Chapter 4
It had been a very long week for me, ever since the fallout from the dinner Celestia had set me and Blueblood up on. Our attempts to ensure that ponies didn’t misread into the situation backfired terribly, and instead of Breeze’s presence dispelling the illusion of a date, everypony now thought that I was forming a herd with two stallions. Stupid media frenzy, it was just our luck that a reporter for the biggest paper in town had been eating dinner with his coworkers…on second thought luck probably had nothing to do with it. Celestia truly was devious.
Because of this fallout, I hadn’t dared venture from the confines of the castle since that event. Thanks to Blueblood’s public reputation still being that of a player, a lot of ponies seemed to look at me rather oddly. Of course, the guard knew the truth, as word had already spread of the potential prank war coming. They tried to stay ahead of such things so that they could avoid being caught in the crossfire, I really couldn’t blame them for that honestly. Apparently there had been an incident in which half of the guard had been turned into their mare or stallion counterparts for nearly an entire day, so any time the words ‘prank’ and ‘war’ were put together, they wanted to be damn sure that they wouldn’t be around. Speaks a lot about the guard, but… when alicorns wage war of any type, it’s hard to argue against staying out of that mess.
For once, I was grateful for the lessons Twilight gave me, both magical and historical, as they helped kill large swaths of time. I was even almost thankful when a simple question on the aerodynamics of flight led into a six hour session involving lecturing and live demonstrations. That actually helped me figure out how to properly make sharp turns at my fastest speed. Sure, I was ready to die by the end of it, as high durability didn’t quite translate over to high endurance. I still had to work my flank off for that, sadly.
Speaking of endurance, I’d just finished another session with Applejack not an hour back. That farmer was strong. And fast, as she could still outrun me with seemingly no effort at all. At least we’d finally moved past her cantering backwards and throwing out words of encouragement, that phase had been embarrassing. By the time I was ready to drop she was only lightly sweating and panting, so I still had a ways to go, but it made a wonderful distraction to help me empty my mind.
“—Aurora, you with us still?” Applejack’s voice called out, causing me to jerk my head up as my musings dissipated. She was looking at me with a mix of curiosity and concern, her face a mere foot from mine as I coughed into a hoof.
“Yeah, sorry about that, AJ… mind is wandering again, you know how I can get,” I replied with a bit of embarrassment, my cheeks a little flushed. I straightened myself out and looked at Twilight and Dash, the former also showing the slightest amount of concern while the latter had her usual air of ‘awesomeness’ as she called it. “Still have a hard time believing that I still can’t catch you no matter how hard I push myself. You’re insanely fast, or just not pony, AJ.”
A snort from Rainbow pulled everyone’s attention as the mare cracked an eye open. “Well duh! Applejack is just so much more awesome than you, Aurora, even if she doesn’t have wings.” Applejack fixed Dash with a glare, causing her to simply stick out her tongue playfully.
Applejack didn’t move her glare off Dash as she spoke up. “What she means to say, Aurora, is that catching me is near to impossible because I’m one of the fastest ponies on the ground. Going up against me it may not seem like it, but you’ve got some speed yourself. Sure, Dash and myself can still outrun you with a bit of effort on our parts, and Twilight should still be able to outrun you if she hasn’t slacked off, but you’re faster than most ponies now. You’ve come a pretty far way in that, I’d say.”
Rolling my eyes, I couldn’t help but snort. “Oh hey, Aurora, you’re doing well, but only just above average after months of training. Oh, also, you’ll never be able to catch me, so don’t worry about that,” I sarcastically snarked.
Over the chuckles of Applejack and Dash, I heard Twilight finally chime in between her own faint giggle. “Oh, come off it, Aurora!” I innocently smiled at her, causing her to roll her eyes. “You already know that they’re helping out not only because they’re my friends, but because they’re the best ponies for the job that I know. I mean, Dash helped me learn how to fly… well, after I learned the basics from Fluttershy first. Sorry, Dash.”
I looked over to Dash and caught a brief look of fake outrage on her face. “Twilight, how dare you! How was I supposed to know that your crazy smart brain apparently didn’t have any idea what to do with your new wings, hmm? Like, I totally thought you’d be good to start with those seven hundred and twenty degree corkscrews!”
We all laughed at that, the image of Twilight in a death spiral and screaming at the top of her lungs popping into my head for a few moments. A knock at the door got our attention and I stood up, walking to it. “One moment,” I called out, using my hoof to open it. “Oh, Blueblood… what brings you by today?”
