After Bowen did a little stroll around the gardens, he was about to head back inside until he suddenly saw a note asking for him to meet Blueblood at the courtyard alone. Bowen felt nervous about it, but he suddenly didn’t want to make him mad, so he decided to go with it.
Meanwhile, outside in the courtyard, Blueblood was anxiously awaiting for the arrival of the child, but his patience was starting to wear thin. He scuffled his hoof against the pavement, and mumbled to himself. ’Where is that little heathen at?’ He then let out a frustrated growl, until he heard footsteps approaching and looked up to see the boy walking through the courtyard’s entrance.
When Bowen approached the stallion, he shook nervously and looked up at him, “I’m sorry I’m late Cousin Blueblood, but I just wanted to go see Mommy before my foalsitter would come, since Cadie’s busy with her job.”
’Of course I haven’t forgotten that Aunt Celestia hasn’t thought about sending the little heathen back! Now, I have to deal with this myself!’ In his mind, he was fuming with rage and disapproval of the idea, but he suddenly shook his head and gave a fake smile “Ah.. that’s alright, my dear boy. I was just enjoying the shade out here as you were, but anyways, I was wondering if you could come with me for a little something?”
Bowen swallowed nervously, but nodded, “Yes Cousin Blueblood, but where are we going?” He looked up at Blueblood curiously.
The stallion chuckled, “Oh don’t worry, child, it’s just outside of the kingdom, but in the Whitetail Woods.” A look of fear soon appeared on Bowen’s face, but Blueblood lightly patted him on the shoulder, “Aha… don’t worry dear child, these woods aren’t dangerous at all. I assure you that they’re quite safe, plus, it’s very beautiful.”
“But why do you need my help?” Bowen asked.
“I just wanted to show you the majestic wonder of the woods, and apologize for how I treated you. I hope you can forgive me,” He then gave a pouty, pleading face.
Bowen looked up him, and just nodded without saying a word.
’For an intelligent species, this mere child sure is gullible. This might be easier than I thought’. A sly grin crept across his muzzle “Good. Now, just hold onto my foreleg little one, because I’m going to have to use my transportation spell for us to get to the woods.” The little boy nodded, and gently walked closer to the unicorn prince and hugged Blueblood’s foreleg.
’Eeh… Note to self, remind me why I’m going through this plan of mine’. He shook his thoughts away and looked down at the child, “Hold on now, little one.” He closed his eyes and concentrated. In a flash, they vanished from the castle courtyard and appeared in the Whitetail Woods. Blueblood looked down at the boy “We’re here now, little one.”
Bowen unwrapped his arms from around the stallion’s foreleg and looked up, and around the forest. He noticed that there was a lot more light showering the woods. He looked up at Blueblood with a soft smile, “Wow, it’s very pretty here, Cousin Blueblood.”
Blueblood simply nodded, “Yes, yes, it certainly is, isn’t it?” He turned his head with a sneer. “Anyway, I brought you here for a little something, which is right over there.” He motioned a hoof towards a few bushes. He started to trot toward with the small child following behind.
“So, what do I gotta do?” Bowen asked, as they stopped.
“Do? What do you gotta do?” Blueblood asked, thinking up a lie for Bowen. “Well, if you love your Mommy so much… try… bringing her some flowers.”
“Flowers?” Bowen asked.
“Yes, flowers. Lots of them. Your mother loves flowers! So, take this basket, and pick out the ones that only bloom like daisies, but in many colors. And I also left a path for you if you get lost,” Blueblood explained.
“Okay!” Bowen said as he went on ahead with the basket, until he looked back at his cousin. “Aren’t you coming?”
“You go, I'll catch up. All right?” Blueblood replied.
“Okay,” Bowen said, walking off with the basket, making Blueblood smirk mischievously, until he started to leave the little boy all by himself.
Later on, Bowen was picking out more flowers in many lighter colors, of either green, purple, pink, orange, blue, yellow, or just plain white.
