From within the map room of Twilight's Castle of Friendship, Twilight sat at the far end of the room with her number one assistant, Spike at her side. Earlier this morning, she sent emergency messages to the other princesses of Equestria for a meeting in regards to Ed. After about two hours of waiting, only two Alicorn princesses showed up at her castle.
The first Alicorn had a midnight blue fur with blue and purple mane and tail, flowing freely behind her. She wore a black front piece with a crescent moon which was the same image as her cutie mark. She also wore crystal hoof shoes and a black crown on her head. She is Princess Luna, princess of the night and ruled Canterlot along with her sister, Princess Celestia.
The second Alicorn had a pink fur with mixures of purple, hot pink and and yellow mane and tail. She wore a golden crown on her head with a purple gem, along with gold hoof shoes and a gold chest piece. Her cutie mark was a crystal in a shape of a heart. She is Princess Cadance, the princess of love and ruler of Crystal Empire along with her husband Shinning Armor. She is also a sister-in-law to Twilight Sparkle and a proud mother of her Alicorn filly, Flurry Heart.
After they both took their seats of her friends thrones, Twilight silently gathered up her thoughts to say before she finally addressed to her two guests.
“Thank you two for coming,” said Twilight as she nodded with appreciation. “I know I requested you all here on short’s notice, but this is an emergency.”
“It’s alright Twilight,” Cadance assured and gave her sister-in-law her smile. “On a personal note, I’m always happy to see my sister-in-law.”
“And we both know you wouldn’t have summoned us without a good reason,” Luna added.
"How is Shinning Armor and Flurry Heart Cadance?" Spike asked with a smile.
Cadance smiled back. "Oh they're both fine, thanks for asking Spike. Those two are back at the Crystal Empire to do some father and daughter bonding time."
"No no no Flurry! Don't fly up there!" Shinning cried panicky to her daughter as she flew around the room with a giggle.
"Please come down!" Shinning pleaded.
His pleas went deaf ears as Flurry flew towards one of the priceless vases with was sitting on one of the columns.
"Flurry don't touch that—"
SMASH!
Flurry flew around the room again with a giggle while Shinning let out his distressed groan.
"Why did Cadance left me to watch our daughter and then left without a word?! Was it because she's still upset with me the other day?"
Shinning groaned further as Flurry knocked down another vase onto the floor.
"I knew I should've kept my mouth shut when she asked me if her new dress makes her look fat!"
"Yep. I sure those two will be fine!" Cadance assured with her almost too sweet of a smile.
Both Spike and Luna stared at each other from Cadance behavior but then they shrugged, deciding not to comment about it.
Twilight glimpsed at the door for a moment with her confused expression before turning back to Luna.
“Where is your sister Luna?” Twilight asked.
Luna frowned with a confused expression of her own. “She… said that she’ll be late.”
Twilight raised her eyebrow. “Late? How late?”
Luna shrugged in response.
That's strange, Twilight pondered. Princess Celestia is never late when it comes to meetings. I was hoping I can explain this to everypony about Ed at once, but I guess that can’t be helped.
Putting her thoughts about her former mentor's aside, she began to explain the situation. “Alright listen… you both sensed a huge magical serge from a couple days ago, right?”
Both the princesses nodded in unison.
Twilight sighed uneasily. “Well… the thing is… I was… experimenting the mirror... with my magic.”
Both Princess Luna and Cadance widened their eyes in shock.
“Y-you don’t mean… that mirror!” Luna asked with dread. Her fears were confirmed when Twilight nodded with hesitation. “Twilight, what were you thinking? That mirror contains unpredictable magic that not even Starswirl couldn’t understand! What possessed you to do that?”
Twilight winced from Luna's scolding, but she knew she deserved it. She sighed through her nose.
“Okay I’ll admit, what I did was risky, but I was curious if I could see other worlds from other dimensions other than the human world where Sunset Shimmer lives.”
