After the inevitable victory celebration in Ponyville, courtesy of Pinkie Pie, where friends and family reunited and stories were exchanged, things finally started to calm down in the castle of Friendship. Due to how late it was and how exhausted everyone was at the time, including the princess of the night herself. No one objected when Twilight invited them to spend the night at her home, where slumber soon claimed every one of the ponies and dragon there.
All but one prince who kept gazing at the moonlight from the balcony deep in thought, as the memories that the fake Nightmare Moon had shown him were still fresh in his mind. And the words of the ominous creature princess Celestia was chatting with kept adding more and more questions to his list.
"Blueblood?" Blinking a couple of times, the prince turned around to find Twilight looking on from the balcony entrance. "Why are you still awake?" She tilted her head and regarded him with a raised eyebrow.
"I could be asking you the same question, you know, it is pretty late."
"I just went for a glass of water," She responded, levitating the empty cup in question, "What about you? A bad dream?"
The prince sighed and nodded before looking at her. "You could say that. I couldn't sleep. There are so many things on my mind right now," He mentioned before returning his gaze to the moon. "What we experienced tonight shook me up."
"I know how you feel. When Nightmare Moon came back for the first time, I can certainly say that I was happy with how everything ended, but I would be lying if I told you that I could sleep the following nights peacefully." Twilight approached and leaned on the railing. "Would you like to talk about it? That always helped me."
"Isn't kind of late for that? I don't want to force you to stay up for my sake."
"Relax, it's not like this is my first time doing this or staying up this late. You wouldn't be forcing anything." She dismissed his concerns with a wave of the hoof and a reassuring smile. "Now, let me hear it. What is in your mind, cousin."
Sighing in defeat, the prince decided to give in and take her offer, there wasn't anything to lose, and he could even fish for some answers from her in the process.
"I suppose, it's mainly how unreal and chaotic my life has turned out recently." He confessed, looking at the Balcony floor for a moment before looking up and pointing at the town below the two. "Don't get me wrong, this is exactly what I always wanted, as a kid, and I'm thankful for how things are—going on adventures, having a caring family, being a hero, unraveling mysteries. I should be the happiest stallion alive right now. And yet…"
"…it's not exactly what you imagined, right?" Twilight inquired with a hint of sadness in her tone.
"Well, yes and no. I mean, I'm happy that my prayers were answered, and I wouldn't trade my life for anything in the world, but things? They just keep happening so fast, Twilight. Realizing I'm a new world. Adapting to a new culture, going into the occasional adventure. At first, it was awesome. Still, at some point, I started to feel like I was only hopping from one problem into another, each one more difficult and crazier than the last one, and well, I can't believe I am saying this, but, for once, I would like to go back and have some normalcy in my life. Some common issues to solve. Helping my aunts with their jobs, seeing how I could help Canterlot improve. Resolving any lingering issues my past self left behind. Heck, I'd even take some boring meeting with the other rulers over risking my neck on another crazy adventure. I'm not even sure I can overcome another ordeal like this one, Twilight. I need a break from all of this, and I don't know how to do it."
She simply smiled in understanding and put her right hoof over his shoulder, looking up at the moon. "I know how you feel."
That caught him off guard as he looked over to her, who nodded once again while continuing to take in the starry sky above.
"You do?"
"Well, perhaps not completely how you feel, maybe Rainbow Dash knows more about this subject, but even though the exact opposite happened, the experience allows for me to appreciate the simple things in life, and I understand that normality will always be there, even here in this crazy little town." She chuckled as she looked at the sleepy city in the distance and started to reminisce.
"When I first moved here. The first thing I thought was that everyone in this town was crazy, and I couldn't wait to go back to Canterlot after finishing the job princess Celestia assigned me. But then, Nightmare Moon happened, and after understanding the importance of Friendship, I decided to stay and keep studying the subject."
"Studying the subject?" The prince repeated, confused about how she referred to it like it was a science fair experiment, which made her giggle.
"Yeah, I know, I was going about it the wrong way. And like you, everything seemed fine at first. I was content to analyze things as they happened, fill out a report, send it to the princess, rinse and repeat, but then one day, things stopped. There were no friendship issues, no reports to fill, no wacky adventures to have, nothing for me to do or learn. And that prospect scared me to no end. I'm not going to go into details of what happened because it's kind of a long story, but let's say…I spiraled out, and things got out of control, just to have a friendship problem to resolve." She confessed with a not so small degree of embarrassment. "I was so bad that princess Celestia herself had no choice but to intervene and clean up the mess I caused."
"Wow, sounds heavy."
"Oh, you don't have an idea, and trust me, if I wasn't scared before. The idea of possible punishment left me fearing for my life. That is, of course, until both the princess and my friends helped me realize what I was doing and how I was making a big deal out of something insignificant. It was all just in my head. And I think what is bothering you is all in yours as well."
"What do you mean?" Blueblood raised an eyebrow at her analysis in confusion.
