True Blue Hero

by totallynotabrony

Chapter 2

The different pony races each had different instincts and lifestyles. Blueblood reflected uneasily on that as he stood atop one of the castle’s towers in the darkness. He might have wings, but he hadn’t yet learned to be comfortable with heights like a pegasus. The suit he wore to disguise himself clung to his body from the copious amount of sweat he was shedding.

Relax. You’ll be fine, the voice in his head assured him.

“How do you know?” Blueblood muttered. Practicing flying in his bedroom was one thing. Looking out over the city in the darkness while winds buffeted him from the top of the tower was quite another. “Do you come with a parachute?”

You can simply use your own magic to stop your fall if you’re so inclined.

“Yeah, see, here’s the thing,” Blueblood began, his stomach already plummeting towards the ground when he got a sneak peek at the city street below. “I’m not all that magically capable when it comes to stopping myself from falling to certain death.”

Can you teleport? Use your telekinesis to halt yourself in midair? Summon a parasol? Anything at all useful? she asked with an edge of annoyance in her voice.

“If I say no, is that a bad thing?”

A groan resonated in his skull, which made his thoughts go fuzzy somehow. Okay, great, you’re next to useless with magic. At least you should be strong enough to not tire yourself out too much during flying.

“Well, I do workout every day,” Blueblood bragged, flexing, despite the fact that nopony could see him.

Just land on some rooftop if you need to rest.

“Oh, wait, we’re doing this now?” Blueblood asked, judging the distance from the ledge of the rooftop to the ground. A fall like that would make him a prince-sized pancake on the street. “Shouldn’t we do some stretching first?”

Just jump already!

Blueblood had already decided that he didn’t like the nagging voice in his head, and decided that she might be quiet if he did as she asked. He took a deep breath and stepped off the ledge.

They say your life flashes before your eyes before death. Blueblood would like to call bullshit on that statement, for the only thing that flashed before his eyes was the brightly lit windows he quickly fell past on his descent. The only sound he could hear was the billowing whistle of air flowing past him and his own girlish screams.

Fortunately, he wasn’t too scared to flail madly, his wings popping open and slowing down his fall considerably. Realizing he wasn’t about to die, Blueblood was able to better control his movements, eventually reaching equilibrium in a hover about halfway to the ground.

Pausing for a moment to catch his breath, he gradually started to add more power to his flaps, climbing vertically back into the starry sky.

Luna’s full moon provided enough light to see the rooftops, and Blueblood paused for a moment to stare out over the city. It seemed friendlier now, more accessible. He started to move, to really fly for the first time.

The sensation was like nothing he’d ever experienced before. Sure, Blueblood had ridden in the royal chariot, but flying under his own power was so wonderful that he almost lost control of himself, giggling and forgetting to coordinate his flaps.

Now with the entire city below him, Blueblood felt like the thrill every pegasus went through as he dived in between buildings and glided over rooftops. No, it was better than that. He wasn’t a pegasus, but no longer a unicorn, either. Blueblood grinned.

Tonight, the city was his playground. Much like the castle, Canterlot was a city centuries old with many kinds of architecture built into it. Typically the rich lived in the older quarters of the city, where ancient structures now acted as the nobles’ penthouses and suites. Then there were the more modern districts, where the working class lived. Much more fun in Blueblood’s opinion, since the huge skyscrapers made for excellent navigating exercises for his newfound flying ability.

“I’m king of the world!” Blueblood shouted with glee, managing to pull off a double loopty-loop from a fast descent downwards. Flying back up, he hoofpumped the air in victory. “Screw chariots, this is the real way to get around!”

I see you’re enjoying yourself, the voice said with a chuckle, feminine giggles echoing in Blueblood’s mind.

“Well, of course!” Blueblood looked back towards the castle, the highest point in the city. Reaching it seemed like a worthy goal and he pumped his wings hard, racing for the tallest tower.

“Hey you!” called a voice.

“Say what?” Blueblood blurted out, stopping mid-flap to stare around at who had spoken. “Voice in my head, was that you?”

Nope!

There was a flutter of wings and a pony came shooting over to where Blueblood hovered. At first he thought it might have been a member of the Lunar Guard, but he realized this was a mare who was not dressed in armor. In fact, she looked rather plain, like the average citizen.

