Anthro

Blueblood looked at his reflection, the stallion that stared back looked unfamiliar. He stared into the aqua blue eyes of his reflection as he adjusted his bow tie and his tuxedo, his shining mane was well groomed and ready for the public, his coat was freshly cleaned, and his teeth were heavily cleaned. Something was different about his reflection, it was more handsome than ever. The snobby unicorn wanted to kiss his reflection, but he would spoil his lips by touching the mirror that stood before him.

As he stared at his beautiful doppelgänger that resided in the mirror, he said to himself in a hum, "It's that time again, that time of the day where I go and smile to the press, kiss a few babies, maybe mention how much education is needed these days. If only they all looked like you, maybe then I wouldn't have to pretend to smile." He sighed, being involved in politics was hard work for the most part, but tonight something was different about the crowd he was about to face. They didn't seem as excited to see him as they usually were, they had fallen silent as they patiently awaited his entrance. There wasn't an electricity in the air that agitated the audience to clamour for his attention, for his unique and unforgettable gaze. This bothered Blueblood, so much so that he would wait patiently in his dress room for the energy to happen. Alas that energy never came.

The room was warmly lit by the round bulbs that encompassed his mirror, they shined their lights onto his beautiful visage and made the wine-coloured room glow with a sensual faint tone. A small window gave way to the rest of Canterlot, the view from his room gave way to the small quiet city that would soon be his. From his private dress room from the Canterlot Castle, Blueblood could look over his city he so wished could be renamed to "Blueblood City" in honour of his eventual god-like status. Across his walls were small snippets of various newspapers, all with his name in the headlines. Such pieces read in bold letters "BLUEBLOOD FOUNDS SCIENTIFIC PROTECTION FACILITY " other titles went along the lines of, "BLUEBLOOD SUSPECT OF ANIMAL CRUELTY" all of those he denied claims to.

He looked over all the pieces of news, none of which ever spoke of Blueblood's definite claim to power and higher status, but to him this was all soon to change. He moved aside some of the more recent prints to find one from when he was a younger foal that read in thick bold print, "CELESTIA CARES FOR BLUEBLOOD: ORIGINAL MOTHER STILL MISSING" This one piece often made the prince question whether he really was meant to be in royalty, or even if he was meant to be any pony at all. Yet every time he looked at this small piece of history he would always remind himself that everypony can make a name of themselves, that nopony can force him to be less than he sees fit.

As he lipped this reminder once more, an image of the unnamed creature that he accidentally froze to near-death popped into his mind. It had only been a few nights ago, how he was forcing it to be less of an equal than him. A strong knot began to form in his stomach, almost as though he were regretting his choices. Before the full feeling of regret could sink in, he remembered the scriptures from the scrolls of the elders. The scrolls depicting of their violence and how they created them solely for violence and destruction, and how it was only fair that these creatures remain in the depths of Tartarus for the remaining eternity. He imagined all the innocent equines, many of whom were probably foals, were slaughtered by their own creators with no second thought. He imagined the creatures forcing them to do jobs that could very well kill them simply because these two legged monsters didn't want to do the jobs themselves. The pure royal blood boiled within the regal stallion, his jaw clenched and his teeth began to grind. He may not like to be touched by the lower class folks of Canterlot, but the thought of the masses of them being slaughtered for the fun angered him even more and reminded him of why he wanted to keep the creature locked up in the first place.

Suddenly, a faint knock upon his door brought him back into reality, the suddenness of the quick pounding upon the carved door made the unicorn nearly jump from his skin. A mare spoke through the door, "Your highness," she began after clearing her throat, "the ponies await your arrival."

He paused, taking a few seconds to look over all his newspapers, the mass of them covering his wall opposite to the window so the moon's light could shine upon her supposed son's work and eventual success. He looked towards his reflection one last time as he spoke with a faked smirk, as though he were trying to convince his own reflected image that he had no burning anger that broiled within the bottom of his heart. As he gave a wink to his reflection he said in a low voice, "Show time, Blueblood."

