//------------------------------//
// Prince Blueblood and Civility 
// Story: P.B. and J. 
// by TheAmazingMe 
//------------------------------//

"Prince Blueblood, your ignorance and vulgarity have come to an end." The hood of the cloaked pony closest to me fell back, revealing the face of a vaguely familiar pony. I wracked my brain to try and remember where I knew him from.

The ponies formed a semi-circle behind the leader. Taking a step back, I felt a chill behind me. Glancing back, I saw a wall of ice form behind me. 

"Things would have been easier for you had you just listened to Civil List. May she rest in peace." The leader said.

The sentiment was entirely lost on me, given the circumstances. "What are you talking about? What do you want with me?"

Cocking his head, the leader glared at me before sighing. "You have no idea who I am, do you?" His smile didn't match the hardness in his eyes. 

"Should I?" I asked. 

The earth pony smiled. "I was once instructed to flog you like a common thug. I may have lost my position as my lady's driver that night, but I didn't lose very much face in certain circles."

Lady Fields' driver! I shook my head. "I never spoke in my own defense. If you were fired by Lady Fields..."

He pulled a riding crop from under his cloak and flexed it meaningfully. "I was fired by her head of house. Lord Fields. My lady told him everything of the encounter and he took the preventative measure of discharging me from his service."

It had been some time since I'd been physically harmed. I was not eager to relive the experience. There had to be a way to de-escalate the situation. "Right. Like I said. I didn't get you fired. So all the petty vandalism and...whatever this is...have nothing to do with me." 

"This isn't about me being fired." He pointed the crop at me. "This is about you being an alcoholic, a pervert, and a danger to the traditions of ponykind."

I exhaled slowly and centered myself. Aside from the leader, there were three other ponies. From the outlines of their cloaks, they were all unicorns. I didn't know their capabilities, but Traditionalist Unicorns tended to know their way around a magic spellbook. The ice wall behind me was really starting to freeze my tail. 

That small discomfort brought a solution to mind. If the ice was freezing me out, it was warming up. The wind wasn't particularly strong, not the least because of the shelter of the building around the alley. So I'd need to help the ice thaw to a point that I could smash through it. Feeling the place where my magic was in my head, I cast a small spell. The glow from my horn was faint, and it stopped as soon as I let the spell go. Unfortunately, I had to wait a bit before I could act. 

"How am I any of those things?" I asked, nonchalantly. I lifted a hoof to count off the points with which I disagreed. "I don't think I've even had a drink in quite some time. I've actually really cut down on sex as well. And which traditions are we talking about? Because last I checked being the Head of the House of the Night is a very old tradition that I intend to do full honor in returning." 

His scowl intensified. "The House of the Night is an abomination! Ponies may have forgotten the terror of Nightmare Moon, but our libraries haven't! Since her return, the old stories have been passed back around on the lips of those who kept that knowledge. Celestia may think that the Elements of Harmony purified her little sister, but she places too much faith in those Elements. Evil isn't an easy thing to be rid of."

I shrugged. "And Celestia has failed before," I said, surprising myself. Not because it wasn't true, but I just didn't feel the same level of satisfaction as I'd felt before. A small part of me recognized that as progress before the other part of me reminded me of the actual danger I was in.

One of his compatriot's horn charged. I'd actually not been focused on the other ponies. The other two remained still. "Don't you dare insult Princess Celestia, trash! You were not worthy to even be in the same house as her!" His accent was unmistakably Prench. 

An idea formed about the true nature of my would-be assailants, although I really had no way to take them all on. Concentrating on the matter at hoof, I raised my eyebrows and lifted both hooves placatingly. "I was just agreeing with you. So, you want to do what exactly? Overthrow the crown?"

The former driver snorted. His compatriot's glow dimmed, apparently they were quite content to talk all about this scheme. I was shocked none of the others had chimed in. Or moved. "Obviously not! We want the abdication of Nightmare Moon! We also want you to disappear. We've been attacking any business with ties to or royal grants from the Night Court. Soon, Luna will have no friends at either court."