The two of them stared at each other, the mare looking confrontational. She brushed some of her indigo mane out of her eyes. Blueblood thought that it might need a cutting soon. It was a rather nice color, though, going with her butter yellow coat.

“You know the castle is restricted airspace at night, don’t you?” the mare huffed. “Anypony out flying past curfew gets in big trouble.”

“I’ve never heard that,” Blueblood replied. It was the truth. Until now, he had never paid any attention to pegasus news.

The mare cast a critical glance at him. “I guess I can understand. You don’t look like anypony from the district of Canterlot you just flew from. Too… pompous looking.”

That was actually hard to believe. Blueblood glanced at his attire. The long tailcoat had been hastily but cleanly modified to include slits for his wings. The tails covered his cutie mark. The tall tophat he wore concealed the fact that he also had a horn. Also, a monocle helped break up his rakish profile and prevent anypony from recognizing his princely face. Didn’t want any rumors going around he was an alicorn. At least not yet.

“You’re right, I’m not from around here,” Blueblood lied smoothly. “So what’s your name? Maybe you can show me around.”

“I’m uh…” The mare hesitated. “My name is Bright Defender.”

Blueblood smiled. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Whoa, hold on. Stop this right here. You are not going to hook up with her, do you hear me!?

Blueblood just barely kept himself from reacting visibly to disappointment. Sure, maybe that was his plan, but did the voice in his head have to discover it so quickly? He began to worry about how much the mysterious owner of the voice knew. Surely she wasn’t actually in his head with access to his private thoughts?

Fortunately, the voice didn’t answer that, and Blueblood went back to more pressing matters. “So, Ms. Defender, what do you do around here?”

She paused before answering, “I have a position at the castle.”

With a name like that and confirmation of working for the government, there were only so many things Bright Defender could do for a living. Small warning bells went off in Blueblood’s head, but if he ended up pissing off a royal guard, that was not a huge issue. But surely he would have remembered a mare with such an attractive face.

“What type of position, if you don’t mind me asking?” Blueblood pressed on, growing more and more curious about the mystery mare.

“Uh… low level management,” she blurted out, glancing left and right as the two hovered inside the castle walls. “Maybe we should go somewhere else to chat…”

“Ah, don’t worry,” Blueblood assured her, making a small waving motion with his hoof. “No guards are going to be out tonight. It’s just you and me.”

Why, aren’t you the romantic one? the voice mocked. Biting back a retort, Blueblood’s eyes widened as he spotted a guard fly out of a nearby tower.

“Hey you two, what are you doing here?” the guard called out, quickly gaining speed to catch the pair.

“Damn, we have to scram!” Blueblood shouted, turning around the best he could to fly away from the fast approaching guard. Bright Defender followed close behind him as the two departed from castle grounds, already losing the lone guard pony.

Might want to hustle if you have want any hope of impressing that mare, the voice pointed out as Bright raced past him and left him in the dust. Right now you’re coming off as very passive.

“How do you even know anything about this type of stuff?” Blueblood asked, taking care to not raise his voice above a whisper to alert Bright Defender.

I’m a female, remember?

“I don’t even know what you are,” Blueblood reminded her, slowing his pace as Bright Defender did likewise. “Care to explain that?”

“What, exactly?” Bright Defender asked, flapping closer to the panting Blueblood.

Wiping the sweat from his brow due to the overexertion of flying after so little practice or knowhow, Blueblood replied, “Nothing. I was just wondering where we are now.”

Overlooking the city below, Bright noticed the brick buildings packed densely together. “I think we’re in the downtown district right now. Not the best place to come late at night, actually.”

“It’s populated by ruffians?” Blueblood guessed.

“I suppose you could say that,” Bright agreed, shrugging her shoulders.

Blueblood puffed his chest out. “Not to worry. I’ll protect you. No petty thug scares the likes of me.”

“Or we could just leave,” suggested Bright, giving him an unbelieving look.

Suddenly there was a crash and the tinkle of breaking glass from somewhere in the streets and alleys below them. The sound was muffled and difficult to hear at altitude. It was followed by a shouting voice that had a demanding tone.

“Actually… yep, you’re right,” Blueblood agreed, a cold sweat running down his neck as more shouts sounded in the distance. “That sounded dangerous. We should go.”