"Yeah, once her curiosity kicks in, it'll be impossible to talk her out of it," Spike added, only to received a side glare from his surrogate sister.
Luna's eyes narrowed. “Do you know what they say about the cat?”
“Have you heard that satisfaction brought it back?” Twilight replied.
As the two of them stared down, Cadance spoke up.
“Were you hurt?" Cadance asked with concern. "What about everypony else who was near the mirror?”
“Thankfully, everypony including me were fine and the mirror remained in tact," said Twilight. "I just need to be more careful when I experiment with it again.”
“IF you do it again,” Luna mumbled.
Cadance gave Luna a quick look before giving Twilight her caring smile. “Well I’m glad that you’re okay. Was that all?”
Twilight hesitate before she sighed and shook her head. “I wish but… there’s more.”
“More?" Luna exclaimed. "Well what could be more important than nearly destroying the mirror and put other pony lives in danger?”
Twilight fidgeted in her seat nervously. “When my magic’s gone haywire, I… may have accidentally brought someone here… from another world.”
Both Luna and Cadance droped their jaws in shock. A minute of tense silence, Luna facehoofed and groaned loudly.
“Oh you have got to be kidding me! You brought a stranger from another world here!?”
Twilight nodded and chuckled nervously, further aggravating the princess of the night further.
Cadance frowned worryingly. “Is this stranger… dangerous?”
“No, he’s not dangerous," Twilight assured.
Spike nodded. "Yeah, Ed is completely harmless!”
Cadance raised her eyebrow. “Ed?”
“That’s his name,” Twilight answered. “He's a human who works at a fast food restaurant called Good Burger as a cashier and he takes orders from his customers.” Twilight rubbed the back of her neck and adverted her eyes from the other two princesses. “Although... he didn’t do a very good job at that.”
"Tell me about it," Spike mumbled, only to received a nudge from Twilight.
Luna frowned. “Well harmless or not, you should send him back to where he came from through the mirror as soon as possible.”
Twilight shook her head. “It’s not that simple Luna. Unlike the world where Sunset lives, this human is from a different universe thanks to my magical experiment with the mirror from earlier.”
“Then use that same magic that you experimented on the mirror and send him back!” Luna retorted.
Twilight sighed in frustration. “You don’t understand Luna. The magic I used on the mirror days ago was meant to observe other dimensions, not teleport. And when my magic’s gone haywire, there was a vortex with various different magic types in the mix that brought Ed here in the first place.”
“…meaning?” Cadance asked for clarification.
“In order for me to send him back, I need to re-create the same kind of magic that was from the vortex and combined it with my other spell," Twilight explained. "But I need to figure it out what types of magic that was from that vortex. And even after I identify each one, I still need to figure out the right amount for each type in order to re-create the same vortex without risking Ed’s life.”
“So he’s stuck here for the time being,” Luna summed up before huffing and rubbed her temples with her hooves. “Well, that’s just great! With that strange creature roaming around, there’s going to be a disaster waiting to happen!”
“I don’t know Auntie Luna,” said Cadance. “Were there any issues with Ed since he first arrived?”
Twilight hesitated a bit before she answered. “Well… other than a small… mishap when he unintentionally scared everypony when he went out shopping and made a few—” Twilight paused for a moment, re-thinking her words. “Okay, a lot of mistakes when he took orders at his job from the Hayburger, there wasn’t any major issues from him at all.”
“You also said that Ed is harmless right?” Cadance asked.
Twilight nodded.
“And this “Ed” is a good… person?”
Twilight nodded again.
Cadance beamed. “Then I don’t see the issue with him staying in Equestria.”
“Surely you jest Cadence,” Luna spoke up with a disapproving frown. “This... "Ed" may be “harmless”, but our subjects doesn’t know that! Everypony will think that he is a danger to our society!”
“Everyone in Ponyville already warmed up to him,” Twilight argued.
“More or less.”
“But no one thinks he’s dangerous!”
“Sure, in Ponyville. But many other ponies from Manehattan, Cloudsdale, and especially Canterlot will be much harder to convince!”
