In The Prince’s Chamber
“Hurry up. I don’t have any time to stay in this damned hallway! And make sure my navigation books don’t fall off until we get up to my private chamber, got it?” Blueblood said as he drank hot coffee from a paper cup. He and his trainee had just left the doors of the royal archives and are now heading towards the stairwell.
“Yes, your majesty!” Shining Armor responded, his voice slightly strained from the effort of carrying a heavy balancing pole on his shoulders. Each end of the pole had strung a basket adorned with the royal seal, and within each basket, a large amount of books were being precariously carried.
Blueblood sneakily took a glance towards Shining as they journeyed up the multitude of steps and onto the second floor. From the looks of it, he was getting fatigued and it looked like he was about to collapse any second. He sighed under his breath.
Why did Auntie have to make me train this stallion, sure I have enough experience back then but I don’t see why I should have any part of this!
He kept the pace, passing several rooms and sometimes passing by some of the palace staff who most of them averted their eyes away from the prince while keeping an otherwise intrigued look on the latter. The prince could only scoff and walk even faster.
They reached a grand set of double doors encrusted with gold carvings. The prince pulled out a small key and unlocked the door, before pushing it open. Shining stopped and placed the pole down gently on the floor, the books clattering on the floor. As they looked around the room, Shining gasped. The room was a large and spacious space; a grand king-sized bed occupied the far middle, a balcony on one side and a ludicrously large closet room on the other. Near the bed itself were two nightstands and a finely wood carved bookshelf placed near.
“Now, put down that pole and start arranging all of my collections in alphabetical order by genre!” Blueblood said, pointing his hoof towards the bookshelf near the bed. “I shall prepare myself for your first training, recruit.”
Shining sighed, his annoyance evident, as he used his magic to lift the large stack of books. He walked over to the designated bookshelf. As he arrived at the bookshelf, he looked over the books he’s supposed to arrange before looking back at the prince. Blueblood however, had made his way into the closet room, closing it with a loud thud. Shining looked back at the books, silently scowling.
I’m starting to think he’s trying to make me his personal servant. But, if I don’t want to get ousted off, I better just do what he says. Right now, he’s probably trying to clean his mane or change his collar or something.
He grinned to himself, placing the Navigation Atlas of Equestria in the N section.
Or better yet, he’s probably trying to clean his hooves off from ‘commoner dirt’. I mean, the guys from the barracks says he does that after shaking hooves in a public event. And, sure he’s her nephew, he’s an ass. Who’s going to get into bed with this guy, certainly not any mare or stallion that I know of except myself.. Wait.
He stopped as he was about to place another book. The idea of getting in bed with HIM seems utterly terrifying to him. The last thing he needed is to have his very active imagination be as wild as it can be.
Oh great. Not again, shouldn’t have thought about him in the first place. First with Cadance, then that cute guy who got booted off last week and then- WAIT MIND STOP IT!
His mind quickly spazzed out, generating multiple imaginations of him and Blueblood kissing each other, which soon evolved into an intense make out session which quickly turned into a—
WHY DO YOU KEEP DOING THIS ME! I HAD IT!
Shining slammed his head hard onto the wooden shelf, sending a couple of books to fly away from it. As he did however, he felt something whizzed past him from above and onto the ground; then he heard of a small glass breaking.
CRACK
He looked down to see a picture frame laying flat on the ground.
“Oh shit.”
Inside, Blueblood emitted a quiet grunt.
Out of all the responsibilities I have to take, THIS? Training some poor recruit until he dies exhausted? Faust, what is my luck here..
Silently muttering to himself, he began unbuttoning the various buttons before discarding the worn attire into the laundry basket. He went towards a large cabinet and pulled out a rack of various colours of warm coats. After a moment of indecisiveness, he picked a large and eloquent green coat, itself imported from the Griffonian Empire, and wore it on his body, tugging it snugly on his forehooves and his torso.
Of course I tried to argue against it, Auntie said that the council wants me to use this to ‘improve my image.’ WHAT IMAGE DO I HAVE. Either they’re nuts, or just doing it to get rid of me. Don’t they know my father’s the reason that got them to be council members in the first place?
