//------------------------------// // 19. Trains, Strains and Explosive Pops - Part Four // Story: Letters From a Little Princess Monster // by Georg //------------------------------// Letters From a Little Princess Monster Trains, Strains and Explosive Pops ...coffee is something i don’t think i’ll understand. its’ nothing like tea. it tastes terrible, it feels like its eating my teeth, and if you put a bunch of sugar in it, it tastes even worse. i even tried it with cream, which i can remember comes from cows, but that didn’t help either. trixie seemed to like drinking it, so i preservered persevered and i think it gets better the more you drink. i asked if bourbon was the same way and she just spluttered a little and changed the subject. * * * The sun was dipping near the horizon by the time Prince Blueblood had finished his ‘tour’ of Ponyville, having found neither hide nor feather of any alicorn princess. It really did not bother him at all, because the connections that he did find were much more fascinating than anything he had ever seen in boring old Canterlot. The townsponies were hiding something. All he had to do was to mention the name ‘Twilight’ to any pony in town, and they would happily bubble on about the adult unicorn that they had never seen, but they always knew some story about her happening to somepony else. She was a skydiver, a deep-sea swimmer, a seapony, world champion rodeo pony, international superspy, member of a secret Neighponese Ninja cult called ‘The Hoof’ or even Clover the Clever, frozen in ice for four thousand years and only recently thawed out in Van Hoover. She had never been in Ponyville, dropped by every Tuesday, only seen on leap years as the invisibility field on her glass zeppelin needed to recharge by moonlight. The connections he had gathered did not just point to one pony, they indicated hundreds, and mostly from stories he had read out of his family library when he was young. There was no confusion spell spread over the town, no collection of Celestia’s trained intelligence ponies planting false stories, and particularly, no stories of other alicorns. Zip. Zero. Nada. The townsponies knew Luna was in Canterlot, and were particularly happy to regale him with uncounted tales of Aunt Celestia, but even the frequent visits by Princess Cadence to the small town were only mentioned in passing, as if an armored princess and her husband were an experience the town was trying to ignore. And doing quite a good job of it too. He was almost tempted to stay the night and attempt to pry the information out of some of the lovely fillies that seemed to sprout on each street in colors and variety more numerous than his aunt’s flower garden. But that would involve staying in this little backwards town, so he dropped by the library one last time to annoy Trixie while waiting for the train. The library was considerably more crowded than his last visit, packed up to the ceiling with boxes leaving only a few paths through the mess. From the cheerful voices that filtered out when he opened the door, it sounded like a number of little fillies and colts were eating ice cream and chattering away on the main floor, discussing elementary magical theory with — Trixie? He paused for a moment at the open door to listen to their voices, hearing the annoying blue twit actually sound normal for a change instead of the petulant whine or arrogant snarl that had always overlaid every word she spoke in his presence. She sounded… happy. And there was a second quiet voice he recognized as the little mottled unicorn filly who had escorted him to the library, an inquisitory scamp who ended every sentence with a question, and several times, really advanced questions for a little unicorn her age. It might be worthwhile to bring the little filly to the attention of Aunt Celestia, so that Twilight could take the test to get into her School for Gifted Unicor— Twilight Twilight Sparkle Age magic was alicorn-level, and the little cloaked unicorn had only appeared to be slightly younger than the pegasus colt with the camera. If Celestia had used an age spell on — no, that did not fit. The monster that raged through the Everfree Forest was a mindless beast, destructive as explosives and more powerful than even Aunt Celestia, the most powerful alicorn… Connections clicked together in his mind, starting at the day the sun descended on Canterlot, to Princess Cadence’s trips into the Everfree, to the return of Princess Luna and one little unicorn filly with some suspicious wing-like lumps under her cloak. Little threads of information linked with others: Celestia’s infirmity on the day the Changeling hive blew up, Princess Cadence’s traditional trip to Cavelia even in the middle of the rescue effort, stories told to him by the changeling refugees, and the sudden remodeling that swept every trace of Trixie out of the castle while Luna moved in. The kind of power produced by the Elements of Harmony could only be controlled by an alicorn, or a pony turned into one. That frightening day twelve years ago when the sun was pulled down on Canterlot was not an accident. Aunt Celestia needed an alicorn to use the Elements of Harmony, so she made one with that power, but the process must have gone horribly wrong. The newly-created alicorn had been driven mad and consumed in agonizing pain for years after she escaped to the Everfree Forest, and quite probably nearly killed rescuing Luna. Obviously, Aunt Celestia had reduced the young alicorn’s age to a young filly and placed her in this town to heal under the care