Lost Little Pony

by PotatoJoe

One

Celestia awoke.

The simple action was as wonderful as anything in her life. For a thousand years, she’d gone without sleep - it wasn’t necessary to an Alicorn, but it was highly refreshing - but with her sisters return, she’d been able to rest almost every night for a year and a half.

But as consciousness filled her brain, she frowned. She knew what today was. And what it could be. It was either going to be one that restored her faith in a particular pony or ratified her unfortunate notion that he was beyond saving.

None, the less, it was time to get going.

She emerged from bed and called her servants. They entered and immediately fawned over her, which she took as a comfort this morning. Some times their awe and reverence would annoy her, other times it kept her going - and a time or two a week she simply prepared herself for the day.

As her flowing mane was brushed out, her chamberlain Orderly entered, eager to start the early mornings task.

“ Good morning, Orderly.” she said, greeting the grey earth mare.

“ Good morning, your highness.” said Orderly, giving a bow. “ Princess Luna’s night went well and she invites you to breakfast. Your court has three supplicants today whom will arrive at nine.”

“ And when will my nephew be arriving?” she asked, trying to sound even-toned about it.

“....I do not know.” said Orderly, looking though her ledger. A frown developed on her face as she searched. “ The letter we received did not mention a time. I can produce the letter and re-read it.”

“ You may.” said the Princess, standing now. Her servants bowed and backed away, their tasks complete. Celestia was now the regal monarch of the sun, with the crown jewelry and grooming that shown like her star. Glancing outside, she could see Luna’s moon dipping towards the horizon. There was fifteen minutes until she was needed, so she had time to listen to the letter.

After the Grand Galloping Gala, the Princess had gone to meet the Elements of Harmony at a local donut shop and had partaken of rather a few of the confections. Intoxicated with hard sprinkles she’d written a rather passionate and rude letter to Prince Blueblood, informing him in no uncertain terms what she felt and what lay ahead for him if he did not change his ways.

She hadn’t seen him over the next few days until she had been required to inquire at the Royal House of Unicorns villa to see if he’d simply partied himself to death. She’d been stunned to find it empty of the Prince - but with a number of Royal Guards sweeping it and emptying out a stunning amount of intoxicants. She’d discovered in the end he’d had his own donut machine, consumed as much beer in a night as Celestia felt she consumed in the entire sixth century, and had perhaps deforested the Everfree Forests supply of Poison Joke.

She hadn’t even known you could smoke Poison Joke.

The Guard explained the Prince had requested it and checked into a rehabilitation facility. She’d laughed. She knew Blueblood - such a grand gesture was a distraction from his new plan to “get blotto”. At least, she’d known that before she’d received a letter from the Canterlot Addiction Rehabilitation Facility the next day.

He’d committed to a sixty day program. He’d be kept in the facility where he would have no access to any sort of intoxicant and would be put though a number of physical and mental training programs to recover and break his addictions.

“ - upon completion, which is scheduled for the last day of the fall, the applicant will be free to return to his or her home. If you feel your relative may not have willingly entered this program or fear for his or her safety, you are invited to - “

Celestia nodded and as Orderly read. She knew the letter well. She’d not gone to the facility - she’d been busy. She’d not even needed to send anypony to check - the press had found out and had a field day, at least until Discord’s attack. The interest had died off after that, with the whole of Equestria trying to move forwards and forget the episode.

“ Thank you - we should proceed to the throne room.” said Celestia, walking by Orderly. Orderly put the letter back in her ledger and followed.

================

The setting of the sun and raising of the moon had gone as flawless as ever, and the Princesses were now seated at breakfast.

The Royal Court of Canterlot was a sight at mealtimes. The three noble pony houses heirs - sans Unicorn - the ministers, the captains of her guard, dragons, gryphon emissaries, powerful merchants, minor nobles, all were seated. They spoke and chatted pleasantly, the precursor to a day of work and legislation.

The Princess of Pegasi conferred with the Lord of Diamond Dogs about aerial gemstone scanning and the potential for growth of inter-racial work efforts.

A three headed dragon spoke with the three different dukes over the trade of silver ore in their respective lands.

One of the court mages produced a butterfly out of a napkin for the entertainment of the foal of the Prince of Earth Ponies.

It was a warming thing to see. There was unity and fellowship, which she’d cultivated in the court for centuries. It was tragic to admit, but since the departure of Blueblood, things had been better than they had been in years. No insults, no slurs, no shouting matches - there’d been worse ponies in the court, but they were few in number.

“ - and so we’ve got the problem of trying to encourage conservation of the damned plant!” laughed the Lord of the Everfree, a old, rough looking earth pony. His duties were to oversee the protection of the forest and it’s plants as a nature preserve would.
“ I had to check to make sure it wasn’t Blueblood himself lobbying. Who else would want Poison Joke to keep from dying out?”