"Between having a former employee of the Fields and what I can assume to be a member of the Noblesse des Fleurs?" The muffled Prench curse was all the confirmation I needed. "I can see that you might have powerful friends. Or maybe you're just acting on your own."

The driver huffed. "You haven't taken into account our friends."

"Your friends who still haven't moved." I noted. "This is so amateur hour."

The driver looked to his Prench ally. "I told you moving them would help."

The Prench pony shot back. "And I told you that would take too much energy. We still need to subdue him and make sure he stays awake." He levitated a syringe and pointed it in my direction.

With that admission, I bucked the ice wall behind me. It shattered as the heating spell I'd put on it had weakened it. On a whim, I grabbed a few chunks of ice and hurled them magically at the ringleader and ponies who hadn't moved. All went down with a clatter. A very wooden clatter. Lighting my horn, I saw that two of the three background ponies had been nothing but props. The other unicorn had deflected the ice, although his syringe broke as a result, and was making a break for it up the side of a building on ice steps. One full-strength melting charm settled his makeshift staircase. The conspirator dropped to the ground gracelessly.

The former driver had ducked the ice chunk and closed the distance as I was distracted. He struck me full strength across the face with his crop. The pain was eye-watering. He stuck an inhibitor ring on my horn and grabbed me around the neck. "Your Highness, you are coming with me."

"Not likely!" I spat back, briefly considering getting my hooves dirty. 

Before I could, the former driver struck me again several times, this time with his hoof on the other side of my face. The shots rang my bell, I'd been fully exposed and defenseless. My knees buckled.

Fortunately, I didn't have to, another  pony struck first. A blur of blue and purple struck the former driver clean on the jaw. It was enough to daze him, and a second stallion grabbed me and half-dragged me out of the alley. I realized as I looked back that my hero was one of Princess Luna's House Guards. The second hero was a two tone brown pony. 

"The ring, take the ring off." I said. The young stallion complied, as a small explosion echoed from the alley behind us. He pushed me down behind a crate and looked around the corner. Without a word, he took the inhibitor ring and headed back into the fray.

It seemed my unicorn foe wasn't down just yet. 

Joe appeared out of nowhere and raced to me as another cracking explosion shook the alley. He dove over to me and assessed my condition.

"Can you stand?" He asked, wincing as he held my chin up and inspected my face.

"Not with you on top of me," I pointed out drily.

As another blast went off, a city guard unicorn ran by. Hopefully between the three of them, one of my rescuers would get that inhibitor on the unicorn before he  blasted his way half to Tartarus. A series of small blasts seemed to indicate otherwise.

"How about managing a moving shield?" Joe asked.

I shook my head. Even that gesture made it spin. "Too much adrenaline. Think I'm getting a little shocky. Can't do magic. Shields aren't my thing anyway. How's it going out there?"

Joe peeked around the corner and ducked back in as more blasts rang out. "That civilian pony is landing punches on an earth pony thug , but is still fighting. The unicorn is casting blind. He's bleeding into his eyes. The guards are taking direct hits, but the armor is nullifying most of the damage. We can move."

I really wanted out. "Need to move. Can't have you on me. Get me out of here."

"Okay, can do. I'm not that great at shields either, but here we go." As we set off down the alley, a humongous explosion knocked us off our hooves. Apparently, our enemies weren't done with us.

The Prench unicorn ran towards us, all the other ponies, including his partner, we're down. The crate that was our cover was gone. If we'd been right next to it, I'm sure we would have been gone as well. Joe sent castfire bolts at the unicorn, but they were deflected. His horn charged and a complicated looking glyph appeared in the air in a reddish glow. The glyph solidified into a disc and shot towards Joe. Joe cast a shield, but the disc merely slowed, groaning with a near-metallic sounding grating as it tried to saw through the shield. Joe redoubled his efforts and deflected the curse. It struck a brick wall and left a sooty smear. 