of Trixie, of all ponies. Well, if anypony understood crazy… “Pardon me, My Prince.” Blueblood blinked away his theories to regard a rather peculiar-looking zebra stallion with odd-shaped stripes who had moved up beside him while he was lost in thought. Both guards were nowhere to be seen, and in fact, there seemed to be a remarkable lack of ponies within eyesight who were paying either of them any attention at all. “May I ask who you are?” After speaking, the stallion remained standing there in a relaxed stance, looking Blueblood straight in the eyes with a green-eyed stare that was mildly disorienting. Still, Blueblood shook off the feeling and stepped back a pace to return the look. “I am Prince Blueblood, of the House Blueblood. Who are you?” Those green eyes never even blinked as the zebra replied, “No, My Prince. I did not ask your name. I asked who you are.” The answer startled him a bit, and Blueblood dropped back another step. “Why, you cheeky little… I am a Blueblood of Bluebloods, and I answer to nopony. Who are you?” “I will answer you true when you have answered me too. Who are you?” Blueblood paused with a sharp retort held unsaid on his tongue, regarding the zebra’s green eyes and uneven stripes. There was something about the stallion that just did not seem right, perhaps that piercing gaze that seemed to bounce off the back of his skull, or the way he stood with all four hooves twisted slightly into the soft earth of the path. It seemed as if there were only the two of them in a bubble of privacy, and even if he had raised his voice and screamed for the guards, it would still only be them. He thought for a moment, considering just how Aunt Celestia would respond. “I am Prince Blueblood, fourth in line to the throne of Equestria. And as such, I demand that you tell me who you are now.” “Or?” The zebra did not move one more muscle than was required to speak, but the penetrating green gaze seemed warmer, even humorous for a moment. “Or I shall inform your wife that you have been misbehaving.” It really was not much of a stretch, since he had only heard of two zebras in town, but his guess was validated as the zebra promptly blinked and broke out in a short chuckle. “My name is Tallgrass, My Prince, and I am of the changeling kind. And as to who I am, that is yet to be determined in many minds. Possibly father, probably husband, I would bet. And no, Zecora is not my mate. Yet.” Those laughing green eyes turned serious again. “And you are?” “As before, but I suppose I should add that I am a unicorn stallion of uncertain destination who was seeking Twilight Sparkle.” “I see.” Those serious green eyes narrowed. “Why do you say ‘was’?” Blueblood considered a number of ideas before settling on the truth as a last resort. “I shall be honest with you. I was seeking a bride. Now?” He shrugged. “My plans have changed.” “Life is change,” said Tallgrass with a nod. “So if that is who you were, who are you now, My Prince?” Blueblood paused with his mouth open, but no words came out right away. Old habits of many years seemed to slough away in the evening twilight as he thought about his life and what the changelings had done to his long-stable plans. “I am… a Prince of all Equestria, of ponies and changelings alike, I suppose.” The silence from Tallgrass seemed to pull the words out of his mouth, and Blueblood continued, “They are my responsibility, even if I don’t like them very much, and more important than my own comfortable life.” “I see. And what of this Twilight Sparkle whom you seek?” “Twilight Sparkle?” Blueblood fixed the zebra with a serious look. “She is obviously in Neighpon, just like the newspapers have said. I shall have to visit someday. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to thank a young unicorn filly named Twilight for helping me find Trixie and to apologize for treating her so coldly. I’m starting to think this ‘apology’ thing is contagious. Do you know little Twilight?” “She is the daughter of my wife-to-be, one whom I protect with all my life, you see.” Tallgrass raised one eyebrow and continued, “So who is she to you?” “Only a helpful little filly with a blotchy coat,” replied Blueblood. “I believe I’ve spent a little too much time here at the library, so if you could come with me for a minute to pass my thanks to your daughter, I’ll just be out of your manes.” “And catch your train.” Tallgrass pulled his hooves out of the loose dirt and bowed. “Long life and good health to you, My Prince. I wish you luck upon your search for a spouse suitable to uphold the honor of your house.” “And to you for much the same,” said Blueblood with a tiny fractional bow in return. “Keep a sharp eye on that little filly of yours. I understand she’s gone through a lot, and she really needs a mother and a father to support her.” And the last thing she needs now… is anypony like me. * * * …after we were done studying, we took a break down in the library with all of Trixie’s stuff and just talked about magic for a while. she’s really smart and only had to look things up four five times. i’m not ready for the test tomorrow but Trixie says not to worry because if i do badly, she’ll seduce the teacher and drag him off somewhere to get him to change my grades, which was nice but kind of wierd. we met your nefew blueblood when everypony was ready to go home and introduced him to the rest of trixie’s students. i think he’s nice but a little weird, and tallgrass claims he’s just perplexuated, which i said he just made up. i’ll do ok at the test tomorrow. you don’t have to visit. really…