He sighed to himself and went to his small cupboard on top of him. Using his magic, he pushed a small portable staircase under the cupboard and climbed up top. There, he grabbed a brown wool scarf, itself finely designed in Manehatten. After descending, he grabbed a nearby hairbrush to start grooming himself. He looked at his reflection and sighed deeply.
One day at a time Blueblood. One day. You’ll be above them soon.
CRASH
A loud crash echoed from the bedroom. Dropping his brush, Blueblood came out of the closet and stopped in his tracks. His eyes widened as he saw the bookshelf had fallen on top of Shining Armor. He weakly groaned under the weight of the fallen bookshelf, with the scattered collection books everywhere around him and a mild bruise on his forehead from a heavy book that fell on top of it.
Struggling to breathe easily, Shining looked at his trainer with nervousness, afraid of the latter going to report this to the lieutenant.“Yo-your majesty. I-I’m sorry.. I didn’t mean to ruin your colle- whaah!” he began but his apology was cut short by a sudden yelp as Blueblood, ignoring formalities, used his magic to lift the bookshelf off Shining Armor.
After the weight was lifted and Shining could breath easily now, he felt himself being lifted off from his hooves in a field of magic before being plopped down on the royal bed, feeling the soft and fluffy texture of the bedding. He watched as the prince suddenly showed a mixed look of concern and annoyance. He didn’t just stop there, instead he quickly went towards a door on the other side of the room before disappearing into it.
He could only lay down on the bed, feeling the luxurious comfort beneath him, his mind swirling with a mix of confusion and exhaustion. He tried moving himself to get more comfortable but as he tried to lean his body against the headboard, he winced in pain.
Blueblood emerged from the door, holding a medical kit with his teeth. He walked over next to Shining and placed the kit on the nightstand, knocking over the alarm clock in the process but he didn’t mind.
Shining watched as the prince brought some gauze pads and a bottle from what he assumed could be medicinal alcohol. Blueblood dipped a few drops of it onto the gauze before sitting next to the stallion.
“I want you to lay your head down, it’s gonna hurt.”
Shining nervously watched as the latter brought the cold pad to his bruised forehead, tightening it around the back. Shining recoiled from the sharp pain, groaning silently for a few minutes before letting the prince rest it with a damp rag.
“Well, are you feeling better now?”
“Y-yes, thank you-”
“WHAT IN TARTARUS IS WRONG WITH YOU!” Armor’s ears rang from the sudden outburst. “I’m not sure I ever met a stallion as clumsy, as unlucky or as stupid as you! I mean are you kidding me?”
“I’m sorry sir.” he said softly, Shining’s pupils and his head dropped low as Blueblood stepped away from the bed and started to pace around the room.
“Goodness gracious, look at this mess! My bookshelf is broken and I have to order another one from my supplier. I swear it’s almost like everything’s against me at this point!” he pointed towards the fallen shelf and scattered books. Shining’s head dropped even further. “I mean, how did they even let you in as a recruit if you can’t even—” Blueblood said frustratedly, before turning to see his trainee on the bed, looking thoroughly dejected.
Why-Why isn’t he fighting back? Trying to defend himself, like a proper stallion should? There’s no way that he actually feels that.. Guilty?
After a couple of seconds of looking at the young stallion silently sulking in the bed as he laid on the bed. Blueblood sighed, and walked over to the bed before sitting next to the recruit and placed a hoof on his shoulder, “Well.. I suppose I owe you an apology.” the prince said.
Instead of a verbal response, Shining Armor simply looked up at him, surprise etched across his face.
“What’s wrong?” Blueblood asked him, shifting his head a little as Shining scratched the side of face nervously as he turned away. The prince frowned, “I said, what’s wrong?” he repeated.
The stallion turned towards the prince. “I-I didn’t expect you to apologise.”
Huh?
