then cleared her throat. "You remember the Grand Galloping Gala a few years back?"
"Indeed." Blueblood nodded, although he wasn't quite sure where Celestia was going with this whole thing.
"You treated Ms. Rarity absolutely horrible that night." Celestia said sternly, earning a confused look from the prince. "As well as acted quite rude to Ms. Applejack. As far as manners go, you had the absolute worst of anypony at the Gala that year."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Blueblood said, a confused look on his face. "I did what was best for me! After all, I am royalty, and she was a commoner. I was doing her a favor for simply allowing her to be in my presence."
Celestia gave an exasperated sigh. "Blueblood, you have shown that you have no idea how to be a good friend."
"What?!?" Blueblood shouted, looking annoyedly at his aunt. "You must be delusional! I am the picture of perfection! I will not-"
"SILENCE!" Celestia shouted in anger, her voice so loud it caused a few birds to fly away in fright. "Tomorrow, you will be leaving to live in the town of Ponyville with Princess Twilight Sparkle for a month. I hope you can learn something there."
"Ugh!" Blueblood snorted in frustration, stomping his way back to his quarters. What did I do wrong, he thought as he sat on his bed, looking at himself in the mirror. Now that he was thinking about it, though, it seemed there was some truth to his aunt's words. Not many ponies seemed to want to be around him ever since that night. He had always noticed a spark of disdain in the eyes of the ponies he talked to, and most of his dates did seem to end in disaster. But he knew that it was their fault. Right?
He recalled what his aunt had said, about living with a Princess in some backwater town for a month or something. He didn't quite understand what made this particular pony so special. Celestia had chosen this 'Twilight Sparkle' for her personal student, and had become a princess about a year ago. As far as he knew, she wasn't as great as him. Surely she must have been chosen because of her regalness and elegance. Yes, Blueblood nodded to himself, that must be it.
Later that night, Celestia came into her nephew's room as he looked at her angrily. "What do you want?" he snapped. Celestia sighed, looking at her nephew with concern.
"You're leaving tomorrow, you know." she said, "I hope you will behave well."
"Of course! When do I not?" Blueblood laughed, causing Celestia to sigh in annoyance. "I'll have to pack my-"
"There is no need for that." Celestia cut him off, and he looked at her in surprise. "You will live in the castle of the princess, and she has many guest rooms. You will also be wearing a simple blue scarf to fit in better with the ponies of the town." she added, levitating a large, dirty blue neckercheif in front of her, and he looked at it with disgust.
"You want me to wear that?" Blueblood asked nervously, as Celestia levitated it over to him. He backed away from it a bit, as it it were a tarantula.
"Yes." Celestia nodded without flinching. "You have to."
Blueblood sighed at this trivial detail, but he relented and put on the scarf, although he kept squealing and making annoyed noises as he did so. He looked at himself in the mirror, now wearing the scarf instead of his usual suit and bow tie, and made a face of disgust.
Celestia looked at him. This was going to be one long month for Princess Twilight.
Twilight Sparkle levitated her book in front of her, placing her bookmark into it and laying it on her nightstand. She had just started reading Daring Do and the Eternal Flower, and she yawned as she sat on the edge of her bed. As she was about to hit the hay for the night, she heard a loud burp from downstairs, followed by a bright flash of light.
"Spike!" Twilight called to her assistant as she trotted down the stairs. "What did the Princess send?"
"It's a letter!" Spike answered as she came down the stair, and she levitated the letter in front of her. "Mind telling me what it says?" he asked, and Twilight cleared her throat and began to read.
Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,
This letter is to inform you of an important event. For the next month, my nephew, Prince Blueblood, will be staying in your castle with you and Spike. This is to help him be better educated in friendship, and who better to teach him than the Princess of Friendship herself? You know very well why, after all, you were at the Gala a few years back. You have many guest rooms in your castle, if I am not mistaken, so he may stay in one of those. Please make sure that he behaves himself. He will not be coming with any luggage, so make sure you have a bed and any things he may need in him bedroom. Spike needs to come to Canterlot as well, as there is something going on here that he may find interesting. I hope this isn't too soon. He is coming tomorrow on the train.
Your mentor,
Princess Celestia
Twilight Sparkle let out a little shriek in surprise, then growled. "Spike, go prepare a guest room, and then get your things together to go to Canterlot. I need to go to sleep." Spike nodded curtly, running off to his room excitedly. He knew what the princess had meant when she said that he might find something interesting there; it was DragonCon! A gathering of all of the dragons in Equestria to talk about any and all things dragon! He was exited to see Mina, his friend from Dragon Town who owned a comic shop, again.
Twilight trotted up to her room and reread the letter. Then, she reread it again. She shook her head. Then, she read it again. No, she wasn't imagining it. Princess Celestia had asked her to have Blueblood live with her! Twilight didn't know how to react. On one hoof, it showed that Celestia had more trust in her student to fulfill her duty as the Princess of Friendship. But it was Prince Blueblood. He wasn't exactly the most charming prince out there; Rarity had made sure that Twilight knew that. And even recently, she had heard barely anything about the prince. From what Celestia had written, it seemed that he had not changed at all.