I charged my horn, pushing through the pain, but came up empty still. For a moment, I took a breath and lamented that my special skill wasn't something more combat related. Before I could finish that thought, a second disc sawed through the shield and struck Joe in the chest. He fell in a heap, eyes open and moving, but otherwise immobilized. 

Panting, I charged my horn again and succeeded in shooting a stray brick at the Prench unicorn. The distraction was enough for his glyph to go awry. Another sooty smear hit the wall. As the unicorn charged his horn again, the ring slipped over his horn, canceling out the magic. As his hooves went up to reach for the ring futilely, the brown earth pony kicked him in the gut. As the Prench unicorn bent over, the earth pony jumped over the assailant’s back, putting the villain between himself and the two guards who were fast approaching. The earth pony reached around the Prench ponies neck and held his opponent’s head up as he put his own down. Before the unicorn could attempt to pull free, he was struck in the head by both guards.

Without a sound, he collapsed. 

The next few moments went by in a blur. There were guards and medics and before I knew it, Princess Luna herself. Somehow we'd gotten to the hospital on the Royal palace campus. I vaguely remember answering quite a few questions, while back group of guards stood by to get direct orders. As I told my story, every once in a while a guard would be sent off to handle some facet or another. Eventually, I just stopped answering and Joe held me. Perhap the haze over these memories was due to the exhaustion, or shock, or the blows to my face, or maybe all of the above. I didn't care. 

To be frank, I cared mostly about my face in that moment. I was assured by a pony applying salve that there would be minimal scarring. The minimal part scared me. 

Joe had fallen asleep on my hospital bed. Aunt Luna sat at my bedside. I was sure there were guards posted at my door and likely all throughout the hospital. Turning to speak, I cleared my throat. Looking over her copy of Celerity, my aunt quirked a brow in interest.

"We should still go forward with with the garden party." I said, surprising my aunt with what must have been my first words in quite some time.

"Tensions have risen to a high point with the griffon kingdoms. To hold a social event in this political climate would not set a good example. We will celebrate the flower's blooming in private." Luna turned to the magazine in her hoof and sighed. She seemed to be looking at it without looking at it.

"Do you know the house guard who saved me?" I asked, interested. "And the civilian and city guard?" 

"They will be by to visit in the morning. You should get some rest." Luna reminded me.

I lit my horn and tugged the magazine away. "What don't I know?"

Luna sighed. "Without putting too fine a point on it; a lot. But in this particular case..."

I smiled and laughed, startling Luna and hurting my bruised face. Sighing, I turned back to face her. "In this case?"

She smiled as well. "The only pony I didn't know beforehoof was the city guard and the former driver. And I'm quite bothered by that."

"Understandably." I agreed. "Who was the Prench pony?"

Luna sighed and folded her magazine. "You're really not going to sleep without getting into this now?" I believed my expression was sufficient enough. Luna shrugged and continued, "He was one of Fleur's cousins. Fairly distant. Mostly unimportant."

"Fleur isn't an avowed traditionalist. She's a model, for...your sake." I said, deciding against using Luna's name in vain.

She rolled her eyes at the substitution and went on. "I don't think she's the one behind this."

"I went public with my relationship. The traditionalists seem to be very against it."

"Does it bother you?"

"I've had their attention since I was young. I was the subject of made up scandals before I ever set hoof in the palace. After I left Celestia's house, I could have gone anywhere and done anything and I would have mildly annoyed a few fuddy-duddy ponies. Now that I have your ear and am working to help increase the goodwill of your House, I'm a threat."

"That makes me a threat as well. I have a terrible thing to ask of you." Luna looked away.

I thought for a moment. "You can't handle the in-fighting. Not when there's the chance of a war with the griffons."

Luna looked back, her gaze sturdy but only just. "You don't have to. This could very well have been just an isolated incident from two radicalized, minority voice members of an increasingly minority party."

I beckoned her closer and she complied. I took one of her hooves in both of mine. "Neither of us believe that."

Her expression was answer enough. 

I let her hoof go. "You don't have to ask me. You handle your war. I'll handle mine."