He stood in the doorway for a moment, catching a glimpse of the other occupants in my room and slightly smiling at them with a brief nod of his head before fully focusing on me. “Good afternoon, Aurora. I was wondering if I could come in for a few minutes, but if you’re busy at the moment, I can always return later.”
I looked over to my shoulder for a moment, knowing all three mares had heard him. Applejack was the first to speak up, waving a hoof to come inside. “Aw shucks, we aren’t doing much at the moment, come on in! We won’t bite, promise!” Turning back around, I caught sight of Blueblood shivering a bit. I think he still equated a ‘bite’ with one of Applejack’s bucks… long story there.
Dash nodded even as Twilight spoke up. “Come on in, we really aren’t doing much of anything and we’re perfectly fine with more company,” she warmly said, pulling another cushion from my closet to set a spot for Blueblood.
“Well, you’ve heard the verdict, come on in, Blueblood,” I remarked while smiling, moving out of the way so that he could come inside. “So, any particular reason for the visit today, or just swinging by to spend time with a friend?” I curiously asked, closing the door behind him and moving back to my seat. Since this part of the castle was heavily restricted, I wasn’t concerned about being seen with Blueblood; there was nopony here to fuel those illusions that some of the public still believed. The last thing either of us wanted was for those annoying rumors to start fresh.
Blueblood thanked Twilight as he took a seat between me and her. “Actually, I figured that since I still hadn’t fully filled you in on the Shieldwalls or Ironbanks, I’d come by and do that, but if you three aren’t interesting in hearing about what I have to tell Aurora, that’s fine. So long as you don’t mind me sticking around, I’ve had more than my share of being Lady Rarity’s pincushion for the day. She is scary on so many levels…” he finished, shivering in his seat.
Chuckling, I patted him on the shoulder. “She’s just too much mare for you to handle, hmm? Now, just imagine if you were trying to make it up to every mare you’d ever insulted beyond just Rarity…” I trailed off, grinning at him while Dash’s sounds of laughter filled the air. Twilight and Applejack were both a bit nicer, instead fixing him with a look somewhere between pity and concern.
“It’s not that, Aurora, she’s just… intense. Yeah, let’s go with intense. I wasn’t sure what I was going to get into when I asked her how I could make up for insulting her, but being her pincushion, or living ponyquin as she put it, wasn’t really in my mind. At least she’s stopped stabbing me now… at least on purpose,” He rubbed his shoulder with a hoof, shivering again.
Twilight passed him a glass of water, smiling. “Here you go; you’re more than welcome to stay for a bit. I will say, you’re very lucky though, after all the talk about how much she hated you, the fact that she’s giving you a second chance is pretty big, even if she might be taking out some of that anger on you in the wrong way. At least it’s just those small pins, we’ve all been poked by them a few times, so don’t feel too bad,” Twilight sympathetically explained, lightly smiling at him.
“Pft, like those little pins hurt at all.” Dash waved a hoof in the air as she rolled her eyes, looking at Blueblood. “They’re, like, a small poke, can’t compare to crashing into a cloud house. Or a lake. Or the ground. Or a tree,” Dash finished bragging, as if all of those things were good somehow.
“Sugarcube, some of us are smart enough not to go around crashing into everything imaginable,” Applejack poked at Dash, a massive grin on her face. “Even if we’re just as durable as you, Dash, we don’t have much interest into crashing into at least one of everything we can find.”
While Dash and Applejack began to playfully argue, Blueblood looked at us both curiously, glancing over at them briefly. “Is that common?” he quietly asked as their voices continued to rise in volume. I snickered while Twilight smiled widely and nodded, partially hiding her face with a hoof.
“Oh yeah, definitely is, Blue. From what I’ve seen, if they’re in the same room chances are they’ll have at least one ‘fight,’” I explained, raising both forehooves for a moment and making the quote sign with them.
Twilight lightly chuckled, nodding. “Yup. They’re both extremely competitive in nature, and this has become something of a… bonding experience? That they thoroughly enjoy. I’ve tried getting them to do quieter things like read a book together or something, but that didn’t really work out so well. If we were outside, no doubt they’d be itching for a race at this point.” She smiled the entire time she was talking; showing us both just how much she loved her friends. They all had their quirks, but most of them were humorous or tolerable.