"As I said, I don't know if I'm the right mare to talk about it. But I can tell you this. Like me, you are stressing over something that's not there, and no pony will blame you for taking things easy for a while. Do you want a break from all of those adventures? Then do that. The only one stopping you is yourself. Please don't make the same mistake I did. Stop and smell the roses." She advised him, "Believe me, you don't want to end up with a bird's nest on your head."
"Birds nest on…"
"…don't ask! Just trust me on this one. If I can learn to let go of a schedule and have fun, so can you. You only need to take it one step at a time."
He sighed in defeat and looked down in shame. "You are right, Twilight. I am getting worked up over nothing and losing sight of the small joys of life. I really should try to take things easy and occupy my time with other things. I think that I've been neglecting my duties a couple of times. I should go back to my plan of helping out my aunties and improve the city wherever I can." he confessed, bringing his hoof up to his chin.
"There you go! See? It's easy. All you need to do is calm down, relax, and let everything follow its natural path."
Blueblood finally shot her a smile. "Still, I don't think I will be able to ignore the call for adventure if it arises."
"Or that I'd ignore a friendship problem, the key is in that sentence, Blueblood. It's a 'call,' not a job, or a daily necessity. Those kinds of things need to come to you naturally, got it?"
"Got it. I will certainly keep that in mind."
"Good, and you know if you need any more advice, you can always write me a letter or two about the lessons you have learned on the way."
That earned a smirk from the prince. "Really, Twilight?"
"Can you blame me? Princess of Friendship here, I love to keep in contact with my friends and learn new things…speaking of which, and since we are both awake, do you think…"
"You want to learn more about my dusk form and the Nightmare Opera spell, don't you?" Blueblood asked her with a knowing smile.
"Yes, please."
He chuckled lightly and shook his head. "Ah, what the heck, it would only be fair. Besides, the responsible thing to do would be to register this as a kind of new magic, right?"
"Yep," Twilight nodded eagerly as she conjured a scroll, bottle of ink, and a feather. "Something this huge deserves to be taught to the generations to come."
"Ok, but only a brief synopsis on its origins and some warnings, ok? We both still need our sleep," The prince warned.
"Relax, this will only take a couple of minutes, half an hour tops."
Knocking on the door, Pinkie wandered inside Blueblood's room while stirring a bowl full of cake mix. "Wakey, wakey Bluey, I'm making my famous three-layer breakfast cake, and you simply need to taste…" She stopped once she saw the room full of scrolls scattered and spread all over the place with long strings of equations and pictures of the moon. What appeared to be an image of Blood Moon and Midnight Sparkle. In the middle of all the mess, the royal cousins were soundly asleep and cuddled together using pieces of scrolls and parchment as makeshift blankets. "…aw Twilight, you meany! You had a slumber party, and you didn't invite me? Just for that, no cake for you." She exclaimed, crossing her forehooves before slowly smiling and poking Twilight check. "Oh, I can't stay mad at my friends. Ok, I'll let this time pass, but this isn’t in no way over Sparkles, and Bluey still needs to taste my cake, so it's time to wake up." She circled around the two until an idea popped out of her head and smirked.
Stretching one of her back hooves to an exaggerated degree until it reached the door, Pinkie vanished in a poof of smoke before reappearing a second later with a camera strapped to her neck. "Say cheese!" Pinkie instructed and pointed the object directly at the slumbering pair to take a picture with a blinding flash.
The reaction was immediate as both woke with a start. Simultaneously and out of instinct calling upon their magic forth before circling in place, searching. "Wha…where…what happened? What time is it?" Blueblood stuttered until he saw a nearby grandfather clock "8 am? We spend the entire night talking about Blood Moon?"
"Well, not exactly. Only until we both passed out from exhaustion." Twilight clarified. "Which I'm not so sure when that happened." She said, looking around as well, and the prince could swear Twilight was saying, "Worth it" under her breath.
A groan caught the attention of the two, and looked towards the sound. They saw a hole in the wall in the shape of Pinkie Pie.
"Pinkie!" Twilight exclaimed, and both rushed toward the said hole. "Pinkie, are you ok?" Twilight used her magic to get her out of the wreckage and cleaned off the debris as she was still dizzy.
"I…" she started to utter, still trying to regain her senses.
"Take your time, Pinkie, deep breaths," Blueblood instructed as they waited for her to recover. "I…got it!" She suddenly grinned at the pair and showed them the picture of them soundly asleep, "Blueblood's first slumber party memory! This is going into the album." She announced before dashing away before her head reappeared from the door. "Oh, and I'm making my special three-layer breakfast cake. Hurry up."
That caught the prince's attention. "Did she just say breakfast cake?"
"Yeah, that's just Pinkie being Pinkie. Don't pay her too much…" Twilight started to explain as she was picking up scrolls until she realized she was talking to the air.
"Hurry up, Twilight! God, please let it be buttercream frosting!"
She heard coming from the hallway, and there she stood, blinking a couple of times in surprise, before chuckling. “That is it cousin, just like that, one step at a time”