The door opened to reveal a middle aged mare, her fur coat being only a shade lighter than her brown mane. Her hazel eyes stared up at him through her curling muffin coloured mane as she spoke once more, "Right this way, your highness." Blueblood reluctantly followed her down the hall, the tall roof standing above them gave room for lots of portraits of the past ponies of high status. A few of them were of him, seeing as there hadn't been many memorable ponies that weren't royalty with the exception of a few. After all, a wall looks good either empty or full of paintings and pictures alike, so Blueblood's beautiful face needed to fill in many empty spots amongst the other paintings. As they walked down the hall, the tall stallion would glance out the even taller windows to see the small building he had been in only a few hours earlier. It appeared as though a small red light was flashing from the inside, he quickly dismissed that as his mind playing tricks with him and continued down the hallway until reaching a door to the outside.

The brown mare stopped before him, placing her clipboard in her light saddlebag to open the door for the royal pony. As he passed through, glancing over his shoulder, he said in a low voice almost unable to be heard, "Thank you."

What followed next was the usual for him these days, millions of flashes of light surrounded him as even more ponies for various newspapers across the kingdom shouted out their questions in dire hope of him answering them. The bright lights were ecstasy to him, the attention was intoxicating, and the amounts of time he heard his name was over-stimulating. As he approached the few microphones that belonged to the highest regarded news sources, he raised a hoof and waved gently. His unshorn fetlocks swayed in the gentle cool air of the night as his eyes twinkled and his teeth shined.

"Please," he called out very calmly in his charismatic voice, "one at a time if you please. Some silence would be greatly appreciated." He somewhat enjoyed the silence amongst the chaos every now and then (although if everypony were to shout his name in unison that would be most welcome).

One reporter stood at the tip of her hooves to stand out amongst the rest of the ponies as she exclaimed, "Mr. Blueblood, more reports have been made about you harbouring dangerous creatures for experimentation. Are these claims true?"

The stallion in question gave a slight chuckle as he replied to her, "The studying that goes on within the facility is in fact not dangerous. All experiments that have been performed were done under professional manners in order to better protect the ponies of Canterlot."

Another reporter shouted from the back, "What about the claims that you are developing weapons for the Equestrian Army and that you are planning to invade Saddle Arabia."

Blueblood turned his head towards the pony who had spoken, giving the younger stallion a harsh look as though to tell him to shut his mouth, "In all honesty, waging war on a country that my aunt had just visited would be stupid and an all around horrible idea seeing as they provide us with the majority of our oil we use in a year."

Yet another pony decided to pipe up with his own question, "What are your goals with the recently established facility of yours?"

Blueblood casually replied as he smiled to the cameras, "The goals are simple, to learn about the world around us, with better knowledge today, our children will have a better education tomorrow." When Blueblood finished his sentence, he threw his wavy silk hair over his head and gave his iconic smile to the cameras which began to flash all around him once more, his eyes were filled with bright blinding lights and he was enjoying every minute of it.

One of the reporters that had already spoken decided to ask aloud once more, "If its to better understand the world around us, and to further the education system, then why is the secrecy needed?"

"Secrecy is important because we want no information to fall into the hooves of the Changelings, whom would use the information against us as best as possible. They are the enemy and we will stand victorious as we always do!" Blueblood wished he could roll his sky blue eyes as the crowds once more ate up the "Changelings are the enemy" line once more. He knew the memory of the attack was still fresh in the minds of Canterlot and knew he could exploit their fear of an attack to further his popularity. If there was one thing he knew, it was that a pony alone was smart but a city of ponies are stupid and will act in fear at the mention of war while a pony alone could see through the improbability of his statement.

The cameras began to flash once more like a storm, but amongst the chatter and clicks of cameras, a small and faint voice made it to the prince's ear, "Mr. Blueblood," the voice squeaked, "I have a question."

Blueblood looked over the crowd, he saw no stallion or mare that could match the age of the voice, the voice sounded quite young to be in a crowd. He smiled his iconic half grin as he said with a gentle laugh, "Who said that? Come on up front."

Eventually a small yellow head popped from between the hooves of the crowd and stared up at Blueblood with bright green eyes that shined like lasers. Her small yellow mane was covering half of her face before she blew it aside, the crowd was melting at their hearts when the innocent filly approached the prince so nervously. Something about her eyes seemed off to Blueblood though, it seemed as though her mind was on something else and wasn't the Prince everypony loved, she seemed very nervous. She cleared her throat and squeaked in a nervous voice, "I work for the Foal Free Press, what is your favourite colour?"