“Just give them a few minutes, it’ll have run its course by then,” I whispered, motioning over my shoulder at them as they got up and moved away from us before beginning to wrestle on the floor. Forcing myself to move my eyes away from them, I giggled as Blueblood’s jaw was partially hinged open. Using a hoof I bopped him on the nose, pulling his attention back to Twilight and me. “So, you wanted to tell me about the other two houses, right?”
Nodding, he began tapping his hoof on the carpet. “Yeah, that was the plan,” he paused when Twilight made some parchment appear out of nowhere, a quill at the ready to write. She simply smiled and shrugged, motioning him to continue. “So… the Shieldwalls are the second most prominent noble family at the moment, and has been so for the last century or so now. They basically stepped up when the Bladewings started to drop.”
The entire time, the scratching of the quill tickled our ears as the sounds of Applejack and Dash wrestling dominated the background. As he paused and looked at Twilight curiously, she just slightly shrugged. “What? I like knowing things!” she defended herself, causing me to grin and rub her shoulder.
“It’s okay, Twilight. However, now I’m wondering what happened when you first started learning about more… adult things. I have this image of you trying to write down step by step instructions during your hooves-on experiences.” I mischievously grinned as Twilight blushed. Blueblood was shuffling on his cushion rather uncomfortably, and I just grinned wider and chuckled.
Twilight’s hoof dug into my shoulder a few moments later as I found some blank parchment in my mouth gagging me. She looked at me smugly. “I’ll have you know that I did not do any such thing, Aurora! I had already read plenty on the matter, there was no need for notes!” I spat out the parchment and madly giggled at how predictable Twilight was as she turned back to Blueblood. “So, you mentioned the Shieldwalls. I’m aware that they make the armor and enchantments that the entire Royal Guard uses, as well as a lot of the equipment and armament for the Equestrian Military.”
Blueblood coughed a few times as he nodded. “Precisely. They’re also a rather old house, they took advantage of the Bladewing’s poor business decisions to step in and fill that gap left behind. They’ve done well riding the middle ground, every issue that has come to them they have fairly weighed the options and picked ones that best served those involved without any favoritism. Because of that, they may not be well liked by every other house, but they do have their respect. They also tend to be arbiters for matters that the other houses don’t want to bring before Celestia or Luna.”
I thought on his words for a few moments. “They actually don’t sound all that bad. I mean, being able to be impartial? Pft, hard as hell, so if they can do it, that speaks volumes about their character. But still… don’t they have any skeletons in their closets or anything? Deep dark secrets and what have you?” I tacked on the last sentence after seeing the brief look of horror on Blueblood’s face; I think he took my remark about the skeletons seriously. Whoops.
The sounds of Applejack and Dash finally stopped, causing all three of us to pause and look at them. We all humorously shook our heads at how disheveled they both looked, feathers and fur pointing in nearly every random direction as they both simply smirked at each other. “Draw, then,” Dash remarked, wrapping a hoof around Applejack’s shoulder for a moment, her smirk turning into a grin. “So, what boring stuff didja eggheads talk about while we were having fun?”
Rolling my eyes, I gave her a knowing look. “Oh, nothing too much, Dash. Just the ponies who are apparently going to be annoying the everliving heck outta me over the next few months till they realize that I have no interest in them. So… not quite boring, least not to me,” I finished, sticking my tongue out at her.
“Pffft, bo-ring~” Dash chimed right back, smacking my nose with a wing as she grinned at me. “Come on, AJ, let’s leave em to their boring chit chat… nice spending time with ya again, ‘Rora, take care. See ya, Twi, and Bluey… good luck~” Dash spoke over her shoulder on her way out the door as Applejack got up, grabbing her stetson hat.
“Hey now, Dash, no need tah be so rude,” AJ chided even as Rainbow’s tail slipped out of view. Turning to the three of us left, she waved, a light smile on her face. “You three take care now, and I’ll see ya again in two days, Aurora, maybe come up with something fun… maybe an obstacle course? But, Ah’m gonna go follow Dash to keep her outta trouble.”
Twilight warmly smiled and wave before closing the door behind AJ, turning back to myself and Blueblood. “Knowing them, I have a feeling that they’ll be back outside in a matter of minutes and sprinting against each other and the like,” she warmly remarked, a smile gracing her face. A few moments later she looked to Blueblood, a more inquisitive look once again. “So, Blueblood… the Bladewings, the Shieldwalls, and then the Ironbanks… if I recall, they were part of the founding of the modern Equestrian bank system, right?”