Shining continued. “You see, I kinda heard of you? What you were like, you know? Before you became my trainer, that you were uh arrogant, stuck-up, and uh-”
“A jerkish bastard of a prince?” Blueblood finished for him, a dead-pan tone to go along with it.
Shining nodded, rubbing the back of his head before looking back at the prince. “Ye-yeah. I really didn’t expect that. You know?” he nervously said. “It-it’s kinda sweet of you?”
“Sweet?”
“Yeah. Sweet. Nice. Whatever you know? The closest pony that ever comes close to is Pri-Princess Cadance, and sometimes she comes over to the barracks to give us a morale boost. And uh, she’s very beautiful.” he said, a dreaming look on his face before his eyes widened, turning to look at the fallen bookshelf. Laying on the bed as he looked down dejectedly. “I’m sorry.”
Blueblood sighed again, no use yelling at him. It’s not gonna do anything for him nor this training he has to do for the stallion. He looked back at the stallion, tugging the bedding and hugging a nearby pillow as if he was trying to find some sort of comfort.
Goodness, he’s an adult now. But he’s acting like he’s still a foal needing his mother or something. Maybe.. He’s probably worried about me telling on him, as if I want to in the first place. I.. Have to admit, he does look rather cute when he’s hugging my pil— Wait, what am I thinking right now. No. Just give him a bit of comfort then.. Uh. You know what? I’ll just give him that bravado I have! This’ll show him.
Blueblood awkwardly climbed onto the other side of the bed over Shining Armor and laid himself next to him. “Well, no need for that. Right now, you only managed to bump your head right?” he asked the recruit, smirking.
“Uh, yeah. Should heal pretty soon.” Shining said as he looked at the prince nervously. He tried getting out of the royal bed,“Ma-maybe we can start our training, right now? I mean, it’s only been a few hours and—” but before he could do so, he yelped as a golden field of magic wrapped around him tightly.
“And have you fallen down another step? Pffft, not under my watch!” he said, forcing Shining Armor back onto the bed. The prince looked at the recruit with a bit of pride in his voice. The latter could only look at him in confusion.
Time to put years of Auntie’s oratorical practice to action!
Blueblood continued, raising his voice loudly as if he wanted everypony to hear what he was saying. “As the great sole head of the Blueblood line, I, Prince Duke Count Blueblood the First, shall ensure my personal responsibility is well taken care of, shall ensure that he felt the immense and trained to the highest standards!”
Shining watched as the prince threw up his right hoof in a sort of display of pride. This felt like he was in the presence of a king who’s leading his troops in a battle to the death. His heart felt it beat fast and his face started to turn red again. Blueblood however, didn’t seem to notice this and instead walked over to the bedroom door and opened before turning around again.
“Now, I’ll have you properly rested up and rejuvenated before our first training!” he said as he took a step back into the hallway . “Now my stallion, take good rest on the royal as I shall request the royal cook to prepare a good meal for you!” he continued, before closing the door.
Blueblood smiled proudly and started walking down towards the royal kitchens.
Now THAT is a good of showponyship, even he must’ve felt impressed. I have to give credit Auntie, she sure knows how to—
He stopped in his tracks as he remembered what he just said to his trainee.
Wait, did I just call him MY STALLION?
As the door closed loudly, Shining laid on the royal bed in shock and awe.
That.. That was.. Crap. That was.. Kinda cool of him. And I’d never thought I’d see myself in a prince’s bed and—
He blushed for a moment, before shaking his head vigorously.
No, don’t think about him, mind. Quick just-just find somepony to else to imagine about.. Like-like, CADANCE. Yeah, Cadance..
His mind agreed, and slowly replaced the images of Blueblood with Cadance instead. Shining breathed a huge sigh of relief and smiled.
Phew, thank Celestia. At least Cadance feels more appropriate than with him. Wonder what she thinks I’m doing right now.. Ugh great. What kind of stallion am I if I can’t even stack a couple of books without, wait—
For a moment he stopped his thoughts and remembered what Blueblood just said to him.
Did he just call me HIS STALLION?
