Perhaps Celestia should have listened to Luna and never settled down, never married, never loved something so mortal and weak. The sun goddess would have never suffered the pain of burying her courage and then mildly musing if perhaps she should have been better to him. She would have never seen her sons treated so differently from herself just because they were merely princes and not grand, wonderful Princesses. Celestia could have spared herself the pain of seeing her family line dilute until she had only her sister to prove that she was not alone in the pool of genetics. After all, these many houses of angry unicorns were hardly any consolation to losing her husband.
All the same, she could not help feeling protective of each and every one of them. She loved them each. Her granddaughter Fleur, result of a slip in control a hundred years ago, was especially precious because the pink haired she-wolf was so playful! Orion was a darling. Pity he let Royal Ribbon beguile him into marriage. Her precious Vinyl, despite her lazy and frivolous ways, was a joy whenever the disc jockey mare wasn't after her the crown prince's throat.
Oh, yes, the crown prince...
"Prince Blueblood," Celestia sweetly murmured as the prince entered. He looked unsure of himself. It was rare he was in her presence. She couldn't blame him. Last time she had seen him, she convinced him to go to the Gala and after that, to go to Fleur's airship party. Both had been rather horrible for him. Celestia wondered in the back of her mind how old the romance novels Rarity read were. Certainly modern masculinist and the wave of mares agreeing that stallions were not baby machines and merely body guards were close enough to home that the purple maned unicorn wouldn't foolishly believe she was to seduce a stallion and then keep him as a prize?
If so, Celestia could only wait for what would happen when Spike grew. Dragons were all instinctively possessive, so their domineering natures would clash. Horribly. Amusingly. It would be--
"Um, excuse me, Princess Celestia...?" Blueblood asked, looking almost ready to quake in his horseshoes.
Celestia looked down. "Ah, yes. Sorry, nephew--" the word sounded like a lie on her tongue. It was half truth "--I was just daydreaming. I did call you here with a purpose."
Blueblood shrunk a bit.
"And not a social obligation."
He relaxed.
Celestia walked closer to her distant relative. The moonlight on his golden mane reminded her of her long dead husband. She smiled softly. "I understand why you married Blueblood. Still, I hope you are happy."
Blueblood paused, obviously forming his words carefully. Fluttershy was an Element and therefore precious to Celestia. In the same hoof, Blueblood was a symbol of Equestrian power and a token of Celestia's lost love. He could cause no trouble between him and his wife to be seen by Celestia, least the goddess trouble herself about finding a solution. "It is difficult..."
Wrong word. Celestia stiffened, frowning. "Dear neph--"
Blueblood shook his head. "Princess, please let me finish." He gathered himself, moving to sit by the dinner table which had been their original plan. He was going to dine with Celestia, plus Fluttershy when she returned from her long-awaited spa trip with Rarity. Celestia was one of the few females he liked to be around. "Fluttershy is gentle with me. She is all patience and kindness, like the gentlemares from the old tales."
The white goddess smiled softly. She regretted that Blueblood's mother had drilled the sexist view of romance into Blueblood's head, but if he could become comfortable enough to talk favorable about Fluttershy because she fit into his pseudo-dream woman, she could handle the ancient garbage. "And, has she attempted anything unladylike toward you...?"
A blush crept across his face. "We have... uh."
Celestia couldn't believe it! Her shy little nephew and the darling of Ponyville! How naughty!
The golden haired stallion knew his aunt well enough to know the stupid look on her face meant what he did not. "It was not that, Princess!" He was flustered, nostrils flared and ears pinned. Celestia motioned for him to sit and it was only then that he realized he was standing. "We have... Excuse my bluntness, but we have... spooned."
Obviously, Celestia was not impressed by this. She assumed Fluttershy slept as the big spoon as most pegasi didn't appreciate their wings being touched. They always got a reaction out of a pony, much in the same manner tugging another's tail would. A pegasus had to be a bit into pain with their pleasure for wing fondling to be a turn on for them.
Celestia would know.
"Is that all?"
"All?! Princess, I hardly know the mare, and, she, we, her hair, our tails!" He put his face into his hooves. "You do not understand at all!"
"Nope," Celestia chuckled out. She stopped when she saw Blueblood tearing up. He was probably frustrated. He was trying to keep his homestead and here she was, poking fun at him for not being able to chew what he had bitten off. "Come here," she cooed.
He approached, hesitant.
"Blueblood, next time you try to warm yourself up to touching Fluttershy, try this." She brought her wing out. Blueblood brought his ear to her lips. The servants, who had not been paying attention out of respect, noticed their gathered forms and carefully turned their ears so that they got they could not catch bits of the conversation.
Blueblood brought his head back, not sure how, exactly, his aunt's bit of advice would help him warm up to his wife. However, if her stories were to be believed, Celestia was a bit of a sexual master. He would trust her words. "Alright. Thank you... Auntie."
