I opened my eyes.
The room was dark, lit only by a small lamp. I was lying flat on my back in a bed I didn’t recognize. And… I hurt. It was more of a general soreness than actual pain, but it was there, lurking at the edges of my consciousness.
I tried to push myself upright, and immediately let out a sharp little cry. I looked down in wonder at my left foreleg. Funny; I didn’t remember it being in a cast this morning…
I lay my hoof back down, and something crinkled. I lifted up my blanket and peered underneath. Huh. I was wearing a green paper gown. And there was a thin, clear tube taped to my right forehoof. Which meant—I looked around the room with newfound appreciation—this was a hospital.
I blew out a long, slow breath. Seems like I hadn’t managed to save the Gala after all, then...
I sat up—carefully keeping the weight off my left foreleg—then took careful inventory of my injuries. I could move all four of my hooves, so I hadn’t been hurt too badly, at least. And, aside from the cast, I had a big bandage on my shoulder, and a smaller one across the bridge of my nose. I spread my wings experimentally—my beautiful wings, Soarin’ had called them—and they seemed fine, too.
I lifted my right arm and eyed the IV drip line, then followed it with my gaze. The line led to a clear plastic bag hanging from a wheeled stand by my bed. I nodded appreciatively; the label consisted mostly of an unpronounceable soup of letters. Maybe that’s what was making me feel so good.
As I dropped by eyes back to the bed, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before: my room had a window, still dark. And, underneath the window stood a row of three or four green chairs. And, in the chair closest to my bed sat Blueblood.
He was dozing, with his head down on his chest. He was still wearing his white suit from the Gala, but it was torn and dirty. He’d even lost the flower in his lapel.
As I watched him, he shifted uneasily, then looked up. He blinked once or twice before finally smiling.
“Hey, Sis,” he said gently.
I said nothing.
He stared at me for a moment longer before his smile faltered. “How do you feel?” he asked.
“Fine,” I said. “Sore.” I swallowed. “What happened?”
He grinned. “Before or after I fished your sorry carcass out of the rubble?”
My eyes widened a little, but I stayed quiet.
After a moment, his grin faltered again, and he sighed heavily. “Apparently,” he said slowly, “Fluttershy was touring the Menagerie, and asked to meet the big bull elephant up close. You know how he’s always been rather high-strung?”
I nodded.
“Something about Fluttershy spooked him. The Warden said it may have had something to do with having an unfamiliar pony, in his own private pen, past his bedtime, wearing something that flapped in the breeze…” He shrugged. “Either way. He attacked Fluttershy—”
I sucked in a breath. “Is she okay?” I asked.
He shrugged again. “You got it worse, believe it or not,” he said. “When he charged, she actually fainted. And, though he threw her around a bit, the fact that she’d already gone limp meant she walked away with not much more than a few nasty bruises.” He sighed. “In any case: the elephant panicked, broke out of his pen, and ran towards the lights, which just so happened to be the Gala. You know the rest, I think,” he said, smiling a little. “Bull elephant plus load-bearing pillar equals minus-one Princess.”
I opened my mouth, but he interrupted before I could speak.
“No,” he said, “Luna’s fine.” He hesitated. “It was a joke.”
I scowled a little, and he sighed. We were quiet for a minute.
“Where’s everyone else?” I asked, finally.
He looked up at me. “At the palace,” he said, “in one of the spare suites. They all wanted to stay, but I made ‘em go. There was nothing else they could do for you, and they looked like they could use the rest… especially Twilight.” He chuckled a little. “She feels super-guilty, you know. All of them do, but Twilight most of all. She said that, when everything started to collapse, she just kinda froze—but you pushed her out of the way. She said you even caught the pillar that was just about to squish her. Or tried to, anyways.” His smile fell a little. “I tried to convince her that there was nothing she could’ve done, but I don’t know that she believed me…”
I swallowed. “What’s the damage, then?” I asked. “Bad?”
He shrugged. “Good news is, you’ll get to redecorate the Ballroom. Bad news is… well…” He took a deep breath. “About a dozen ponies injured, none too seriously, though. Your Peytral was damaged pretty badly, but the Sun Stone is intact, at least. And yours and Fluttershy’s dresses are ruined beyond repair.” He chuckled to himself. “The elephant was okay, though,” he added. “The Warden brought him down pretty quick with a couple stun rays. Though they’re already looking for some sort of wildlife preserve to re-home him at.”