My gaze shifted to Blueblood as he nodded to Twilight. “Indeed, and they’ve been heavily involved in the banking system and regulating it since then. Because of that fact, they’re quite wealthy, and could quite literally drown you in bits. They’re also a rather large family, plus very reserved for the most part. I wouldn’t be too concerned over them, truthfully, so long as you don’t mind gifts… quite a lot of them most likely.”
I just groaned and buried my head in my hooves. “Blech. That’s not bad, but… it sounds annoying. They all do, really, but thanks for the info, Blueblood.” Raising my head back up, I sported a brief look of disgust before letting out a long sigh, blowing some errant strands of my mane out of my face. “But, can’t really do anything about it until it comes up, and it’s not like I’m going to let some annoying nobles interrupt my life… speaking of, Twilight, is it time for magic lessons yet?”
Blueblood nodded, a look of hesitation on his face. “Before you two go, um… any hints on how to get Lady Rarity to not desperately hate me? I’m thinking I’d like to take her out for a brunch one morning, but I need to get past her driving desire to poke small holes into my body,” he quietly spoke, his normally stoic demeanor vanishing like mist in the sun.
Twilight looked a bit shocked at first, but then widely smiled moments later as I was occupied on the floor. By occupied, I mean that I was laughing my ass off, barely noticing Twilight’s reaction. “Oh, do you now? Isn’t that something…” she said, that tone just a bit creepy. “I’d suggest just… be yourself… your new self that is, not that pompous, egotistical, arrogant ass of a stallion you were~” Turning to me, she poked me in the side with her magic. “Now, come on, Aurora, we can finally move on the medium level magic, and we are not going to waste a single minute!”
Looking at Blueblood as I wiped the tears of laughter off my face, I just grinned and nodded at him. “I think she’s still looking for that prince, so… just give it time. Then again, you might not want to listen to a single thing I say, definitely the last one you should ask for romantic advice from. Good luck though!” I called out as Twilight forcibly dragged me out of the room with her magic, the last thing I saw of Blueblood was his astonished look of surprise.
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5392010
Oh, you're still here. And still on the same level as when last we met, my old nemesis.
HUZZAH! The story has been revived!
It's like an appetizer... Now I just want more.
That flying talk made me want to see a scene where Aurora meets her future love interest by face-planting in the dirt right in front of him/her.
Did Aurora get wooed by the Family Redundant of House Redundancy while I wasn't looking?
5399605 Nope, it was an accurate description... he was just that surprised! In fact I think Aroura might even have understated it!!
Well, Blue, good luck!
Also obligatory
for this seeing the light of day again!
5400038
for the story basically killing NMM...
Don't forget the
5399605
NO!
her, there is no him.
Everyone kept laughing. A lot. Like at the smallest thing. It felt a bit forced, didn't feel like the story was natural. But, it was alright, not the worst I've seen.
I loved this chapter it had me cracking up.
5399605
Trying to sit down each day, even if only for 30m, and get some writing done. Kinda rusty once again. Bleh. Also, double redundancy is best redundancy.
5400244
Mmhmm, seems I did. Might make a pass at it again, keep letting myself fall out of practice.
*cheers at new content* I LOVE seeing new chapters posted, dun matter what story so long as it's on my tracking list.
5400169
Honestly, I'm rooting for a very particular "her" myself, one that I think would set up a very interesting dynamic within the castle.
5400614
I have to get back into writing as well. Just need to finish this rig and animation of Etherea, then I can stop spending every waking hour staring at Maya. Tomorrow...
5400244 Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha[/forced]
5400809
who would this be?
And he has already shown his body is able to do stuff with females, so there should not be a him, seeing as how he was straight, I don't want him turning just because of a gender change.
5400911
Are- are you insulting me, sir.....?
This outrage shall not stand. I challenge thee to a duel, where we shall remove our silken gloves, walk ten paces, turn, and then run at each other and proceed to slap ourselves silly with said gloves.
It is the only way to regain my honor.
5401097
Tell me, what is the difference between a punch and a slap if on has hooves?
5401018
Aurora x Celestia.
So they can team up against Twilight x Luna.
5401461
............*creepy smile*
5401097 Nay, Coz, no insult was meant. Rather, I was agreeing to your sentiment I the forced laughter in this chapter. My apologies.
Just can't get enough of that stallion cock it would seem. The DP with Twilight and Luna really must have left an impression.