There was tense silence with Twilight taken aback from the way Luna spoke to her, Luna glared daggers at Twilight and Cadance and Spike stared awkwardly. Realized how harsh she sounded, Luna's anger melted away and replace with her apologetic expression.
“Sorry," Luna said with a sigh. "I don’t mean to sound so harshly, but I’m a realest when it comes to how the world works. Certain ponies will just look and judge you harshly without even knowing any of the facts first. Believe me… I know.”
Twilight nodded, with her assuring smile. “I understand Luna, but I promise that nothing bad is going to happen and I’ll figure out a way to send Ed back home," Her expression then became serious. "But I want you two to promise me to not mention how Ed came to our world to anypony except for Celestia.”
“Not to mention what?”
The princesses and Spike eyes widened when they heard a familiar snotty voice belonging to a certain spoiled prince of Equestria.
Oh no! Not “him!” Twilight thought panicky.
They all turned to the main entrance of the map room and they spotted two ponies entered the room. The first pony was an older light blue unicorn stallion with yellow eyes, white mane, mustache and tail, wearing a butler outfit and a one-eye monocle over his right eye, which looked exactly like his cutie mark on his flank. The other was a white unicorn stallion with long blonde mane and tail, blue eyes, and was wearing a tuxedo collar and blue bow tie. He also had a yellow and violet compass rose as his cutie mark.
The white stallion gave Twilight his arrogant, yet sneering smile. “Hello… Princess Twilight.”
Twilight eyes narrowed. “Blueblood.”
Blueblood scoffed. “That’s Prince Blueblood to you or better yet, Lord Bluebood! I hope you don’t mind, but no one is at the door so me and Winston let ourselves in.”
“I see,” Twilight stated calmly.
Twilight knew Prince Blueblood as one of the most powerful and most important bachelor in Equestria. He is very wealthy and also one of the representatives for the government of Canterlot. The reason why he is a prince was because he is one of the descents of Princess Celestia. Unfortunately, Prince Blueblood was anything but a prince. He was arrogant, greedy, selfish and full of himself. And if anypony who isn't as rich as him, he'll just look down on them and treated them very poorly as if they weren't important to him at all. On top of that, his actions at in the government office were very corrupt. He would rather used bits as cheap as possible to improve the the city and saved them for himself, he contently abused the system for his own benefits instead of the citizens of Canterlot or any other towns and worse of all, he pushed others around because of all the power he had as both prince and govern officials.
But ever since she and her friends go to the Grand Galloping Gala years ago, his image went downhill. Nowadays, there were numerous controversies involving Blueblood, including his latest attempts to build a statue of himself instead rebuilding the park a week ago. Thankfully Princess Celestia put a stop to his plans and then strip him away of his title, banning to do any of his royal duties or abused his power again.
However, he was here standing in front of her now instead of Celestia. She had several lovely visits from him before during his reign, but the fact that he was here despite that he was now permanently relieved from his duties, alarm bells were ringing in her head. She had a feeling that he was up to something, possibly wanted to know about the latest events in Ponyville, but she was not going to give him what he wanted.
Twilight subtly glanced at Spike, slightly telling him to gather up her friends. Thankfully, Spike got the message and he made his way out the door, ignoring Blueblood's eyes drilling at the back of his head. Once the dragon disappeared from the map room, the princesses, the butler and Blueblood stared each other down. It was so tense, you could easily cut it with a butter knife. After a what it seemed like a minute, it was Twilight who was first to break the ice.
“So... to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit Blueblood?” said Twilight.
Blueblood smirked. “Well Princess, if you must know, I came here for our meeting.”
Luna's eyes narrowed. “Well it seems you are mistaken. This meeting is strictly between princesses only.”
Blueblood chucked. “Sorry, let me rephrase that. I’m here for the meeting on behalf of Princess Celestia.”
Everyone's eyes widened. “What?” Twilight exclaimed.
