Prologue
Leaves rustled as one of the Nightwings, Princess Luna’s personal guards, pushed through a bush and made it towards a clearing. His eyes roamed left and right, searching. He was not alone. Around him were more Nightwings, mares and stallions alike, each assigned with different duties: some secured the perimeter, land and air, while the others looked for clues.
Above the night sky, watching their movements, was Princess Luna. For her, it was a bit of wonderment. After a thousand years of imprisonment, there was little she recognized of Equestria. Histories, come and gone, wars she had not fought, and a culture and society completely alien to her—a thousand years of change was not something she had prepared to face. Now, she watched in fascination as her Nightwings now had stallions, searching for her missing nephew, the first legitimate Crown Prince of Equestria.
Those two factors had her reeling a bit when she first learned of it. At first, she had thought it was her sister's jest. Honestly, stallions taking on jobs that were, at her time, only for mares? And a legitimate Crown Prince?
Luna chastised herself for thinking about it too deeply. She had been back at Equestria for months now. She had studied history books, sociology reports and reviews, even watched those new and quite bedazzling cinema. She knew that a stallion had even reached one of the highest rank in the Equestrian Royal Military, for magic’s sakes. Was she really going to go on about stallions in her formerly all-mare Nightwings? Or that they had a male heir to the throne?
She shook her head, letting her mane, magicked to flow and ebb colored with the night sky, settle around her as she tried focusing on the task at hand. She could do more wonderment back at the castle. Right now, she was here to investigate and find a kidnapped member of the Royal Family.
It was earlier that evening that she had felt... off. The sun was on its way to set when Luna felt a slight disturbance in the weather. She promptly ignored it when she realized the source coming above an off-shoot branch of the ever-expanding Everfree forest, the only place where Chaos energies were strong enough to resist even the Elements of Harmony and went by its own rules. Thinking it was just a stray of magic making a storm cloud above it, she settled and waited until the time she had to raise the moon.
When she began to tend the night sky, she had felt the disturbance again. This time, it gave her pause. The storm brewed up into a lightning cloud and that seemed innocent enough until she had felt pegasi magic: air currents changing and the very tell-tale sign of lightning manipulation. Once she had flown over to investigate, whatever had happened was over. There was a chariot laying there in ruin. After closer investigation, she felt a familiar unicorn magic lingering in the air.
It was Prince Blueblood’s, a nephew from an off-shoot line and a descendent of Celestia’s and Luna’s, mother’s side. Apparently, that was the official story. The stallion was also Luna’s first recognized nephew, most likely the first of a long series. The times of just having a female heir were apparently long gone, and now that the mare and stallion population ratio slowly equalizing, Celestia broke tradition by giving Equestria its first Crown Prince.
Luna had no idea how to feel about the stallion personally. If rumors were to be believed, he debauched himself every night, slept with unaccountable mares without following protocol (that had bothered her the most), and loved to spend exuberant amount of bits on fruitless pursuits. Most meetings with him in pony were quiet and subdued, though he seemed to have taken a liking of watching her at times when he thought she wasn’t looking.
Once Luna established something was off, she had called her Nightwings to assist in the investigation, and sent Celestia a letter via Dragonfire Gem. The earth pony Nightwings stood guard and created a perimeter, her pegasi searched the skies, while unicorns tried to find any other traces of magic.
The pegasi reported that the clouds around the area were illegally obtained and mashed together rather violently, causing quite strong lightning reactions. Judging by the broken and and smoking chariot down below, the electrical bolts were big enough to penetrate even the spell-protected chariot wall. It didn't take an expert to know that timing those reactions precisely right and building up enough power to overcome enchantments meant that the perpetrators were pegasi well-trained in tempestology. And from how fast the storm cloud was formed, it had to be a rather large group of pegasi as well.
Before Luna could follow that line of thinking further, a sudden burst of wind derailed her thoughts as magic began to permeate the surroundings. A white ball of energy appeared right beside Luna, its magical signature familiar enough not to cause alarm. The bubble grew larger and larger, until it cracked softly and dissipated in an almost inaudible pop, scattering magic like powdered glass. It revealed another alicorn with a pure white majestic coat. Her mane and tail magicked to flow slightly straighter than Luna’s, colored with daytime colors of sky blue, turquoise green, blue and light purple.
She was not alone either. Down below, Luna’s Nightwings cleared an area as three ponies appeared in a flash of light as well—a High Unicorn in gold and silver robes, a Grand Admiral Pegasus in white, and... surprise, a stallion Field General Earth Pony dressed in camouflage clothing.
Luna felt that the fates were toying with her as she glanced towards the Field General. Hadn't she just thought of that specific pony earlier? However, another thought hit her: why were the leaders of Equestria’s Royal Military accompanying Celestia? Luna expected her sister to use her personal Royal Guards regarding this matter. The use of the recently-formed military was to be only used during war, being the first and last line of defense for Equestria.
Was the situation much worse than she had thought?
Celestia looked at Luna in the eyes and asked, “What have you found, sister?”