“ Surely it has some uses.” said the Princess of Pegasi, taking a drink to hide her smirk. There was pride on her face - Celestia felt it was earned. Her house had never “ smoked themselves stupid”.

“ Physicians claim it’s good for glaucoma, but I think they’ve sampled their product.” chortled the Lord of the Everfree. “ Speaking of Blueblood - “ It almost hurt that speaking of illegal narcotics was a natural transition to talking of the heir of the unicorns. “ - where’ve you been keeping him these three months, Princess? Last I saw of him a rather fetching apple cake had fallen on him - don’t tell me he drowned in the frosting.”

“ He’s been drying his mane.” said Celestia with a little smirk. “ ....and drying out in general.”

A number of raised eyebrows met her statement.

“ Though, we’ll get to see if it worked. He’s due back today.” said Celestia, setting down her goblet.

“ Apologies, sister.” said Luna besides her. Most of the court was now paying rapt attention - the Princess of the Night rarely spoke in public. “ But young Blueblood arrived back in the early night. Our page tells that he was seen entering his villa with haste.”

“....hmm.” said Celestia, looking aside to her sister. “ That is...unusual.”

“ It ‘tis?” said Luna, looking intrigued. “ We know not of the Prince of Unicorns mannerisms. How would he have comported himself normally?”

“ Drunkenly crashing a carriage though a window.” said Celestia, earning a number of laughs from the assembled. “ Followed by making advanced on at least two servant mares and requesting more wine.”

Luna looked shocked.

“ Sister! You mustn’t joke like that!” said the star-maned mare, looking to the nobles nervously. “ Surely thou would not allow such a thing in the royal houses.”

“ I have, unfortunately. It was my mistake and I’ve attempted to correct it - I requested he sober up, and he’s gone off for three months to attempt that. Whether that solves his other problems or not - “

“ Y-your highnesses.”

Celestia looked up in surprise. Orderly, with a rather panicked looking Royal Guard, had entered the hall. Orderly was obviously the bearer of ill news, so Celestia rose to greet her.

“ I-I am sorry to interup-put breakfast, but there is an incident unfolding on the lawn of the House of Unicorn.”

“ Oh, lord, he’s passed out drunk in front of the camera again, isn’t he?” said Celestia, putting a hoof to her brown as she felt her muscles tense.

“ N-No, your highness.” said Orderly, shaking her head. “ P-Prince Blueblood appears to be having a garage sale.”

Celestia blinked so loudly she could hear it.

===========

A short trip took Celestia and her entourage to the villa. The House of Unicorn’s home was a beautiful estate near the palace of Canterlot which shone brilliantly in the sun - it might not have had the architecture of the House of Pegasi or the gardens of the House of Earth Ponies, but the magical enhancements - magically fountains of water, birds which sung in beautiful unison any song you wished to hear, and grass that was as warm or cool to the touch as you wanted it to be - were the envy of the other houses.

Today, however, a spectacle that Celestia had never seen in her life was unfolding.

The lawn had been covered in tables, upon which the wealth of the family seemed to be spread. There were paintings and statues, hundreds of years of fine china, and clothes from all eras laid out under the sun. Celebrities and commoners, nobles and soldiers, all milled about, making purchases. To Celestia’s horror she saw the wedding gown of Blueblood's mother purchased by the infamous Sapphire Shores who claimed “ It just needs a few adjustments and few hundred more gemstones and I’ve got the perfect outfit for my next music video!”

At least Blueblood had gotten a ransom for it.

Celestia had to find him and put a stop to this. Whatever he was doing, this could not stand - she’d seen the families collections grow over the ages and wouldn’t let some petulant brat simply hand it over for bits.

She forced her way through the throng, making her way to the great oaken double doors to the villa. She knew she was being watched as she levitated the knocker and have three great slams. Several moments passed before an answer came.

“ My apologies, I am not feeling well.” came the quiet, but recognizable voice of Prince Blueblood. “ My page will handle all of the transactions today.”

“ Blueblood! Open this door!” she commanded, speaking loudly but not bellowing. There was a loud clunk from the other side, stunning Celestia and drawing a number of gasps - had he barred the door? If so, Celestia hadn’t truly understood what an idiot he was. She could lift the sun. What was a little door going to do to stop her?

She focused her magic for a moment and threw the doors open.

She found Blueblood unconscious in a puddle of his own urine.

Comments

[The Recombinant]

When we finally see Blueblood I was hopping he would be more...dignified.

But that is not where you are going, so lets see where you take me author!