Oh you know just how to make me wet.
I feel this should be equine.
So, Aurora reaches around Blueblood to rub Twilight's shoulder?
YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT THAT VAULT HUNTER! YOU WANNA HEAR ABOUT LOOT, AND PECS, AND EXPLOSIONS!!!
I wouldn't consider this one of your best chapters, Space; but at least you are getting back into the groove of writing when you are not approving stories left and right.
5400809
You said something about a rig and animation, do you by chance do work in Source Filmmaker?
dat image of aurora getting dragged backward by her tail
5401927
Then none taken good sir! Let us partake in potatoes and molasses, for surely there is nothing sweeter in life!
5402011
Nope, Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk Maya. In school for it so I'm using the expensive stuff. Doing my own things from scratch and hope to be doing realistic stuff someday.
WHY should BlueBlood Get Rarity? Spike has been trying and doing everything for her and Even more.
5400244
Took a pass at it, edited the chapter, now with 50% less laughs! you were right though, way too much of it, I'd like to see what you think of it now.
Yay new chapter!
Finally decided to read this, and now I'm hooked.
Absolutely love Dream, just wanna hug her till she pops!
I am looking forward to the next chapter. and damn another story of yours has me hooked.
5814299
Woops, you're right. I must have read it as "It's the same size as Shining's head".
I'm really glad you decided to make a more sfw slice of lifeish story with Aurora because I'm enjoying the heck out of it so far ^-^. I really like a lot of the ideas behind the first story but was very much uncomfortable with the clop aspects of it so this story has been a breath of fresh air. I really don't like the idea of alicorn oc's but I like how you've been building Aurora up slowly and even like Dream =P. I enjoyed some of the comedy of the original fic but I really like how you've made a lot of the characters more realistic and not so flat (i.e original depiction of Celestia, some of the mane 6, and even Blueblood surprisingly with these last two chapters). I also like the hints of political intrigue so far and hope it evolves into some interesting world building and conflicts
. Keep up the good work 
!
Hey don't forget about us clop lovers it does not have to be over the top but if you can make a optional link to a clop version of the story too in the author's notes that would be great thanks.
update?
Aww, that's it for now!
I love this story!
Is this fic dead?
I really loved this one...
6123158 me too, and maybe we'll get an update when Celestia starts hating tea... oh wait
maybe we'll get an update when ponies fly... wait that doesn't work either
maybe we'll get an update one of these days... So generic, but at least it works
For now, at least, I'll read the whole series (that is, both stories) again and again until I get bored. He's gotta write a chapter sooner or later, right? Right?!...
Update?
please update
I'm hoping you haven't given up on this story, as I find its quite enthralling, and I would like to see how it is concluded.
Your story is great i hope you get around to updating it. Cabt wait for more. Back to rereading the 1st story lol
5402011
Probably not. It could be because of Blueblood's prior behaviour: For instance, he could be known to be bisexual, in which case being in a relationship with a female and another male would be entirely in character; or, he could have been unable to easily relate to females as marefriends (which would be consistent with treating them as "objects") in turn leading him to have platonic stallionfriends.
===~
===€
Update please... Or face our riotous fury!
6828382 I agree. Unfortunately I doubt we're gonna get anymore chapters.
6856791 I kinda will, but that's because, while this story has been in my favorites since it was first uploaded, I still haven't read Chapters 3 or 4 yet, despite 3 being released since September 2014, and Chapter 4 being released in December 2014....
And this, my friends, is a perfect example of what happens when one is incredibly lazy and procrastinistic.
6884661 ummm, what?
6885691 You were saying that no one (or at least that user) wouldn't get any more chapters, and I was saying that I kind of would, because of my lack of reading the most recently-updated things......
You know what, I just saw how old your comment was, and realized how much I was necro-threading. Forget I said anything....
6885733 necro-threading doesn't bug me, I just didn't understand what you were trying to say.
6885984 really there was nothing to my comment, it was just meant as a joke - albeit a shirt one. Don't worry about it, you'really really not missing anything by not understanding it.
I read this to fast, now I crave more! To bad it hasn't been updated in a while *sigh*(flashes back to the story I was writing but stoped because I got board) maybe... is this what other people feel when I don't finish my story's... the need for more but no way to solve it... Nah I'm a terrible writer, but you are an awsome writer and I hope the next one comes out soon :D
Ahh! It's been forever since the last update! I need the chapter where Aurora and Breeze hook up!!