Luna gave Celestia a bow of greeting before motioning towards the forest clearing. “Our Nightwings have exposed illegitimately-formed cloud formations and lightning manipulations. It seems these villains are familiar with tempestology, and hath employed it to felonious ends. We have as well located a downed chariot and trace magic..”
“Can you confirm its our Nephew's?” Celestia asked, panic now entering her voice.
Luna found it odd that Celestia’s feelings were... somewhat transparent. Granted, their nephew was, for all intents and purpose, family, but so far down the line that the blood relation was severely diluted. But then again, she could be a bit biased. She had never grown up with the unicorn prince and Celestia did.
“We have found this magic to be of similar nature to Prince Blueblood’s. However, we cannot confirm this, as we have not seen trace of the prince as of yet.”
Celestia didn’t say anything. She slowly descended towards the clearing, towards the chariot, her eyes narrowing. The Nightwings bowed as she approached, giving the Princess notable space, and allowed her to inspect the vehicle herself. Luna landed right besides her, stole a glance at towards a stallion Nightwing, then went back to watch her sister’s reactions. She also noted that the Military leaders were slowly coming towards them as well. She looked at the Field General once more, sighed, and then looked back at Celestia. For a moment, her sister’s face was blank. It changed to horror the moment she read the writing on the chariot.
“Ponytech,” Celestia whispered.
A Nightwing silently made to Luna’s side. She whispered that they have found two injured pegasi just north of the clearing, and then with a grim expression, handed something to Luna. the Princess of the Night felt sick as she looked at the item in question. She prodded it slightly with her magic, then turned to face her sister.
Celestia was not going to like this.
“Sister, our Nightwings have discovered survivors and witnesses. And... this.”
Princess Celestia blinked as Luna floated a cleanly-cut white unicorn horn towards her. The white alicorn’s eyes widened in disbelief, her mouth opened slightly as if to speak, only for nothing to come out of her lips. Instead, she softly took the cut horn with her own magic, slowly prodding it around, and trying to garner any traces of lingering magic.
Luna didn't have the heart to tell Celestia that she already confirmed whose horn it was. It pained her when Celestia’s expression turned heart-wrenching for almost a minute before her eyes regained steel and fire. She looked towards the Military leaders, nodding for them to join, and floated the horn towards the High Unicorn.
“I am sorry to call upon you this late,” Celestia greeted them. “But we have an emergency.”
“We live to serve, your highness,” all three of them replied.
“Prince Blueblood has been kidnapped, under our muzzles. Set up an investigation right away. As of right now, we have a downed chariot, some unconscious pegasi, and... this.”
Celestia floated the horn in front of them. The High Unicorn winced while the Field General’s and Grand Admiral’s eyes narrowed.
“Is that—?” the High Unicorn began, unable to finish the question.
Celestia nodded.
“I'll use the Prince’s horn to see if we can establish a link, and see if we can scry out anything around this area that could give us a clue,” the High Unicorn declared. “I'll call on my most skilled unicorns. We shall begin immediately.”
“Thank you,” Celestia replied.
“I’ll get my swiftest and most subtle pegasi to see if anything is amiss by air or water,” the Pegasus Grand Admiral declared.
“Try the nearest towns on this area," the Field General declared towards the Grand Admiral. "I’ll see if I can coordinate local law enforcers to investigate smuggling rings, and see if they can find anything that can help you out.” He looked at Princess Celestia, and shook his head. “I don’t know how much ponies I can spare, your majesty. There has been activity at Far West, with reports of missing folks around those towns are increasing and sightings of strange black ponies. I had to deploy platoons to safeguard the borders. However, I’ll see to it that my best and brightest coordinate with the Grand Admiral. I'll have intelligence gather information for the pegasi.”
Princess Celestia nodded. “I understand, and I still appreciate your help, Field General. We will need all the information we can get on the Prince's whereabouts. Please report all your findings to me and Princess Luna. I also need a contingency of soldiers ready for rapid deployment. Is that understood?”
The Field General grimaced, but nodded before he gave a sharp salute. The Grand Admiral followed, while the High Unicorn gave a formal bow before her horn glowed, and the three of them disappeared in a flash of light.
Luna, who had been staring at the Field General as he saluted, checked back again on Celestia as she looked back at the chariot for a moment, her face expressionless. The younger alicorn watched with slight awe and wonderment as her sister just marshaled Equestria’s army.
“Sister,” Luna whispered towards Celestia. “Dost this Blueblood really mean that much to thee?”
Celestia looked at her sister and frowned. “Do you need a political angle on this, or just the truth, Luna?”
Luna felt somewhat insulted by her sister's accusation. Part of her wanted to snap back, but she reined her temper. Shaking her mane, she looked at her older sister, her defensive posture, and recalled her words. Luna spoke slowly. “Tia, we are family. If something is bothering thee, thou canst tell us. Unless suspicion still cloud thy thoughts, and are still leery that we shall turn against thee like before.”
Celestia winced, and slowly touched her sister’s neck affectionately with her own. “Of course not, Luna. I’m sorry I lost my temper. It's just...” she looked at their surroundings. “Just earlier, I had transported him back to Canterlot from Manehattan, lecturing him regarding his attitude, and in my temper teleported him back. I should have just kept him back at the castle. I should have arranged a Royal escort to bring him to Fillydelphia.”