“So,” I said flatly, “he’s going to a nice farm in the country, where he can play with all the other elephants.”
He smirked. “Not when you put it like that,” he said. “But, yes.”
We both fell silent again. After a minute, he shifted his weight in his chair and smiled. “It’s okay, Sissy,” he said, leaning forward and patting me on the knee. Where he touched me, my skin crawled. “It know it looks bad,” he said, in the voice he reserved for pretty, single mares, “but you’ll be okay. And hey, there’s always next ye—”
“S-stop it,” I said, my voice quavering, a little louder than I meant.
His eyes widened. “Stop what?”
“You know what,” I said, firmer. “I don’t know what you’re trying to pull, but the only time you’re ever this nice to a mare is when you’re trying to get in her skirt. And unless my life has suddenly become a bad Game of Ponies joke...” I shuddered, then glared at him. “You’re creeping me out,” I said. “Quit it.”
And then, to my astonishment, something happened that I never expected to see.
Blueblood looked hurt.
And not his cute, “come over here and comfort me, you pretty little thing” hurt either—I’d genuinely struck a nerve.
“That’s a little harsh—” he began.
“All the same,” I said, a little venom draining from my voice. “Care to explain what in the name of Tartarus you’re up to?”
He gazed sadly at me for a moment, then raised his hooves. “That’s fair,” he admitted. “I… don’t have a good track record with you, do I, Sissy…?”
“And why are you calling me that?” I snapped. “You haven’t called me Sissy since I was, like, twelve. I don’t like you making fun of me…”
“Cece,” he said quietly, “what happened when you were twelve?”
I scoffed. “I got these damn wings. Everyone knows that.”
“And what else?”
I frowned. “What do you mean, what else? Isn’t that big enough?”
He sighed. “When you were twelve,” he said, “I made a promise. To Mom. On the day she died.”
Whatever snarky comment I had on my tongue turned to ash. But he wasn’t done.
“Mom died, and I…” he sighed. “And I screwed everything up.”
I waited for him to continue, but he said nothing.
“Blueblood,” I said slowly, “what’re you saying…?”
He looked up at me, and, even in the dim lamplight, I could see tears glistening in his eyes. “What’s my Cutie Mark?” he asked.
I didn’t have to look. “A star,” I said. “You got it in Colt Rangers, from a camping trip. You were…" I swallowed uncomfortably. "...stargazing...?”
He shook his head. “Not a star,” he said. “A compass rose. I got it from an orienteering course.”
“Orienteering,” I repeated faintly.
“Navigation by compass,” he said. “I showed Shining Armor how to read his map, and pow: cutie mark.”
I hesitated, then shook my head gently. My brain felt like it wasn’t working right… was it the drugs?
“Shiny was in your Ranger Troop?” I asked.
He nodded. “He’s just a year younger than me.”
I shook my head again. “So…” I said slowly, “your Cutie Mark is in navigation?”
He shook his head. “No. That’s when I got it, but it wasn’t what I was doing. I got it when I showed someone else the way.”
I nodded. “So, your calling in life is to be…”
“A guide,” he said. “Not a teacher, that’s different. I have to show other ponies how to act, how to be…” he chuckled mirthlessly. “Though I haven’t been doing a very good job at it, have I…?”
“Yeah,” I murmured, “you’re kinda terrible.”
He chuckled again. “Hey, that hurts,” he said.
“You said it, not me,” I said, with a little hint of a smirk.
“Still. It’s different coming from someone else,” he said.
We both fell quiet again. This time, it definitely wasn’t the drugs—I just felt stupid. How had I not known this? Granted, we hadn’t really had a… solid relationship for some time, but still...
I swallowed. “So… what does Mom have to do with this?” I asked.
He glanced up at me, then looked back down and sighed. “I… talked to Mom before…” He swallowed, and stopped speaking.
“Before my coronation,” I suggested.
He nodded. “Before your… coronation,” he repeated. “And she made me promise to help you.”
I almost spoke up, but something stopped me. I don’t think I’d ever seen him like this before—in fact, I wasn’t sure he had seen himself like this before.
“Mom said… said you were headstrong. Stubborn. Didn’t like following rules. And, though you had a good heart, that you could be… insensitive, sometimes.”