Blueblood smirked. “It’s true. And in case you don’t believe me...” Blueblood used his magic to levitate the scroll out of his coat pocket and floated over to Twilight. “I have a written approval signed by my aunt herself!”
Twilight opened the document went straight to the bottom. Her eyes then widened in shock when she spotted Celestia's signature, confirming that it was true.
N-no way! Twilight scanned her eyes all over the signature several times to see if there was any signs of forgery. Unfortunately, she couldn't find one. I don't see any signs of forgery, Princess Celestia really signed this! But why!?
“Now wait just a moment!” Luna spoke up angrily. “My sister never mentioned this to me! In fact, ever since you did that statue stunt back in Canterlot, my sister banned you from your royal duties so you won’t abuse the system again.”
“Oh?" said Blueblood, acting innocently before he shrugged arrogantly. "Well I guess auntie didn’t tell you that my ban was recently lifted and coming here in her place was the first step of redeeming myself.”
Luna's eyes narrowed. “I’m still not buying this! I’m going to talk to her when I returned back to Canterlot!”
“I’m afraid she’ll be busy meeting with other creatures outside of Equestria," said Blueblood with a smirk. "This might take days before her return. So, for the time being, anything important you want to discuss in regards to Equestria will go directly to me.”
Luna growled in frustration.
"Speaking of which," Blueblood trailed off as he turned to Twilight. "I heard that we have visitor from another world called a human?"
Twilight's felt her blood turned to ice. "H-how did you know that?"
"I have my ways," Blueblood answered vaguely. “So how did this human arrive in our world?”
“Oh I... I just accidentally teleported him here,” Twilight answered but kept half of the truth to herself.
Blueblood's rolled his eyes. “Yes, but how did you teleported him here?”
“...I'm afraid that I can only discuss this with Princess Celestia,” Twilight stated coolly with her stern expression.
Blueblood eyes narrowed. “Did you forget… princess? she’s not available for you right now. So anything you have to report is to me for now on!”
Twilight's expression remained unchanged. “Even so… I rather report any of my findings to Celestia directly! This information is classified and too important to share with anypony!”
Blueblood leaned in too close to Twilight's face and spoke in a low volume. “Do you really not going to say anything because this information was really that classified… or was that an excuse to hide your reasons from me?”
The two of them were in a silent stare-down, one trying to break through while the other refused to give in, despite that her heart was beating like a drum. The gazes were broken when they suddenly heard the main doors opened and then several hoofsteps galloped into the room.
“We’re here Twilight!” Applejack loudly announced as she and the others entered the room.
Oh thank Celestia! Twilight thought, sighing in relief that her friends came through and made it at the nick of time.
The other two princesses were also relieved after seeing Twilight's friends while Blueblood stared on with an annoyed expression with a huff.
“So sorry we’re late," said Starlight. "We could've came here much quicker if somepony didn't stop for a shake at the ice cream parlor!"
Trixie stopped sipping her shake from a straw when she noticed everyone were glaring daggers at her. "What? That crazy human didn't gave Trixie her shake! So she has to go get it from somewhere else!"
Speaking of human, Twilight looked pasted her friends then around the room when she realized there were two more of her friends missing in the room.
“Where's Pinkie and Ed?"
Before anypony could answer, the main door opened again and then Ed and Pinkie walked into the room while they were in the middle of a friendly conversation.
"So that's the story of me, Applejack and her family went out on our family trip together to see if I'm really related to them, but deep in my heart, I knew it was true!" Pinkie concluded her epic tale to Ed.
"Cool!" said Ed with a huge smile. "That's an awesome story!"
"Thanks!" Pinkie chirped. "So, do you also have a cousin or any family members back in your world?"
Ed chuckled. "Sure do! I have a cousin who lives in Chicago along with his best friend. He and his friend did all kinds of crazy things together and he even loves orange soda!"
Pinkie gasped excitedly. "He loves orange soda!?"
"Totally!"
"I love orange soda too!"
