//------------------------------//
// The Great Derpsby's Heart's Blood (FoME's "Noblesse Applige") 
// Story: Never the Final Word (Vol. 2) 
// by FanOfMostEverything 
//------------------------------//

At the clip-clop of light hooves entering his study, Polaris Vladimir Blueblood looked up from the map unrolled on his desk. 

"Cady!" he said with an easy smile. The alicorn princess answered with a beam of her own. "How are you? You weren't at the Gala. Again."

Cadance shrugged. "Yeah, sorry. I wasn't feeling well. Auntie said it was really exciting this year. Kinda makes me regret I didn't come."

"Yes, well," Blueblood noted with a quick cough, "she did invite a number of rather... eclectic guests, in the form of Twilight Sparkle's coterie. Remarkable individuals, that."

Cadance casually walked over to his desk, giving the map he was working on a look. "And did you meet some of them?" 

"All of them, in fact." Blueblood also looked back down to his work. "I met with the Lady Ponyville again, and had just enough time to disabuse one Rarity of the same township regarding 'the most eligible bachelor in Canterlot.' I am very fine with the way things currently are."

Blueblood picked up a pencil in his starfield and made to write down a quick note about zoning around Ghastly Gorge and the need for new prospectors—there happened to be a regrettable need to regularly replace them—but paused instead. Something sent a shiver down his neck. Some sense of foreboding. Slowly, he turned his head.

Cadance's bright smile filled his vision. "You can't run forever, Blue."