“But somepony could be hurt!” Bright protested. Without another word to him she began to descend towards the streets below, looking for the source of the commotion.

“That’s exactly why we shouldn’t go down there!” Blueblood called after her, staying put where he was in the air. “We could get hurt as well!”

Bright ignored him, or was too out of earshot to listen, for she still made her way downward to the streets. Already Blueblood was losing sight of her. Not that he was worried much. If she got hurt or killed for sticking out her neck for somepony else, more power to her for being stupid. Helping ponies was a guard’s job, and most certainly not a prince’s.

He tended to avoid confrontations whenever possible. It wasn’t the thought of getting hurt or dirty that bothered him. Rather, it was the principle of royal mannerism that had been repeated to himself throughout his life that a prince does not act in such manner. A prince does not get into fights, does not get dirty, does not behave like a peasant and so on and so on. He’d lived by this code for so long it had seeped into his very being, making it so the thought of ever going against it seemed impossible. Plus, letting others do the heavy lifting was so easy.

Are you just going to let her go down there? the voice asked, her sharp reprimand bringing Blueblood back to the present.

Shaking his head, Blueblood replied, “Sure, if she wants to. No skin off my nose.”

You’re going to let somepony upstage you again? she said with a hiss. And here I thought Twilight making you look bad was enough. Now some random mare is going to do the same.

Blueblood’s stomach tightened. That familiar feeling back at the coronation that afternoon returned. Jealousy, bitter and vile and heavy upon his soul. It seeped into every corner of his being and made his blood boil from its wicked grasp. It was sickening yet empowering at the same time. Like a jolt of electricity that passed down his spine.

The blackhearted envy gave him new strength at that moment. The tired muscles in his wings gained newfound endurance that made him feel as if he was prancing on air. His vision sharpened, the darkness of the night merely an illusion as his sight caught hold of every shadow-ridden corner and dark alleyway. This surge of power reverberated throughout his body, surging adrenaline and other, less known chemicals into his bloodstream and making him feel better than ever before.

“No, I’m not going to let her,” Blueblood whispered, focusing on the ground with his sharpened eyesight. There was Bright Defender, hovering over the broken glass shards laid over a sidewalk from a broken window. That broken window belonged to a rundown liquor store that currently had a few intruders not interested in buying cheap booze. “This time, I actually do something about it.”

Good, the voice said, louder somehow, a more clear sound in the center of his head that rang in his ears. It’s nice to see you actually do have a backbone.

“What about you?” Blueblood asked as he skydived in a low arc, faster and more skillful in flight than ever before. His wings cut through the air like it was warm butter, the winds beating against his suit and nearly toppling over his top hat. “Are you even real? Do you even have a spine?”

Yeah, yours.

That certainly left Blueblood more questions than answers, but he quickly realized now was not the time for thinking over such things. He caught up with Bright on the ground. In front of them was a liquor store in the process of being burgled.

Four stallions, each wearing dark clothing to cover their cutie marks and colors, along with ski masks for their faces, were holding up the joint. One was a unicorn and held a bat with the tip pointed directly at the store clerk’s forehead, while the other two earth ponies at the side carried lead pipes in their mouths. A muscle bound pegasus was cleaning out the cash register in a burlap sack, his intimidating size making Blueblood gulp.

“What they’re doing isn’t right!” Bright exclaimed, as if astonished that anypony bothered to rob liquor stores.

“Wow, really? I never would have guessed,” Blueblood snarked. “What tipped you off? The wanton property damage, the assault, or the thievery?”

Bright continued to stare blankly at the four robbers for a moment but then squared her shoulders with determination. “We should stop them.”

Blueblood stared at the robbers, then back at Bright Defender, then back at the robbers again, gears in his brain working on overtime. “Yeah… sounds great. I am totally sure that any future hindsight on this won’t be negative at all.”

Comments

[Lag Incarnate]

That messed up italics. Other than that, still good.

[totallynotabrony]

3196968 fixed

[djthomp]

“You’re right, I’m not from around here,” Blueblood lied smoothly. “So what’s your name? Maybe you can show me around.”
“I’m uh…” The mare hesitated. “My name is Bright Defender.”

Yeah, that's not suspicious or anything.

[World Weaver]

My guess to the mystery voice is Venom Symbiote from Marvel's Spiderman. the goop alien thing.