"Is it true?"
"Mmmhhmmm! I do, I do, I do-oooh!~"
Many others stared at pink mare strangely, but decided not to question her because Pinkie was just being Pinkie again. Princess Luna and Cadance meanwhile were surprised when they saw Ed for the first time. When Twilight mentioned to them that a creature from another world appeared in their world, they expected the human to be somewhat intimidating. But they never imagined that the creature would actually appeared to be goofy with such long locks and wore strange looking clothing. They were slowly beginning to see why Twilight insisted that Ed poses no threat, but they were still weary of him.
While this was going on, Blueblood scoffed at the new arrivals and then gestured his butler towards them.
“Hey check it Winston, it’s those commoners pretending to be heroes!” Blueblood mocked loudly, ignoring the angered looks from others except for Ed.
“Hey check it everypony, it’s the Royal Pain!” Rainbow sneered at the prince.
Ed, not picking up Rainbow’s sarcasm, smiled and stuck his hand out towards Blueblood.
“Oh nice to meet you Royal Pain, I’m Ed. Heh.”
Blueblood had a flat look for a moment before he smirked and lightly pushed Ed's hand away.
“So… you must be this human I heard so much about!” he said as he eyed Ed. “For a moment, I thought you were some ugly looking monkey while wearing such ghastly clothing!”
Ed's eyes lit up. “There’s a monkey? Where?” Ed cried excitedly as he looked around the room.
“…and a stupid one too,” Blueblood deadpanned before smirking again. “Still, I’m surprised you didn’t lock him up in a zoo!”
“Oooh I love zoos! Can we go?” Ed exclaimed with eagerness, causing everyone else to to roll their eyes.
“Ed is not an animal Bluebood!” Twilight exclaimed angrily.
Blueblood scoffed. “Even so, you should have reported him immediately and have him lock up to keep creatures like him from harming our subjects.”
“But he didn’t harm anypony at all!” Twilight argued.
“What about when he caused a panic a couple of days ago in this town?” Blueblood shot back.
“That was a misunderstanding! …no thanks to that certain guard!" said Twilight with narrowed eyes. "We already cleared everything up!”
“And just how do we know that this was all an act?” Blueblood questioned. “For all we know, he was just biding his time until he overthrow us when we least expect it!” Blueblood then faced Ed with a sneer. “Isn’t that right human?”
“…sooooo we’re not going to the zoo?” Ed asked.
Rainbow facehooved while Blueblood stared blackly at Ed before he raised his head with a scoff.
“You know what, why don’t you make yourself useful and serve me tea!”
“Hey! Ed’s not your servant!" Spike yelled. "You should get your own—”
“Sure thing!” said Ed.
Everypony but Blueblood stared at Ed in shock.
“ED!” Twilight exclaimed.
“It’s fine Twilight,” Ed assured. “I served rude customers like him all the time! I got this. Heh heh.”
Prince Blueblood glowered at Ed for be referred as "rude" but didn't say anything as Ed left the room. Once Ed disappeared behind the door, Blueblood started speaking to Twilight again.
“Anyway princess, I'm also here to tell you that I arranged a huge upcoming gala which will take place in your castle next week!"
"Next week!?" Twilight shrieked.
"That's right," said Blueblood with a dark chuckle. "Since you're our newest princess of our country, I figured we should properly introduced you to your subjects just to see what kind of princess you really are!"
"Oh my, an upcoming gala next week!" Rarity gasped. "I don't think I can put together all those new dresses on time!"
"Ah think makin' them new dresses was the least of our worries Rare!" Applejack deadpanned.
"Hold on," Twilight shouted. "I was never informed that I have to host a gala at my castle this year! And besides... this week isn't a good time for me!"
"That's because I just set that plan in motion a few days ago, already notified everypony in Equestria about it!" Blueblood revealed. "And they will all come to see you! Aren't you honored?"
"You can't do that!" Twilight protested. "I'm sure even Princess Celestia will agree that this is too soon!"