He seemed to enjoy how pretty the flowers looked and how good they smelled. When he was done, he suddenly saw a butterfly land on his nose, before he stood still and then as it landed on his finger, it suddenly flew off before a few more flew by the small boy, until he started following the path, but as he continued down the trail, he suddenly got lost, and had no idea where he was going.
“H-Hello? Anypony?” Bowen asked while nervously shaking in fear.
But before he could move on, Bowen started to see birds chirping and squawking while flying up in the air, and then felt the ground rumbling as he saw rocks gently tumbling, before he looked behind him and saw a herd of buffaloes on a stampede and headed towards him. He suddenly started running until the stampede caught up to him, but suddenly figured out that a pack of hungry coyotes were on the hunt.
Back at the castle, a guard came to Princess Celestia’s throne room with bad news, “Your highness! Quick! Stampede! In the reserve area of the Whitetail Woods! Your son is out there!”
“Bowen?! My baby!” Princess Celestia asked in shocking concern that her son is in danger, she then ran off to find him.
Back in the woods, Bowen took shelter somewhere far from the stampede from behind a log of a tree, so that he couldn’t get himself killed or worse. But suddenly, a buffalo tumbled onto the log, and it caused Bowen to be in the center of the stampede and made him about to experience sudden death, before all of a sudden, he was suddenly saved by two forelegs holding him against somepony’s chest, until he looked and saw Cadance holding him.
She then hovered down and then looked at him.
“Are you alright, sweetheart?” she asked.
“Mmhmm. Thank you, Cadie,” Bowen said.
The pink alicorn nodded, before she and Bowen saw Princess Celestia’s chariot coming down towards them.
“MOMMY!” Bowen yelled, running up to her.
“Bowen! Thank goodness you’re okay!” she said, after lowering herself down before reaching out her hooves to hold him, until he jumped onto her front barrel and buried his face into her chest and began to cry.
“Shhhhhh shhhhhh… There, there, sweetheart. I’m here now. I’m here,” she said, while rubbing his back, and then she looked down at him. “Bowen, I was so worried! You even scared me! What happened?!”
“There was a stampede, but I… I was…” He was suddenly cut off by Blueblood with more guards.
“There he is! That’s the culprit right there! Seize him at once!” Blueblood commanded, until two guards tried to take Bowen away from Celestia’s hooves, but Cadance stood in from of him, spread out her wings and lit up her horn, “Don’t… touch him!”
Bowen suddenly grabbed Cadance’s tail and nuzzled with the scent of her hairspray as he was buried underneath Celestia’s chest fur.
“Guards, stand down,” Celestia said, as the guards lowered their spears.
“What?! You can’t be serious! He’s the one who started the stampede!” Blueblood said.
“No! No! There were coyotes!” Bowen said.
“Don’t listen! He’s hysterical! He must’ve scared them off!” Blueblood.
“ENOUGH!” Celestia hollered, with the Royal Canterlot Voice.
“Mommy, I wanted to bring you these,” Bowen said, showing her the flowers he got.
“Bowen… I can’t believe you did this. You’re so sweet. Thank you, honey,” she said, kissing her son on the forehead tenderly, until Cadance walked up to him as Blueblood was about to assault Bowen aggressively but verbally.
“Don’t even think about it!” she said, as the alicorn felt Bowen hugging one of her hind hooves and standing underneath her but also in front of Celestia’s front legs and also hugging one of them, as his mother covered him with one of her wings.
“Sweetie, did he do this to you?” Celestia asked her son, as he nodded, complying his honest answer.
“Blueblood… why?!” she asked in a glare of disappointment and anger.
“Because he’s an abomination! A freak of nature!” Blueblood answered. “Plus, I thought you already sent him back to where he truly belongs, so I thought it’d be best to do it myself since you never had the nerves to do so yourself!”
“BLUEBLOOD! DON’T YOU DARE RAISE THAT TONE WITH ME!” Celestia hollered.