Author's Note
We weren't able to finish the fic in time, but we did have fun with it. Multiple thanks to my good friend Party Pony for helping me with this chapter!
The Prince Meets The Recruit
The Prince Meets the Recruit
“Nephew?”
“Yes, Auntie?”
“What is this paper about?”
A newspaper was thrown onto the royal dining table in front of the young prince. Blueblood turned away from his pocket mirror as he was combing and turned to see a wide-angled photograph of himself at the front page along with a headline written on top of it.
NEPHEW TO PRINCESS CELESTIA SLAPS AT AND LASHES OUT TOWARDS CHARITY EVENT HOST!
Princess Celestia looked at her nephew with a stern expression. “Would you mind explaining this in front of me, please?” she said. Her tone wasn’t pleased, and was in fact very disappointed. “Because this is from The Royal Canterlot Tribune earlier and I’ve been hearing from many of my own council members that the image you’re projecting yourself here has been getting worse and worse.”
Blueblood rolled his eyes at his aunt’s worries and went back to eating his eloquently made breakfast of Prench Toast affixed with delicious strawberries and blueberries, covered under a warm maple syrup. He levitated a fork and a knife towards the meal and cut a small piece, but before he could eat it a voice to his left suddenly spoke up.
“You gotta listen to Auntie, Bluey. You said it yourself that -NOM- you’d take things down a notch! You don’t want to get -NOM- press-mobbed again don’t you? ”
He stopped eating and sighed, before turning to his left to see his cousin, Princess Cadance, munching savagely on her own breakfast. Preposterously not even using the great cutlery they’ve provided and instead using her magic and even her hooves to eat her meal, to which out of all things she can order from the chef; why did it have to be a hayburger?
“I don’t need to. Besides, it’s not my fault when that prissy mare tried to insult me on stage in front of the entire population of Manehatten!” he said, turning away from her.
Cadance tilted her head in confusion at his remark. “According to the newspaper, she only ever wanted to improve your appearance a bit. And you called her a Manehatten Whorse. And it’s not like she was going out of her way to be rude to you.’' As she finished her sentence, her cousin quickly slammed his hoof down on the table, startling both of the princess’.
“She doesn’t respect me! What kind of prissy mare in a charity event spewed such hatred to my face in front of a public crowd, where all those mangling press ponies are! She’s lucky that they hate me enough to call me liar, but if they somehow do I’d be more than—”
“Nephew!” Blueblood recoiled against the chair from his aunt’s Royal Voice. She continued, “Need I remind you that the same prissy mare has organised hundreds of charity events in her lifetime, made donations to orphanages and hospitals and is also a very good supporter of the family? I’m not worried about the royal family’s reputation but I’m worried about your reputation, nephew. I’m getting worried. You’ve been acting inconsiderate ever since your father’s passing but you need to—”
“DON’T YOU DARE SPEAK ABOUT MY FATHER!” he said, almost shouting at the table. Everywhere he went, his father didn’t ever seem to leave him alone, even in death.
Celestia sighed, realising that trying to reason with her nephew is almost fruitless. “Nephew, every one of my council members is even considering the possibility of removing you from-from the family. You know that would do?” she stressed out.
He scoffed at the notion. “Please auntie, mine’s gotten worse as it gets. You know me, right? These attention-seeking ponies deserve every word I say to them, whether they’re a noble, a politician or just a commoner.” he said, turning away from them as he held his head up high.
“Princess Celestia?”
Everyone turned towards the door as they saw a white head with black glasses resting on their muzzle peeking her head into the royal dining room. “May I have permission to enter? I have some reports to share with you. ” Raven Inkwell asked the princess. With an affirming nod, she entered the room, bowing to Cadance as she passed her side of the table. “Your majesty.” she said before heading to the princess, and passing Blueblood without a second glance.
He scoffed and proceeded to eat his own breakfast without speaking. Celestia turned to Cadance and gave her a knowing look, before turning back to Blueblood. “Nephew. I need you to do me a favour.” Celestia said to him.