"We may be many things, Tia—yet we are not clairvoyant. Moreover, we can distinctly recall that our Crown Prince is a bit... uncouth, and thus lecturing him for his errs is a reasonable course. However, blaming thyself for this unfortunate happenstance is as meaningless as wishing to alter the past.”
Celestia looked at Luna, her gaze hardening. Luna just stood still, challenging her older sister to protest. In the end, Celestia said nothing, sighing before staying silent for a moment.
“I suspect his attitude is nothing more but a method to drive his mother and I away. I was the one that legitimized his title, wanting to have a stallion a candidate to the throne,” Celestia whispered. She looked at the downed chariot. “My niece didn’t understand. She had thought I was giving her leeway to expand her own political prowess. I knew what she was doing to her son, but I did nothing. I should have just let Blueblood's father have him... but I didn’t.” She sighed again.
Luna looked at her sister for a moment, trying to find the right words to cheer her up. She hated seeing her like this. In the end, though, she could think of nothing else but to put a reassuring hoof at Celestia's side.
Princess Celestia looked at Princess Luna, giving a slight nod and then smiled. “I saw you keep stealing looks at the Field General and your stallion Nightwings. If you want to exercise your Royal Right of Indulgence, you'll be happy to know I haven’t done any significant changes to that decree. Though, just so you know, its proper to ask for permission first to the stallion in question, or if he has a marefriend, her permission as well.”
Luna blinked, and blushed as she glared at her older sister. “Sister! Twas not like that, and thou know it!”
Celestia's smile widened. “The Field General is not quite single"—Luna's mouth could not go any lower—"But the stallion supplementary of Nightwings you have are. And from what I’ve heard from them, you are training them harder to keep up with you.”
Lun scowled. She looked at some of the stallions Nightwings around accusingly. Sure, she had kept a closer eye on them, and personally supervised their morning routines to make sure it was adequate (though she may have been slightly stricter on the latter regard), but did they have to go to Celestia with their complaints?
“How dare they?” Luna’s Royal Canterlot voice was beginning to build. “They are under our command, yet they go to thee to voice their complaints!?”
Celestia smiled as she shook her head. “Luna,” she motioned gently. “They weren’t complaining. They wanted to thank me for transferring them to you. Apparently, they are taking your actions as proof that you want them to stay at the Nightwings and taking them seriously.”
Luna’s dumbfounded look lasted just a few seconds. She then looked at the Nightwings around her again, and shook her head. “The stallions these days are very strange.”
“You will have plenty of time to understand them, I assure you,” Celestia said. “Know them closely if you need to.”
"Thou are impossible," Luna growled.
Celestia’s smile lastedonly a few more seconds before her eyes went back to the broken down chariot. The younger alicorn nudged her sister’s side.
“Tia,” the younger Princess called after some time.
“Yes, Luna?”
“Do not worry sister. We shall find Blueblood.”
“Yes we will.” Celestia paused. “We definitely will.”
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Oooohh this sounds good. Excellent choice portraying Blueblood as the snarky-but-badass protaganist, I've always wanted to see him developed that way in a fic. That is, if you plan on making him anything like Stark.
Your writing could use some work, do you have any proofreaders on this? If not, PM me, I would love to help you get the little things right - like Luna's Middle-English dialogue, little grammar issues, etc.
Yeah, either way I'm gonna track the living shit out of this.
You have my attention sir, let us see if I'll linger. Oh who am i kidding, i love a good cross over story, looking forward to more.
tracked. looks good so far.
Oh, this looks GOOD!
YES! Just...YES!
I'll be frank, I'm nervous about this story. I had thought I was the one who would be doing the first 'Prince Blueblood' is Iron Man (or Colt), but someone had already beat me to it. Took me a few days before debating to myself whether to just publish it and give it a try.
772098
You needn't worry; your story is quite interesting. I like how you begin with an outside angle, and I'm curious how you're going to characterise the protagonist. I myself never pictured him quite like Stark (who is, all things considered, a pretty fearless and -pardon me- badass fellow), but definitely prideful and somewhat hedonistic. And cowardly, at least a bit.
Also, I think this is the first MLP fanfic I've ever encountered wherein (assuming both parents are alive and well) it might've not been the father who screwed up his kids...
A little update:
Reasonandrhyme is currently doing the beta for the next chapter, and this one. No major changes, but there were enough to catch my attention when I re-read it. I'm also working on the next chapter after that.
*Small Update*
I have began to future-proof the timeline. This first started out as a one-time story, and expand it afterwards. Then I realized if I kept going as I did, I would have painted myself in a corner. So, I'm slowly correcting a few things I felt would be looked at in the future.
The prologue has been slightly modified. I corrected Luna's speech somewhat, hopefully it'll be less annoying to those that know olde English better than I do. I also added some 'subtle' indications on the going-ons of Equestria History which will be delved on after Iron Colt.
Hopefully, no one will mind re-reading the Prologue chapter, and just to be clear to those that do mind, its basically the same chapter with just slight changes that won't really affect the current storyline. . . much at least.
See you guys.