Blueblood smirked. "Who do you think approved my idea in the first place princess? I'm sure you can complain about this to my aunt and have it cancelled." Blueblood then gasped in a mocking matter. "Oh wait, I forgot. She's not available right now. I guess you have no choice. You wouldn't want to let those ponies down, do you?"
Twilight growled in anger, unable to fight back.
"Now see here Blueblood!" Luna spoke up with an authoritative tone. "Celestia and I ruled equally! I can easily overrule your ridiculous decisions in her place!"
Blueblood smirked while "tsking" ay her other aunt. "Nice try Auntie Luna, the document I gave to Twilight stated that only your sister Princess Celestia can overrule my decisions! No substitutes, including you cousin!"
Cadance winced, unable to help while Twilight checked the document again. After a minute of reading her ears drooped and her expression changed into a look of despair.
"...he's right."
The girls and Spike were shocked by the revelation while Blueblood laughed cruelly.
"Tough luck princess! Anywho, I’ll be staying here in Ponyville at a high rate hotel for the time being so I can keep an eye on you and him. Until then, you have a week to set up the gala and introduce your… human to Celestia and everypony else in the entire country. If everypony label him dangerous, then I’ll have the pleasure to lock him up in the deepest dungeon in Canterlot like a animal he is.”
Twilight eyes narrowed. “We'll never let you do that! Ed is a harmless and nicest person I know! He’s not a threat to Equestria!”
Blueblood smirked evilly. “Well good luck trying to convince everypony including my aunt… princess.”
“Here’s your tea!” Ed announced loudly with a cup of tea in his hand.
Blueblood jumped in fright from Ed's sudden appearance from out of nowhere. The others only jumped somewhat because they were used to Pinkie's sudden appearance all the time.
“Huh!? What!? How’d you—” Blueblood stammered for a moment before he shook his head with a growl. “UGH, nevermind! Just give me that tea!”
Blueblood snatched the cup from Ed with his magic and then he took a sip. His eyes suddenly widened and then he spat out the tea from his mouth. He turned to Ed with his anger expression.
“BLEK! What the heck is this!?”
“It’s tea, just like you asked,” Ed answered simply.
Blueblood growled. “But this tea is cold!”
Ed blinked. “So?”
“It’s supposed to be hot!”
Ed's eyes widened in understanding. “Oooh! Well you didn’t say you wanted a hot tea.”
Most of girls snickered quietly while Rainbow, Pinkie, Trixie and Spike were laughing out loud that somepony else suffered from Ed’s antics for once, especially at somepony that they truly despised. Even Winston barely suppressed his smirk but kept himself composed so he doesn't get in trouble.
Blueblood growled angrily at Ed. “Why you… you better watch your butt human!”
Ed blinked. “Okay.”
Ed tried to turn his head around so he can look at his butt. When he’s unable to do it, he tried to lean closer, only he ended up spinning around in circles like a dog chasing after his own tail. Everypony (sans Pinkie) and young dragon were staring at Ed’s odd display in stunned silence. Trixie leaned over to Starlight and spoke in her semi-hushed tone.
“Is Trixie the only pony here who was wondering what was wrong with this guy?”
Starlight shrugged in response.
Blueblood decided to ignore the strange human and set his focus on Twilight again.
“Enjoy it while it last Twilight Sparkle, because the next time I return… everyone will see just how of a fraud you really are! Come Winston!”
With his head up high, Blueblood showed himself out the door with his butler following behind him. Everypony stood silently with uneasy expressions. With Blueblood's running around and Princess Celestia's out of commission, they don't know what to do to convince other ponies outside of Ponyville that Ed is a good person before the upcoming gala at Twilight's castle. With Ed's unpredictable behavior and unintentionally makes things worse at the Hay Burger, this could end up in a disaster. Their thoughts were broken when Ed stopped spinning and placed his hand on Twilight's shoulder.
“Okay, I give up! There’s no way a guy can watch his own butt!”