The sun rose sulkily into the air, pushing stars out of the sky with an irritated lurch. The pony behind the sun’s ascension, and she was beginning to hate that word now, groused and grumbled as the morning came. “Of all the ponies it could have been, it had to be Blueblood and not Twilight.”
The Princess of the Night, the blue alicorn Luna, tiptoed past her sister with grace. Celestia had woken up in the middle of the night with a joy that shone like the sun, but had returned to earth with dark clouds literally hanging about her head. Luna decided to hold off on asking her sister what had caused the bad mood until the (extremely isolated) storm cleared up.
Now, it seemed that she didn’t need to ask the question at all, as Celestia was caught up in something of a soliloquy. “Why not my brilliant, hardworking student? Why has she not been able to ascend to alicornhood? What is holding her back that Blueblood finds himself free of?”
Luna abruptly turned the soliloquy into a dialogue when she put in her two cents. “Perhaps you should ask our nephew what he did to achieve alicornhood?”
Celestia spun around in surprise at the sound of her sister’s voice. Her eyes lit up with an epiphany and a twisted smile crossed her face. “Yes, yeeesss… I can learn of the exact process that Blueblood followed, and then subtly turn it into a new assignment for Twilight Sparkle. It’s brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!”
Our beloved diarch rubbed her hooves together with an excitement that defied her previous dismay. She giggled much in the way of a certain lavender unicorn as she flew out the window to find Blueblood and discover his secrets. Luna smiled, certain that she had solved her sister’s issues, and crawled off to bed.
Keep in mind that Celestia had been teaching and guiding Twilight Sparkle for much of the young unicorn’s life. You will, of course, remember that she discovered Twilight’s potential at a young age and took her under her wing as a personal student. If you do not remember this particular fact, then how in the hoof can you call yourself a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan?
This being said, Celestia’s ultimate goal for her student was and, according to the writers, always had been ascension into princesshood. Each lesson, each task, each adventure had pushed her closer to discovering the destiny that Celestia had so carefully laid out for her. It was only a matter of time before Twilight Sparkle grew a pair of wings, and the Princess of the Day had waited patiently for several years.
But even an alicorn’s patience can wear thin.
So it was that Celestia raced into the royal ballroom, where Blueblood was making preparations for his second crowning as prince. Donuts were piled high in enormous mountains of fried sweetness, and decorations adorned every corner and archway.
Donut Joe held a box up to the male alicorn, presenting a sample of the work he had accomplished. “So, you wanna try it out?”
Blueblood looked up from his checklist with an expression of horror. “And allow common food to pass by these illustrious lips!? Not on your life!”
Donut Joe tilted his head to the side, blood pressure rising slightly. “Common foo— Wait, if you don’t want ’em, why’d you order ’em?”
The white alicorn prince rose into the air on his regal wings. “Well, the common food is for the commoners in attendance, of course! We can’t have you people starving while in my presence!”
The baker lived in Canterlot and was thus used to dealing with difficult customers. The tan-and-brown stallion called upon all of his years of experience to restrain his first instinct: to fling the box of donuts in the prince’s face. “I guess you do need to feed folks.”
Blueblood’s smile was as genuine as the rubies on his priceless heirloom bracelet. “Good, I’m glad we can see eye-to-eye!”
Donut Joe stalked off, most likely to drown his anger in a cup of decaf. Princess Celestia stopped him on his way out, pointing to his box of treats. “May I?”
The box was held out to her, and the princess partook of a cinnamon swirl. A moment later, the donut was gone and Joe’s spirits were raised. “Thank you, my little pony.”
It went right to her hips, but Celestia felt that it was worth it to see her subject happy.
Celestia approached the newborn alicorn, who was in the middle of explaining, in intricate detail, just where and when the guards should enter and herald his arrival. “Goodness, Blueblood, I’ve seen blushing brides less controlling of the situation.”
“Heavens, Aunt Celestia, but it is no mere wedding that I am planning.” Blueblood fluttered over to his aunt, a perturbed look on his handsome face. “It is the ascension of an alicorn. Everything must be perfect!”
He settled down beside her, his blond mane finding itself slightly out of place due to his stress levels. “I don’t believe that I shall be ready in time. I haven’t even had the opportunity to purchase a custom suit.”
“What a shame,” she said, her pity as genuine as a dime store tiara. “May I ask you something, Blueblood?”
The prince considered turning her down, strapped for time as he was, but quickly relented. “Anything for my wonderful aunt.”
“What events led to you becoming an alicorn?”
Blueblood summed up his time of building the golem, powering it up, and getting zapped to death by the mechanoid. “So, I created the ultimate servant and was promoted for the deed.” He chuckled. “And here I am today, no longer a mere unicorn.”
“So, you really discovered a new type of magic.” Celestia sighed, wings drooping. “Well, that’s to be expected. Thank you, Blueblood.”
“You’re welcome, Aunt Celestia.” He smiled his most dashing and daring smile. “Would you mind officiating the ceremony?”
Celestia smiled back. “Of course not, Nephew.”
