The two reappeared in a flash of magic.
After seeing it for three times in a row, Blueblood had realized that that one merchant on the corner of the street in Canterlot had, in fact, scammed him when he'd sold him that watch. He was rather grateful that his tendency to experience all of his life in his memory when his brain told him that he was about to die, which happened usually at least once a day, allowed him to notice details like that. He was a little less grateful for the fact that it also replayed all other instances of him seeing his whole life when he'd thought he was about to die, as it was getting a little tiring.
He looked around the room he now found himself in. It was a dimly lit chamber with a pavement made of large blocks of grey stone, the walls built in similar fashion. The only source of light was a series of candles attached to the walls, providing too little illumination for him to see the entire place. Princess Luna stood in front of him, a smile stretching her facial features. The Prince awkwardly smiled back, and the two spent a few seconds staring at each other.
An opossum climbed Luna's starry mane and curiously looked at Blueblood from atop the alicorn's head.
"So," the unicorn began, giving a brief cough, "you mentioned how I would become an alicorn."
"Indeed," Luna replied, still holding her outstretched smile.
"Are we going to start?" Blueblood tentatively asked after a few more seconds of silence.
"Oh! Of course! Your training! Your royal training to become an alicorn! The special training you, as my most faithful student, must undergo in order to unravel your true potential!" Luna stood there, motionless.
Blueblood gave another cough. "Shall we begin, Princess?"
"At once!" Luna remained still for another couple of seconds. "I have no idea of what I'm doing!" she proclaimed, and promptly disappeared in a flash of light, only to reappear a moment later. "No! I cannot ask my sister for guidance in this! I shall prove to her that I am the superior teacher between us! Isn't that right, Tibbles?" Luna asked, grabbing the opossum in her hooves and beginning to pet him. "You know I'm the best princess, right Tibbles? Yes you know! Who's a good opossum? You are! You a-"
"Excuse me, Princess," Blueblood said to draw her attention.
Luna turned towards the stallion. She silently placed Tiberius back in her mane and cleared her throat. "Yes, your training. I believe we should begin. Now, since I am clearly the better teacher, it's only natural that you will be the better student, so I'd like to start by setting up our goals. Now, Twilight has saved Equestria multiple times. How many times have you saved our country, Vladímir?"
"I once stopped a war between the yaks and the Crystal Empire," Blueblood replied.
"Only once, uh? We'll have to work on that." Princess Luna began to walk away, forcing the unicorn to follow her. "For now, though, I believe our first mission should be that of finding your spirit animal."
"My spirit animal?" Blueblood asked, confused, as he walked behind the Princess.
"Yes. You see, Vlad, all alicorns have a spirit animal that accompanies them, one from which they can draw power. Tiberius is mine, and Philomena is my sister's. We inherit the special abilities of our spirit animals." Princess Luna came to a stop.
"Special abilities?" Blueblood stopped behind the alicorn. "What do you mean?"
"After establishing a strong enough connection with their spirit animal, an alicorn will be able to utilize some of the traits the animal possess as their own. For my sister it's the ability to set herself on fire like her phoenix. As for me, well, behold!" Luna fired a beam of magic to a nearby column.
The beam hit a rope tied to a metallic ring, cutting it. The rope flew upwards, and disappeared into the darkness. After a few seconds, a chandelier fell from the ceiling and hit Luna in the head, the rest of the rope falling behind it. The alicorn fell to the ground, her muscles contracting, and she laid there, unmoving.
Blueblood walked closer. Luna's body was perfectly still and rigid, and she wasn't breathing. "Princess Luna?" the unicorn called, but he received no answer. He moved even closer. "Princess?" he called again, louder, and again Luna didn't answer. Finally, he reached her cold, unmoving body and slapped her on the cheek.
Luna was startled awake. "Quite impressive, isn't it?" she said, smiling.
"Indeed..." Blueblood replied. "Could you explain to me why it is useful?" he asked after a moment of thought.
"It allows me to be safe from predators. They won't eat me if they think I'm already dead."
"Oh." Blueblood stared ahead for a second. "What natural predators do alicorns have?"
Luna stared at him. "Next question, please."
"Didn't Celestia say that you were already doing this thing before your banishment to the Moon? Back when you hadn't met Tiberius yet?"
"That's how strong the connection between us is! It transcends Time itself!" Luna struck an unconvincing dramatic pose.
Blueblood tilted his head to the side. "What about the other princesses? What powers do their animals give them? And what are their animals?"
Luna took a step back. "Princess Twilight has an owl. I'm sure you've heard of her owl. The owl called... Her owl, I'm sure you must have heard about her owl. It grants her the ability to turn her head back. She doesn't do it in public, she says it scares ponies."
"I did know about the owl, yes. What about Shining Armor's wife, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza? What is her spirit animal?" Blueblood asked, moving closer to Luna.
"Oh, her animal. Yes, of course, how could I forget! Her animal. Her spirit animal that grants her special powers. Mi Amore Cadenza's spirit animal." Luna fidgeted awkwardly with her hooves.
"Well?" Blueblood asked.
Luna turned her head to the side. "I've... never asked her what her spirit animal is."
"So you've never as-"
"But she has one! I know she must have one. All alicorns do, after all. All alicorns have their own special pet that gets to live with them forever. Isn't that right, Tibbles?" Luna said, taking the opossum out of her mane to pet him once more.
