Princess Celestia's biggest regret was and forever will be having not been able to save her sister from succumbing to her jealousy and being possessed by the Nightmare spirits which allowed her to become Nightmare Moon until she was still too late. However she knew what her biggest regret in recent years was...
Having made her nephew Prince Blueblood her personal protégée! He was like how Sunset had been when she was her protégée... only a billion times worse...
While they were both arrogant, impatient and had a very low opinion of other ponies thinking they were beneath her... at least Sunset was hardworking and had actual tremendous talent to back up her showboating. Blueblood however was lazy, only did the bare minimum to get by in his classes and even then it would take some (okay a whole lot of) prodding to make even that effort! Plus Sunset didn't treat all the Castle staff as his own personal servants.
She had sent him to oversee the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville hoping he would manage to make friends and find the Elements of Harmony so they could save Ponyville. To her delight she later that night found her sister Princess Luna in her former form wanting to apologise to her... but soon went to shock and surprise when she found a message for help on the Moon. She went to the moon only to be confused beyond belief when she found Blueblood being a self proclaimed emperor of a people and society made out of rocks.
She felt like she had needed a mug of cider after that... Especially when he started to go even further out of his mind and started singing on the way back.
Well after getting back he seemed to take no time at all in getting back to his usual self but she still had to deal with him now after knowing how he had gotten on in Ponyville. She got the details in a report from her sister and five mares from Ponyville she had befriended and wanted to scream out loud at what she read...
Why on Equestria had she not listened to Kibitz when he tried to talk her out of taking him under her wing? Why, Why, WHY?
Well what was done was (unfortunately) done, still at least she got her sister back, she said that her new friend Pinkie Pie wanted to show her the Judge Dredd costume she had gotten for the Variant Cover (whoever Judge Dredd was and what she meant by that, Princess Celestia really didn't care at the moment) but would be here later so they can start readjusting her to modern Equestria. That was good and before then she scheduled fifteen minutes where Kibitz would tell her 'I Told You So' nonstop for the whole quarter of an hour (she felt like she really deserved that).
She had called Blueblood to her personal office and was angrily facing him as he prattled on. "Glad that you could come and get me, being emperor of the Moon was nice at first but the Bubble Tea stand would not serve me, plus the Spa did not work so I am glad that things can get back to normal... can you believe what had happened during my time in Ponyville..." Blueblood drabbled on but a sharp slam on the desk by Celestia's hoove caused him to jump and squeeze his pet Bunny into a tight hug in fear. Bunny struggled to get out as Blueblood looked at the angry look on his aunt's face.
"No I do not believe what had happened, according to the report I got you had managed to anger and insult just about every pony who had come into contact with you during your time in Ponyville. You had the guards take you to Manhattan wasting hours when you were supposed to be overseeing the preparations, you treated Applejack like a servant when she thought she was helping you with a plan against Nightmare Moon, you used helpless animal pets of Fluttershy as well as your own pet to shield yourself, you had distracted Rainbow Dash during an attempt to stop the situation just so she could sign a form and you had insulted Rarity and Pinkie Pie!" Celestia thundered at him shaking her head.
"Sorry Aunt but I am not suited to deal with riffraff like in Ponyville and I needed errands done before then, I can't see myself doing these types of task again." Blueblood replied crossing his hooves allowing Bunny to escape when he had let go of him.
"Don't worry my dear faithful student, you don't ever have to deal with any tasks like that again..." Celestia told him with a smirking tone which made Blueblood relaxed. He then went back to being afraid as she angrily told him "BECAUSE YOU ARE NO LONGER MY PERSONAL STUDENT, HENCEFORTH YOU WILL BECOME JUST LIKE ANY OTHER NORMAL STUDENT AT MY SCHOOL!"
Blueblood didn't really care as he didn't like the extra responsibilities and lectures this title had given him. "I am fine with that, if you excuse me please I need to go to the Spa now..." Blueblood said but before he could get out the door Princess Celestia used the magic to shut the door.
"When I said you will be like any other student I meant it, until further notice I am revoking your royal privileges and duties." Princess Celestia told him with a stern face which caused Blueblood's face to freeze in horror. "Which means you cannot order the staff around, you have to do your work yourself and if you want to go to the spa or have bubble tea... you should see about getting work to pay for it yourself or save up since I am changing it so you only get a certain amount of allowance every week. One more thing, you have been failing most of your classes and if you had done the overseeing correctly I was hoping to give you just enough extra credit to pass but it seems like you will now have to repeat the school year!" Princess Celestia finished hoping all this would finally get through to him so he can take some responsibility.
After all this information went through his brain one question came to mind and he asked:
"...but how about if I need to get some cashmere from Manehattan?"
Outside the castle the two top students in Blueblood's year at Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns (indeed the top students of the entire school) were having a picnic together as they discussed an important literary topic. "How can you like the books post the original Daring Do trilogy Twilight? They devolved form smart books featuring clever puzzle solving to just brainless action?" Moondancer asked tucking in some sandwiches Moondancer's sister had made for her and her best friend Twilight's picnic. Twilight's dragon friend was at Twilight's house helping her older brother Shining Armor organise his old comic book collection.
Twilight after taking a bite was about to respond when they heard yelling and looked to the front door to see Prince Blueblood being telekinetically thrown out of the door and landing on the grass. "You think Princess Celestia finally got rid of the pompous jerk?" Moondancer asked and Twilight shrugged.
They then gasped when they noticed Princess Celestia from the door spotted them and then went up to them. What could their monarch want with them? Would it have to do with the news they had gotten that her long lost sister Princess Luna had returned?
Author's Note
I really enjoyed the comic as I had gotten it on Comixology, in my opinion the funniest comic in all the IDW MLP stuff, spoilers for it within.
I had already had an idea for this story after I had read it but I had discovered a story on deviantart called My Little Pony Deviations Aftermath by VISION-KING.
I will admit my biggest fear after reading the premise is that in a life not being the princess's student, Twilight (my fave MLP character) would face a life of failure which would include her not passing her exam like some stories I know that are out there. However the background cameo of her on the first few pages (which sadly are all we see of her in the comic) show that she is accepted which she is happy about.