Blueblood, with a mouthful of Prench Toast, raised an eyebrow inquisitively; nodding as he took a sip of his hot dark coffee.
“Recently, one of our recruits for the Royal Guard has been… underperforming greatly in his training, and the council is worried that a bad image could be projected onto the Royal Guard.” Celestia said, taking a sip of her own tea before continuing. She held an otherwise hidden grin under her smile. “So I’ve done some considerations in my room and honestly, I’m proud to announce that you are to be his official trainer for the entire month!”
Blueblood spat out his coffee towards Cadance’s face.
The room fell into a heavy silence as Shining Armor faced his lieutenant, a unicorn by the name of Locking Works, seated across from him at the office table. Locking Works’ gaze bore into Shining Armor, his voice a quiet but domineering force.
Shining could feel sweat forming on his body, maybe it’s the armour he’s wearing or just the unbearable tension he’s feeling. Either way, it’s not helping him feel any calmer.
“You know why you’re here, right?” Locking Works stated, his tone carrying a harsh tone that made Shining Armor wince in fear and nervousness. Shining took a seat on the steel chair, his fur standing on end as the lieutenant held a file bearing his face and name in his magic. The file was then slammed down with a resounding thud, causing Shining to instinctively recoil.
“We’ve given you hundreds of remedial training, we’ve given you weeks of probationary periods to give you a chance of improving. But so far, I’ve seen jack shit! What in the Tartarus are you doing, Armour!” Lieutenant Works shouted out angrily.
The file on the table seemed to be mocking him, most of the pages holding damning records of his citations, written by the other senior soldiers about his performance, none of which had anything good to say about him. He sighed to himself and his ears fell flat down, trying to hide a sniffle.
I just wanted to-to-to show her what I can do. I’m not a weak stallion. But this.. This is killing me. I can’t even finish a stupid basic training mumbo-jumbo. I just want to..
“Armour!” Lieutenant Works’ voice boomed, jolting Shining Armor from his stupor.
Shining snapped to attention, sitting up straight, his eyes locking anxiously onto the lieutenant’s stern gaze. The lieutenant looked at him with a deep-seated frustration. “You’re in the shit here, kid.” Lieutenant Works began, his voice carrying the weight of finality. “ And, Shining Armour. I spoke with the Princess’ Council and they agreed that you should be—”
Before Lieutenant Works could finish his sentence, Shining Armor impulsively threw himself over the table, desperation in his eyes and tears. “Please sir I’m sorry, I promise I’ll do better next time. I swear! I promise I’ll—”
The lieutenant pushed the young stallion back on to his seat. “I haven’t even finished my sentence and you dare to interrupt your superiors?” he sharply said, causing the latter to gulp in uneasiness. “I would’ve had you discharged right here and now if this is the kind of behaviour you’ll display.”
Shining gripped his seat in nervousness and looked away.
“But as I said, the council has decided to look at your case. And they all came to a decision, a handler.”
A-a handler? What?
Lieutenant Works continued. “Princess Celestia has discussed with them of who will be your handler, and after some deliberation they all agreed with the princess that your handler should be—”
KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK!
“Ah, perfect timing!” he said, rushing to open the door. “Princess Cadance! So glad of you to convince her majesty!”
Shining’s ears perked up at hearing her name, and immediately turned around to meet a beautiful pink alicorn princess.
Pr-princess Cadance..You-you’re my handler? Oh Faust, she’s even more beautiful than at high. She’s..
Cadance turned to Shining and momentarily had a shocked look on her face, before covering it with an uneasy smile. “Oh-oh! Shining Armour, I didn’t expect you to be here. I-I mean, you’re supposed to be the troubled recruit he’ll be training?” she said, rubbing her hoof on the side of her head.
HE?
Shining’s awe was quickly turned into confusion. But before he could say anything, another pony walked into the office. Cadance turned to the pony before turning back to the young recruit with a nervous grin. Shining’s eyes went wide and his pupils dilated into pinpricks.
“Well, Shining Armour. I want you to greet Prince Blueblood. He’ll be helping you with your training for a few weeks!”