Blueblood awkwardly looked to the side. "So, okay, we'll find my spirit animal. What animal should it be?"
Luna placed Tiberius back inside her mane. "Well, since my sister's student's animal was a bird, like my sister's, yours should be a mammal. And since my sister's is a diurnal one and her student's is a nocturnal one, then given how Tiberius is a nocturnal animal yours should be a diurnal one. Which means we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find one." Luna looked up, thinking. "In the meantime, I guess I should teach you something."
"So, what will it be? What's our first lesson?" Blueblood asked.
"I'm not sure. I've got no idea of how to teach. I shouldn't have said that. Lesson number one," Luna said, posing, "don't accidentally reveal your weaknesses to others."
Blueblood tilted his head to a side, unimpressed. "How about some advanced magic? Like, oh, that spell that Princess Twilight had to complete? Or any other spell that can turn me into an alicorn? Or some advanced research on topics such as how to become an alicorn? Or a quest for some powerful artifact that will turn me into an alicorn? Or how about turning me into an alicorn?"
Luna shook her head. "Nah, those all sound like things my sister would have done with Twilight. After all, magic is that pony's special talent. And she's good at research. And at questing. And at being an alicorn. But no, my lessons must be different! They must be better! We'll design them around your special talents!" Luna triumphantly smiled while looking at her student. "So, hum, what are your talents, exactly? I see you've got a cutie mark there, what does it represent?"
"Oh, My special talent?" Blueblood smiled and readjusted his mane with a wave of his hoof. "I'm an excellent diplomat. I once saved the Crystal Empire from a war against the yaks that Prince Shining Armor almost caused."
"You mentioned that already," Luna replied. "Any other impressive things?"
"Well, I look beautiful."
"Something else?"
Blueblood's eyes nervously moved left to right. "Well, I'm an excellent diplomat. I once stopped a war between the Crystal Empire and Yakyakistan, did you know?"
"Vladímir, how do you spend most of your days, if I may ask?" Luna said.
"Well, I invest my time in pointing out flaws that others might have unfortunately not noticed in themselves, as to help them become better ponies."
"So you complain all the time."
Blueblood stretched his smile. "Did you know that I once stopped the yaks from invading the Crystal Empire? I am an excellent diplomat!"
Luna walked away. "I'll have to check the mirrors to see what other talents you might have."
"Mirrors?" Blueblood asked, following Luna.
"Well, you can't see them. Celestia never told Twilight about them until she was forced to, so-Wait! That means you should see them! Come here, please."
The two walked out of the room and reached a corridor full of mirrors on both sides.
"What are these?" Blueblood asked.
"Magic mirrors," Luna replied, walking up to one of them, "they can show us worlds beyond our own. And technically speaking they're also portals to those worlds, but we're not allowed to use them because my sister once almost caused the destruction of our reality after she'd fallen in love with King Sombra from another world. Which she never told me about, just like how she never mentioned that she'd replaced me with Luna from that world. And then she left me alone for a week with no explanation." Luna banged a hoof against the wall.
Blueblood stared at her.
"Sorry, I got a little carried away," Luna said while awkwardly returning the stare. "I'll check if there's any universe where you did something." She began to walk down the corridor. "Feel free to watch, but don't touch anything."
Blueblood walked up to the nearest mirror and looked at its contents. "Princess, why do you and Twilight and that other unicorn look like scaleless dragons in this one?" he asked.
"Oh, that one. You might not want to-Hey, I found one where you were picked by Celestia as her student! This should be interesting."
"Princess Luna, why is there a giant red cross made of metal in the room? And what exactly is Princess Twilight doing to you?"
"You should see this, Vlad. Now you're helping Ponyville deal with my return as Nightmare Moon. Sort of."
"Princess, I think she's-Oh, no, I can't look at this!" Blueblood covered his face with a leg. He then peeked out from below it to keep watching. "Wait, is that the Dragon Lord?"
"You just survived getting kicked to the Moon! That's... something, at least. But hey, you refused to let my powers corrupt you and didn't put on my helmet. Because it would have ruined your mane, but still."
"Does Celestia know about this one?" Blueblood asked, still peeking out from below his front leg.
Luna turned around. "That one? Yeah, I think she even ordered a pony to keep a diary detailing all of the events. Anyway, now we know you're good at building things with rocks. It's at least something Twilight can't do." She began to walk away.
"So what are we doing now?" Blueblood said as he began to follow her, after he'd stopped to look at the mirror some more.
"The night is still young, my student, we have plenty of time before the day comes and we can go look for your pet."
"Isn't it still morning? Celestia came to see your coffin right after she raised the Sun, and that wasn't so long ago."
"Even better!" Luna turned around to face the unicorn. "We'll have even more time!"
"But, forgive me, Princess, I need to sleep at some point." Blueblood came to a stop in front of the alicorn.
"During the day. And how else are you supposed to fall asleep at morning if not by staying awake for two whole days, both today and tomorrow?"
"Help from the alicorn who can control dreams?" Blueblood tentatively asked.
Luna smiled and stared at him.
Blueblood smiled and stared back.
They remained like that for a while.
"So," Blueblood began, "are you going to-"
"Start with your lessons? Of course! Here's how you properly feed bats-" Luna pulled out a chalkboard with a series of formulae on it.
Blueblood began to doubt that going back inside through the window had been the best course of action.