I scowled. “I am not insensitive,” I said.
He rolled his eyes. “Trust me, Celestia,” he said, “you can be quite the bitch when you don’t get your way.”
My scowl deepened. “Can not.”
“Can too.”
“Can not.”
Blueblood smirked. “Can too, Sunbutt.”
“Blueballs.”
“Bitchface.”
“Dirty horse.”
At that, he chuckled, and I smiled. He settled into his chair a little, and I sighed.
“So… what’d she say?” I asked.
He looked up at me. “Hm?”
“Mom.”
He stared at me for a second, then nodded. “Ah. She…” he sighed. “She said my talent was keeping ponies on the straight and narrow. And that you needed help with that, more than most.” He looked into my eyes. “She made me promise, Sissy,” he said. “Made me swear that I’d help you grow into the Princess that she knew you could be. That’s why I haven’t left,” he added. “I stuck around because of you. But, that kinda got lost in…” he gestured vaguely. “I mean, it didn’t… I wasn’t…”
“You were mad,” I said.
He looked up at me, mystified. I looked down, then took a deep breath. “You were angry at me,” I began. “Not at me, I mean—but who I was. There I stood, wearing Mom’s Peytral and crown like I owned them. And… though Mom wasn’t the best Princess, even so, it felt like I was taking her spot. Like I was trying to replace her. And you hated me for it.”
He swallowed. “How did you know?” he said, his voice barely a whisper.
I sighed. “I felt the same way, every time I looked in the mirror,” I admitted. “Kinda still do, sometimes.”
He nodded slowly, then folded his arms. “Jealous, too,” he said. “There has never been a ruling King or Prince in all of Equestria. Not since the beginning. I was taught not to expect anything, so that wasn’t it. It’s just…” he sighed. “I’m older than you. And to have everypony tell me, ever since you were born, that I literally did not matter has been…” He swallowed. “...hard.” He chuckled a little. “Especially because the only thing that really separates me from you is a Y chromosome...”
I nodded. “So… you were mad. And jealous. And having to be responsible for keeping me in line with all that was… hard.”
He nodded. “But I couldn’t leave,” he said. “I’d promised. Those were the last words I said to her, actually—’I promise.’” He fell silent for a moment. When he began again, his voice was low and hushed. “But I didn’t know how hard it would be… and it was… easier to… to be…”
“A bit of a bastard,” I said. “To do whatever you could to distract yourself, while occasionally harassing me. That way, you could trick yourself into thinking that you were doing your job. And that you didn’t really feel all that hurt on the inside.”
He nodded. “Right. And, would you believe it? It took watching you almost get crushed by a two-ton chunk of marble to make me realize all that?”
I nodded. “That would do it,” I said with a smile. “Though, to be honest, I…” My smile faltered. “I have no idea what I would do, if you were in this bed, and I was in that chair,” I admitted. After a moment, I smirked a little. “Maybe go out for doughnuts with Twi. Maybe even splurge a little, get some sprinkles.”
“Ouch, Cece,” he said, dramatically clasping his hooves over his heart. “That hurts. But…” He chuckled, then set his hooves down on the armrests. “I do kinda deserve it.”
We were both quiet for a long moment. After a while, I looked up.
“You know what?” I said. “You’re alright, Bloob.”
He looked up at me, his mouth slightly open. I hadn’t called him Bloob since… well, at least since he’d called me Sissy.
“You’re not too bad yourself,” he said. It sounded like he was already close to crying. I would’ve made fun of him—but I wasn’t much better off, myself…
After a minute, I wiped my eyes. “So, Grand Vizier Blueblood,” I said, “it’s your job to give me advice…?”
“Sure,” he said. “Not sure it’ll be any good, though.”
I glanced up at him. “I could still use it, I think. Even if it’s just for perspective.”
He sat up a little straighter. “Fire away, then,” he said.
It took me a moment or two to gather my thoughts. Finally, I spoke.
“Where do I go from here?” I asked.
He frowned. “Pardon?”