Twilight heard a rumble from Spike's bedroom, and she knew that he was probably trying to stuff as many comics in his suitcase as he could. She laughed a little, and then used her magic to roll the scroll back up and place it on her nightstand. She turned her light off, and lay staring up at the crystal ceiling.
She didn't know whether she was looking forward to this month or not, but she knew it was going to be a very interesting one.
Twilight's sleep was very choppy. She kept waking up every few hours, looking at the clock, reading a few pages in her book, rereading the letter, and trying to go back to sleep. She didn't know why he was so nervous. She thought about it while she fidgeted in her sleep. Why would Celestia asked her to 'reform' Blueblood, of all ponies? She had half assumed that he had just up and left Equestria before today, but now she knew that he was still here. And now he was living with her.
Or, he would be. In exactly 6 hours.
Twilight smashed her face into her pillow in exasperation. She wanted to sleep, but she just couldn't. A pony, the nephew of her mentor at that, was going to live with her for a month! She got up, and trotted over to her bookcase. Most of her books were in her book room; one of many extra rooms in her expansive castle. Up in her own bedroom, she had all of her Daring Do novels, as well as a few romance novels and some scientific books. She ran her hoof across the books and sighed. Her books always made her feel safer. They reminded her of the now-demolished Golden Oak Library, and the Canterlot Library before that.
She decided to go see the room that Spike had set up for Blueblood. She trotted through the vast, empty halls to a room with a small sign bearing a crudely drawn version of Blueblood's cutie mark on the door. Twilight smiled slightly at the fact that Spike had even made a little sign to help her.
She opened the door to see an empty, made-up bed and a small table next to it. Twilight frowned at the empty feeling of it, and the looked at the book she had been carrying under her wing: Daring Do And The Razor Of Dreams. She then levitated it in front of her and placed it on the bed. No matter how rude her guest was, she supposed he'd probably want something interesting to read.
Twilight trotted back to her room, feeling somehow refreshed. She read the letter over once more, and then drifted back off to sleep.
The next day, Twilight woke to the light of the sun seeping through her window rather than Spike running around in the kitchen. She tried to recall why she couldn't hear the little dragon, but then she remembered: Blueblood was coming to Ponyville today.
He would arrive in the later portion of the day, but there was still a question nagging at the back of Twilight's mind: what had Blueblood done that had made Celestia crack? She was usually very calm and collected. She decided to write her a letter.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I was wondering why exactly you sent Blueblood here. You seemed a bit stoic in your last letter, and I hope you're OK. Anyway, what did Blueblood do that made you send him to me?
Your faithful student,
Princess Twilight Sparkle
Twilight tossed the letter into the air, zapping it to Celestia in a poof of magic. She had been studying letter-sending magic for a solid hour that night, and she thought she was pretty good at it. A few moments later, she got her response.
My faithful student,
Sorry for my earlier bluntness. I was so mad at my nephew that I didn't write very clearly. The reason is that lately, he has become even more full of himself, to the point where I was getting complaints from my friends and hosts at parties that he was being rude. I hope you will understand that I am not doing this to harm you or Blueblood. It would be very unkind of me to do so.
Your mentor and friend,
Princess Celestia
Twilight Sparkle put down the letter with a sigh. She felt like she had been worrying too much. She trotted over to her small mirror and began to brush her mane, looking nervously at herself.
Why am I so nervous?, Twilight asked herself. She had been telling herself that it was just because somepony was staying at her house, that's all. But she kept circling back to Blueblood. What was it about him that made her so nervous?
Prince Blueblood boarded the Friendship Express, earning many confused looks from the other ponies. The prince wore only a royal blue neckerchief, and his mane was slightly unkempt. However, he tried to put on an important air, holding his head high. He got on the train, and soon it was pulling out of the station.
He thought back to the things he had done earlier that year, including many flawed dates, another cake to the face, and one particular pony couple complaining about him being 'too full of himself'. It seemed very small to him, to the point where he he all but forgotten about it, but his aunt seemed to remember it all too well. He didn't really understand what it had to do with making friends at all. After all, why would a royal want to have friends in the first place?
Prince Blueblood firmly believed that his job as a ruler did not include making friends. Maybe this was cliche, but he didn't really care. He didn't see why Celestia even crowned this Princess anyway, other than she was the 'teacher's pet'. Blueblood pulled a note out of the folds of his neckerchief, which explained what Celestia wanted him to do. Apparently, he had to go about everyday life in the backwater town as a commoner rather than a royal. This confused him greatly, due to the fact that he was living with a royal! Surely she was elegant, proper, and important just like himself.
He looked out the window as the train arrived in the station, and stood up as he prepared to get off the train. He had absolutely no idea what he was getting into.
Princess Celestia sat in her throne room, sighing as she thought about the events of the past few months. It seemed trivial, really, to base her motives solely on her nephew's actions 3 years ago. But that wasn't the only trouble he'd gotten into. At the Grand Galloping Gala of just last year, he had been very disrespectful to a few orphans that had finally gathered enough money to come. He also did not like to interact with other ponies, and she'd noticed that he'd been spending more time with himself than with other ponies.
She supposed that she could've told Twilight this, but she had decided not to. She didn't want to put Twilight off to the task. She worried now that she'd come off as vengeful and without purpose, since she'd left out so much. But she knew that Twilight would know that she didn't mean any harm.
She hoped she hadn't made Twilight too unsure.
