A familiar barrel-chested stallion with the alabaster continence and blonde locks pranced majestically through the halls of Castle Canterlot. His ever-present personal guardsmen, Hans and Fritz, trailed not far behind, their coats as fair as the prince's, except Hans sported a simple black mane while Fritz's was slightly browner. The guardsponies manes were cut short and militaristic, hardly visible under their bronze armor.

Prince Blueblood wore no armor, but rather a perfect regal demeanor, and beneath it he was seething. His aunt, to use the honorific term of endearment for the majestic ruler of the land, Princess Celestia, had just finished explaining to him in the most demeaning means possible that he really aught to get married.

Married?! The idea seemed ridiculous for many reasons.

First, because the prince was currently the laughingstock of Equestria due to a backfiring scheme that caused the greater part of the pony populace of their fair land to witness him being dragged back to Canterlot by his ear. Who would ever want to marry him when so many they were blinded enough by scandal so as to be unable to recognize his flawless perfection?

Second, because there was only one pony he knew would be worthy of the honor of his hoof, by virtue of actually having known him and not just his reputation, but their courtship had not really begun. Given that she had towering pride nearly equal to his own, little progress had been made other than a convenient excuse for her to move into the castle.

In fact, this poor mare had been subjected to Celestia's demeaning display alongside Blueblood, and her reaction was to flee to her quarters here at the castle. Some niggling mental suggestion had managed to worm its way under the prince's nearly indomitable sense of self-satisfaction long enough to tell him that he should probably have a consultation with the castle's newly-appointed royal magician.

So it was that the prince's three pony parade came to an abrupt halt in front of the door of the royal magician, nearly causing Hans and Fritz to capsize in their heavy guardspony armor.

On one side of the door stood a unicorn mare with a vanilla coat and amber mane done up in a formal style, wearing the lacy outfit of the castle's royal maid corps. Blueblood recognized her as Primrose, the senior of the two attendants of the royal magician. The prince was not in the habit of acknowledging the existence of the help about the castle, but this one was rather difficult to ignore.

Not at all intimidated by an heir to the Celestian bloodline and his attache of two hardened troops, Primrose was currently fixing the prince a look that she would normally reserve for a particularly resistant stain on the carpet.

The prince cleared his throat. "We are here to consult with the royal magician." he stated in regal perfection.

The response was immediate, firm, and infallibly tactful. "The royal magician is indisposed at this time." Primrose was rumored to be royalty herself, although why she chose to be a maid was anypony's guess. In any case, in that one spoken line, her expertise in shutting down the request from a prince could have been the basis of a four-year case study in Equestrian diplomacy.

For a normal pony, such a flat dismissal would have been regarded as commonplace, possibly even a challenge to be overcome. The prince was unique, however, in that he had been drilled to be flawless in many regards. So flawless, in fact, that he was a rank novice when it came to life not going flawlessly. Yes, he had been utterly defeated by a simple "no" through sheer inexperience of it happening.

Thus, the prince decided it was time to delegate. "Hans, Fritz. Break down the door."

Primrose, being a mere noblemare in the lowly position of a castle maid, was determinedly smaller than the three full-grown stallions before her. But there was something strange about Primrose, an inner strength that now made itself known. Expressionless, she cast a simple glance to the two white stallions under the prince's employ. A glance that, on the surface, was quite polite. Yet, beneath the surface, she conveyed waves of doom that reeked of such utter carnage that the hardened guardsponies found themselves quaking in their armor and holding each other for support.

The prince facehoofed as only royalty whose help had completely failed him could. Then he took a deep breath, collected his thoughts (as few and far between as they were), and tried something so new and alien that it made his skin crawl.

"Please. It's important."

Primrose regarded the prince's highly uncharacteristic request with an arched eyebrow, a behemoth regarding an ant's strange quirks, but only for a second. "Very well." she said simply, and stepped aside.

Sometimes, Prince Blueblood considered hating Primrose. Only briefly, however, as he was far too busy using decades of training to conceal his terror of her. Signaling his guards to remain outside in the presence of their tormentor, he stiffly stepped through the door to consult the royal magician.

"Who dares to disturb the Great and Powerful Trixie?!" boomed the royal magician, as a heavy glass goblet flew through the air and bludgeoned the prince neatly on the nose!

Author's Note

While The Blueblood Conspiracy is basically retconned into an alternate reality, which may have inspired Celestia's puppet show, there are some elements I enjoyed from the story I'm keeping in canon, such as Primrose. Which part of The Blueblood Conspiracy is true and which part is not? That's part of the mystery!