The crowd began to melt with adoration for the young filly, the situation was absolutely adorable and Blueblood saw his opportunity to boost his popularity amongst parents and said in a warm and gentle voice, "You know what my favourite colour is? It's green, the same colour as your beautiful eyes." Blueblood picked up the foal and sat her on the table amongst the microphones, the crowd continued to "awe" at the moment. From the corner of his eye he could see what appeared to be the filly's mother smiling with a tear in her eye, he knew he hit jackpot right there and wasn't ready to end it there. To send the moments adorableness over the top, he gave the foal a kiss on her forehead and personally returned her to the mother that stood at the back of the crowd.

As he made his way there, with the foal floating in his magic, cameras flashed like wildfire around him trying to capture the moment where a prince carries the young innocent child to her mother who would otherwise have been an ever age mother and daughter. He smiled for the cameras and took a few pictures with the mother and daughter before moving back to the front of the crowd to finish up the interview, he was in an ocean of attention that he was enjoying very much, knowing that he was surely going to become a more important pony than ever before with moves like that. He knew that the rest of the interviews really didn't matter after that, nothing could top that for any newspaper.

The rest of the night went by like a blur, after a few hours of speaking with the press and having individual interviews with the higher ponies of society, after kissing babies non stop, and reminding Canterlot that Changelings are evil and all that, Blueblood found himself in the Castle's restaurant. He sat at a round table with a few select other stallions that could control the world as well, Hoity Toity and a few other celebrities. They all sat at the centre table and shared stories and laughs about their superior lives compared to the 99%.

"I have been having such a hard time with my hotel in Manehattan," Hoity Toity began, "the carriage they sent for me had no sunroof and only had one mini fridge." The rich snobs all sympathized with the designer's harsh living conditions.

Another actor smirked as he recounted an incident of his own, "I had some nobody mare approach me and ask for my autograph. She was around her adolescent years and had the ugliest braces you could imagine. The poor filly had such a poorly kept mane that I wished I could tell her to leave me alone."

The stallion to Blueblood's right, who was obviously a sports star judging by the smell of cheap deodorant he was endorsing, leaned forward and adjusted his nicely pressed suit as he spoke, "Ugh, I hate it when the gross ones approach you, what did you do?"

"Simple," the actor began, "in my nearly unreadable cursive I wrote 'go clean that rat nest' she seemed so happy to be next to me that she probably didn't even try to read it." This caused the rest of the high status ponies to laugh along with him, Blueblood seemed to feel slightly equal amongst this crowd. Although none of them were royalty like him so he was still just a bit better than them.

Blueblood decided to add his own story of woes, "My mom once got me a dark blue chariot instead of a black one, how frustrating is that?" The crowd was silent, none of them seemed to laugh or look at him with much sympathy. In fact, the sports star to his right gave him a look as though to say he sounded pathetic.

"That's not that bad, your highness." The athlete added emphasis on the word highness as to suggest something he wasn't getting at all, that was somewhat unusual for him.

A military hero spoke up from across the table, he usually remained silent through most of these gatherings in order to retain his awesome appearance, only seldom did he speak and it was usually for greetings and goodbyes. Tonight he decided to speak to Blueblood, he sounded slightly put off by the prince's woes for some reason, "You have nothing to complain about pretty boy." The hero topped his hat in order to shoot the snow-white prince a cold look with his burning red eye that still remained, he finally decided to switch positions from laid back to sitting upright for once and continued, "You are a prince, you were born into fame. Everypony else here has had to work for their status and can have reason to complain about what they have. The money you spend s not yours, you just need to ask your mommy for another thirty billion bits every now and then while these stallions here worked for half that amount." Blueblood began to have a sinking feeling in his heart when the grey pony leaned forward to reveal the scar across his face, "I fought for your family, in a war we could have just avoided. My best friend was lost all those years ago so you could sleep well at night. Despite the life we give for you to carry on like nothing, only the fewest get to even be remembered on their gravestones. I am only at this table because of my name, Brave Soul, not because of money or fame, I made only a fraction of what you get as allowance in a week."