“What do I do now?” I asked. “Every time I try to be a Princess, I screw it up somehow, or I make Loonie mad at me, or both. Not that she needs the help,” I added. “She already hates me.” I looked down at my lap. “It’s my fault Fluttershy was in the Menagerie tonight, you know,” I said. “I almost killed her—killed all my friends—not to mention half the ponies that actually matter in Canterlot—all because I wanted to do something for my friends.” I took a deep breath. “I don’t know what I’m doing, and I don’t know how to figure it out. Honestly, I…” I sighed. “Honestly, I kinda wish you could be Princess. That way, I wouldn’t have to.” I looked up at him. “How do I fix this?” I asked. “What should I do?”
He took in a breath, then let it out slowly. “That’s… a lot to ask for my first act as big brother in half a decade,” he said.
“Gotta start somewhere,” I said with a grin—but the grin quickly fell. “But, even so… it’s an honest question.”
He looked down and thought for a moment. “Cece, I… I think...” He swallowed. “I know you’re not going to want to hear this, but…”
“What is it?” I asked.
He took a deep breath. “I think what you should do next,” he said slowly, “is apologize to Aunt Luna.”
“What?!” I shrieked, sitting bolt upright. “I bare my soul to you, and you—!”
He stood. “I know, I know!” he cried. “Just—just chill out for a second, okay?" He scowled. "Let me finish before you jump down my throat, at least.”
I closed my mouth, then sat back in the bed and crossed my arms. Blueblood let out a long sigh.
“Listen,” he said. “I know you hate her. And she’s given you plenty of reason to, but…” He swallowed. “I… I think there’s more happening than you know.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What are you saying?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Just… she’s having a hard time, too. I’ve been watching her since she came back, and…” He took a deep breath. “I don’t think you two are all that different, in the end.” He smirked. “For one—she can be quite the bitch herself.”
Despite myself, I smiled a little.
He ran his hoof through his mane. “If you’re asking me what to do,” he said, “that’s where I’d start. Seriously. Sure, she’s old fashioned, and rides you hard, but I really do think she means well…” He smirked a little. “Deep down, at least. And, if you want advice on being a Princess, well—she was in charge for like fifty years before she…” He swallowed. “...disappeared.”
I stared at him. He looked away.
“She’s been awful to you. But, you have to admit—you’re… kinda awful to her, too. And I think, despite everything, she’s too proud to be the first to cross that bridge.” He looked back at me. “If you want help, I really think she could help you,” he said. “But I honestly think that it needs to be you who makes the first move.”
I stared at him in silence. I stared at him for a long time—to the point where he looked away and laughed to himself. He looked back and opened his mouth—
“Fine,” I said, cutting him off.
He closed his mouth in surprise, then opened it again. “Really?” he asked.
I nodded curtly. “I’m trusting you this time, Bloob,” I said. “And I hope to Harmony I’m not going to regret it.” I sat up, then peeled off the thin hospital blanket. “Here,” I said, “help me up.”
He took a step forward. “Cece, what are you doing?” he asked, alarmed. “You shouldn’t be out of bed—”
“I’m Princess. Who’s gonna stop me?” I said. I used my magic to drag the IV stand closer, then leaned on it like a cane.
“Cece, I’m serious,” Blueblood said, his voice hardening. “If you leave now, you could—”
“Blueblood,” I interrupted, “remember what you said? Headstrong, stubborn, bit of a bitch? I’m going,” I said.
Blueblood hesitated. I watched him debate with himself for a second, then sigh. “If I can’t stop you, will you at least tell me where you’re going?” he asked.
“Home,” I said. “I got something I need to do.”
“Can’t it wait until morning?” he asked.
“Maybe,” I admitted. “But I’m already awake, and I gotta get up in a few hours anyway.”
“Cece, I—”
I turned to look at him. “Blueblood,” I said. “After I get the sun up, I promise I’ll come back. I just need an hour or two.” I took a halting step forward, then smiled. “You asked me to trust you,” I said. “Now I need you to trust me.”
He thought for a moment, then smirked a little. “Alright, then,” he said. “You’re sure I can’t stop you?”
I smiled back. “You’ve never managed before.”
He sighed. “I’ll try and keep the doctors off your back then,” he said. “Just... don’t do anything stupid?”
“No promises,” I replied. I turned and started hobbling towards the door.
Behind me, Blueblood cleared his throat. “Love you, Sissy,” he said.
I stopped with my hoof on the door handle. I swallowed once or twice, then turned back to look at him.
“Love you too, Bloob,” I said.
And I was surprised to realize I meant it.