Celestia smiled. "Anytime, nephew."
"Princess Celestia, Duchess Fluttershy, along with Baroness Fleur, Baron Fancypants, and Countess Twinkleshine, have arrived. However, we were not expecting Madam Fleur. Shall we tell her she and her family will dine in the guest hall, or...?"
Celestia shook her head. "No, please. Let them join us." Celestia smiled widely. "It has been a while since I've seen my granddaughter."
Blueblood settled himself down. He levitated the goblet of water to his lips. He sipped lightly from it. He watched as Fluttershy, Fleur, Fancypants, and Twinkleshine walked in. "Good afternoon," he lightly said. "Darling."
Fluttershy grinned lightly at his after thought. While she had always resigned herself to a life without romance thanks to her bizarre combination of a fairly impressive sexual appetite mixed with her incredible fear of strangers and strange situations, it was nice to at least pretend she could once day do something with Blueblood. "How was your day, Blueblood?"
"Good. I had much of the day off, thanks to you helping me take care of those requests and tend to the paperwork." He frowned a bit before asking. "Um, how was your friend?"
The pegasus understood his hesitation. "She was fine. Thank you for asking. I ran into Fleur after, so I asked her to come." Fluttershy blushed, looking to Celestia. "Sorry. She said you were always happy to have more."
Celestia cheekily grinned. "Always room at my table for my trickster baby."
Fleur made a face at her grandmother. "Grandmother Celestia, I'm not the prankster here."
"No, you'll never pass the master, will you?" The white princess looked more prideful than any other moment.
Twinkleshine could apparently not stand her mother and great-grandmother talking about pranks without her. "Oh, yeah?! Well, you two never figured out who stole Philomena that one time,did you?! No-ope!" It was only after she spoke those words she realized her foolishness. "I mean, uh..."
Fancypants shook his head as the white coated mares got into a rather loud arguement about who was the best prankster. "So, cousin-in-laws, tell me, how is this harvest season."
Blueblood finished chewing his pre-meal roughage. It was watery and cleared his palette. "The grapes are plentiful, as they always are. I'm a bit worried about this year's antler growth. The deer say the shortage of minerals in the summer isn't going to allow for a lot of growth this year. Spring antler-ivory is always a bit hit since it comes right before the popular marrying months. I am surprised at the star fruit growth this year, though."
"Oh, yes, it has been five years since the last star fruit harvest, hasn't it? Ten years since the return of our fair Princess Luna, too." Fancypants seemed to realize something, then. "Why, what about a little celebration on keeping Princess Luna?"
Fluttershy nodded. "That'd be wonderful!" The mare paused then. "Um, doesn't she have houses under her, too?"
"The Sparkle family is her only keep," Blueblood supplied.
"Oh? What about the Doo family you told me about?" Fluttershy herself had been shocked to learn that her friends Derpy Doo and Ditzy Doo were in fact low ranking nobles. However, their family was so weak and of few assets that they would soon lose their status as nobility.
"Well, they're some of Leon's offspring," Celestia interjected. Her mane had a fork floating through it. Fleur's head was adorned with Celestia's crown. Twinkleshine was no where to be seen.
"Where's our daughter?" Fancypants asked, a little bit obvious in his worry over his precious, pink maned angel.
Fleur waved him off. "Oh, somewhere between here and the lower levels of our treasury room." She giggled.
"We keep baby manticores in the lower levels!" Fancypants crowed. Just then, Twinkleshine popped back into existance, the quiet of the non-fighting making her coming more obvious than her going had been during the ruckus. "Darling," Fancypants cooed as she sat down. The youngest rose haired girl threw her mother a dirty look.
"Leon?" Fluttershy asked.
"My cousin," Celestia said bitterly. "He rules a few islands west of Equestria. His special talent is, of all things, time control. He can't even control it! It's pretty pitiful."
Blueblood rolled his eyes. "You just say that because you're have to check with him for 'real' time."
"THE SUN CONTROLS LIFE. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT A FEEBLE, RELATIVE CONCEPT SUCH AS TIME HAS UPON THE GLORY OF A PLANET OF EXPLOSIONS."
"Chill, Grandma," Fleur said behind a hoof. Celestia glared at Fleur, then blushed, embarrassed at her outburst.
Fluttershy sighed. "Well, at any rate, we should do something for Luna."
Celestia licked her lips, eying the food exiting the kitchen. "Let's discuss it over our meal, yes?"
"Mm-hm!" Fleur and Twinkleshine said in time.
Fancypants and Blueblood shared a look. When those three said discuss, they really meant override each other's opinions.
Fluttershy saw the gaze and put a hoof to Blueblood's shoulder. "Oh, I'll interject your ideas if Fleur won't listen."
Blueblood shied at the touch, then forced himself to endure it. "Thank you."