“What could you have possibly been thinking?! You almost killed somepony, especially since that somepony is part of the royal family!” Cadance said. “He’s only a child!”
“That’s no excuse! You can’t keep defending him forever and you know it! He might grow up into something carnivorous! Every time I look at him, I just shudder with absolute disgust! Ugh!” Blueblood complained.
“For the last time, I’m keeping him, and THAT… IS… FINAL!” Celestia said in a stern voice. “And I’ve in fact been giving him a chance to learn how to be a true prince, because a prince’s power is his compassion.”
“I’M TEN TIMES THE PRINCE THAT FILTHY LITTLE MONSTER IS! BUT COMPASSION?! LOOK AT HIM! HE WILL NEVER BE ONE OF US! EVER!” Blueblood yelled.
“SILENCE!!!!” Celestia said in the Royal Voice again, using her magic to shield her son’s ears, as he hugged both Cadance’s leg and Celestia’s leg in between as Celestia’s hoof was hugging him and Cadance’s hind hoof. “Since you’ve shown no respect towards your cousin and no care or support he desires just because he’s different, I have no choice but to confine you in your room and put your royal status on hiatus, and until you learn to respect other ponies for who they are, you are grounded for 5 months. That’s right. No duties, no spa treatments, no grooming, no purchases, and also, no gala. And you will think about what you’ve done until you’re ready to apologize. Because if it happens again, I’m sending you to military school until you decide to start with a clean slate and a proper attitude, meaning you will be forbidden to come back to the castle until you change your behaviors towards other ponies. Understood?”
Blueblood nodded, and then walked back to the castle with two guards accompanying him. Celestia then looked down and saw Bowen crying in her hoof, and Cadance’s hind hoof.
“Cadance, could you take him for the night?” Celestia asked.
“Absolutely. Come on, sweetie. You’re gonna come with me, okay?” Cadance said, while letting Bowen climb onto her back. She then flew back to the castle, and took him to her room when they got there, which was pink and had a white wooden bed covered with light pink/purple and dark pink/purple, and white bedsheets.
Bowen was still upset about how cruel Blueblood treated him, since he found out that the unicorn prince who was supposed to be his cousin, tried to get rid of him, but he suddenly felt Cadance rub her hoof on his back, “Come here, sweetie.”
Bowen crawled over to his favorite cousin and buried himself on her belly fur and hugged her chest, until he cried underneath her fur, as Cadance wrapped her hooves around him. “Shhhhhh… it’s okay, shhhhhh… You did nothing wrong.”
“B-B-But… C-Cousin B-Blueblood… hates me!” Bowen said in reply.
“Oh, Bowen, I know. I know. It’s okay, you’re not bad. He’s just a little bit… misguided, but a real stick in the mud who likes to bully little kids, but I think you’re just a caring, sweet and cute little one, and you know what? That’s what I love about you,” she said, trying to make her little cousin feel better, while Bowen felt the softness of her belly and the warmth of her fur keep him safe and snug. “No matter what happens, we’ll be here for you. Always. You understand?”
Bowen nodded, and then they continued to cuddle before dinner time.
After they were done, Cadance got him ready for bed, but suddenly Bowen asked, “Cadie? Can I sleep with you tonight?”
Cadance nodded with warm and sisterly smile, “Of course you can, sweetie.”
She then carried him back to her room and after she placed him on her bed, Cadance took off both her ribbons and at them aside, and turned off her light, before Bowen snuggled against her chest.
“Bowen, just remember, you’re more than welcome to come over to my room and sleep with me, if you feel scared or just need somepony to talk to, okay?”
Bowen nodded and then yawned. “Goodnight, Cadie. I love you,” Bowen said, before he finally fell asleep, hearing his beautiful cousin’s heartbeat.
Cadance smiled and then kissed Bowen on the forehead, “Goodnight, my sweet little cousin. I love you too.” She then placed her foreleg over him for a hug and then fell asleep.