Blueblood went to interject, to add a piece of information to maybe help the group favour him but the grey veteran stood up as he spoke through a raspy voice, "Until you can only visit your friends by staring at a blank tombstone, until you watch everything you stood for be torn apart, until you see the true realities that you say you understand, then you can tell me of the problems you have, Blueblood."

The crowd was dead silent, the fact that the veteran didn't even address him as a prince was a real shocker, but what he said was quite true. Blueblood didn't lose his best friend, he didn't sleep in the mud at nit while avoiding death in the day for a few years in a foreign land, and judging by how Brave Soul added emphasis on his name suggested they all realized he wasn't an Alicorn like the princesses. He felt torn by what had just happened and watched as the middle aged hero made his way to the exit, the prosthetic limbs not making it any easier for him.

The silence that followed was painful for the poor prince, the others finished their drinks and immediately looked towards him when the bill came to the table. Blueblood looked at the triple digit number and gave a fake smile, "Don't worry, friends, drinks are on me." Unfortunately, it appeared as though he didn't have his wallet with him, he didn't own this restaurant either to he was in a slight pickle. The thought of his friends at the table chipping in for once gave him slight hope as he stammered, "I seem to have forgotten my wallet, can one of you pay for once?"

"Can't you just say your the prince and get what you want?" Hoity Toity gave a look towards Blueblood as reference to what Brave had mentioned earlier. The other ponies looked towards him as well as thoughntheynwerenall wondering the same thing. This was shocking to Blueblood, shouldn't friends help other friends out when they are in need?

"They don't do that kind of stuff here, they already work for royalty and thus have gotten used to my presence. I'm sure I could pay you back when I get my wallet."

One by one, the ponies quickly stood up and left the table and used lame excuses such as, "My wife is probably expecting me." or "I need to get home, I think I have a conference to plan for." This made Blueblood's gut knot itself tenfold, his heart was broken by how quickly his friends abandoned him when he had no money for them. So there he sat, with the expensive bill in front of him and empty chairs beside him. Blueblood gave a weak sigh as he sat there in an awkward situation, this was the first time he would be kicked out all because his friends abandoned him.

He then asked himself, were they really friends or were they just there because they were almost as famous as him? Who wouldn't want to be friends with him, he was a prince, a charming, handsome, charismatic, rich, well groomed, prince.

The only pony he knew that talked to him as though he weren't a prince was that aqua-blue mare, Lyra, but she did it without trying to insult him. Why did he feel so different about Lyra's approach to him compared to the ponies who had abandoned him just now? When Lyra smiled, she seemed so nice and appreciative of his presence, unlike these jerks who left him at the first opportunity. He needed to find out why she was so different and why she never left him, maybe there was something he was missing that she just knew so well.

One awkward scene of being kicked out of the restaurant he almost owned, Blueblood hailed his personal carriage back to his room, never speaking a word the entire trip there. As he sat in the luxurious interior, he stared into the distance and thought about how he had been treating others that could have been friends. The feeling of being surrounded by others that are like you is one thing, but what if there was something better than that and that could be achieved much simpler? His train of thought was cut short when the vehicle stopped at his doorstep, one of his assistants opened the door for him as the old pony spoke softly, "Here you are, your highness."

Blueblood got out of the carriage, nodding slightly as a thank you and proceeding to his own house. The insides of the house was filled with portraits of himself that had been done by countless artists from all over the globe, some were much better than others, but none of them really captured his inner beauty. His room was the only part of the house that lacked a million faces of Blueblood staring at you, his room contained one large bed big enough for a dragon that faced a balcony. The balcony windows were open and allowed a soft soothing breeze from the night to flow into the room and give it a relaxing touch, the lights of the city had gone dark and the noises of a busy city had died down for the next couple hours. As Blueblood climbed into his bed, his royal golden silk pyjamas already on him, he looked at his bedside stand that held a single piece of paper. Using his magic, he lifted the paper to his face and opened it up to see the work of art he had done himself earlier that day. It showed Lyra and the prince together with the creature slightly to the side, the level of detail was nothing compared to some of his many portraits, but he continued to stare at it. His mind was deep in thought about what his life had been and how maybe he had been living it wrong, maybe there were a few souls out there that were able to give him some answers. Before he knew it, his eyes had fallen shut for the night and he was asleep.