The princess departed to her duties and left Blueblood to consider his own. He gazed about the hall, wondering just how he was going to be able to get everything ready for the ceremony alone. If only he had an army of untiring, hardworking, supremely-loyal servants at his beck and call.
A sudden thought overtook him. Why not? He had the tools, the materials, and the know-how. He could use his new-found power to create a hoofball team’s worth of the mechanical devices, programmed to follow his commands to the letter. Of course, precautions would need to be taken on account of the death-rays endemic to his first construct, but that was a quick fix.
He retired quickly to his chambers, where he could utilize the solitude for maximum efficiency. Piles of wood flew in his super-powered magical grip, coming together in fifty-odd pony-esque shapes. Gemstones took their place on the frames, poised to channel Blueblood’s magic. His army stood before him, complete save for the casting of his come-to-life spell.
And cast it he did, on the entire assembly at once. His horn glowed a majestic blue, and the power he felt was like nothing he had ever felt before. It was at once both euphoric and overwhelming. He could feel the very ends of the earth, the sun in the sky, and the moon awaiting the beckoning of the night. The power of the alicorn was grand, it was beautiful, and it was quite terrifying.
The golems stood before him, eyes glowing and ruby hearts pumping magic. This time, however, no lasers shot forth and no murderous feelings could be found in their memory banks. Blueblood stood at the head of the crowd, proud and mighty. “You have your orders, go forth and continue the preparations!”
They marched forth as one, only splitting when their assigned paths parted. The tramp of iron-shod hooves could be heard throughout the castle, and the sight of glowing emerald eyes sent many a maid into a tizzy. The prince beamed down upon his creations, his pride glowing as his ego inflated to titanic proportions. “Truly, is there nothing I cannot do?”
He glanced down at his checklist and was delighted to find that nearly all of the assignments for the day had been fulfilled. “Now I can continue on to more enjoyable tasks, such as commissioning a custom suit for my coronation!”
He set off on a wing and a care towards a place recommended to him by a close friend, one Fancy Pants. “I shall have to get my new outfit from the most recent up-and-coming fashion designer in Equestria, if I am to keep up with the times.”
Yes, friends, he is indeed flying towards Ponyville in order to purchase a suit from Rarity of Carousel Boutique. Again, the concept of karma cannot possibly hold law in Equestria, for either Blueblood or Rarity.
While the alicorn prince was journeying to his meeting with destiny, Heaven help them both, an alicorn princess found her morning sabbatical rudely interrupted by somepony digging through her personal belongings. A sleep mask flew off of Luna’s face as she sat bolt upright. She glared daggers of icy flame (just try and make sense of that) at the one who had woken her. “Celestia, this had better be important!”
“And indeed it is, dear sister!” came the energetic reply. “For the very fate of Equestria depends on my finding the object for which I seek!”
“Truly, Celestia? Is it that important!?” Luna leaped out of the bed, starry pajamas matching quite well with the nightcap atop her head. “What has happened? Has Discord gone rogue? Has Scorpan returned from his dark pit beneath Tartarus?”
“No, and no,” Celestia sighed. “If only it were so easy to solve.”
“By Faust’s Fragrant Forehead, Celestia!” Luna exclaimed. “Tell me the trouble and I shall assist in its solution!”
Celestia dug through Luna's sock drawer in an attempt to find the object of her desire. “I have lost the personal journal of Starswirl the Bearded!”
With a huff, Luna turned around, reattached the sleep mask, and dove back into bed. Once she was snug and warm, she queried her sister. “Did you check inside the bathroom, beside my collection of Daring Do novels?”
“Well, of course I… Um…” Without another word, Celestia flew out the door and into the bathroom. She found the tome right where it was supposed to be. “Ah, thank you, sister.”
“Anytime, sister, though preferably not in the middle of my sleep cycle.” Luna rolled over and yawned deeply. “May I ask why it is so important that you read the diary of our long-dead friend?”
Starswirl had always insisted that it was a journal, not a diary, but history is written by the victors.
Celestia clutched the relic to her chest like it was a life-raft. She gazed down at its faded charcoal cover, its silvery ring binder, and the stars decorating its face. “In this book, near the end of his days, Starswirl the Bearded began the creation of a new spell, one that would have elevated him to alicornhood if he had completed it…”
She raised the book into a stray sunbeam as an imaginary chorus sang the praises of the book’s history. “The magic of friendship is something that he never fully understood, and the spell only came to disastrous results!”
Luna placed her soft pillow over her head, no longer the least bit interested in Celestia’s ramblings.
“If Twilight were to come in contact with the incomplete spell, there is a slim chance that she will fail, bringing Ponyville to ruin! But if I know my student, she will not rest until the new magic is complete!”
Celestia picked up Luna’s pillow with her magic and tore her sleep mask away with a hoof. Luna looked on with wide eyes as the Princess of the Sun shouted joyfully into her face. “By gasp and by gosh, Luna! If Twilight will not become an alicorn, I shall make her become an alicorn!”