//------------------------------// // Chapter III - Vocation // Story: The Early Life of Blueblood // by Macgyver644200 //------------------------------// “Good afternoon, everypony. How are you all?” All of Celestia’s ministers smiled and responded with some variation of ‘fine’ or ‘good’. “Excellent. Well, today I’ve tried making something a little simpler, so…” she pulled out a basket of cupcakes, “feel free to tell me what you think.” Everypony around the table took one, and bit into them. Their faces didn’t change as they chewed, which Celestia took as a good sign. Finally, they swallowed and gave small, overly polite compliments that she had improved. Celestia rolled her eyes. “Alright, now-” There was a knock at the door. Celestia looked back at the ministers and took a quick count. Everyone was there. Thus confused, she willed the door open and her good mood died. “Hello, Aunt Celestia.” “Blueblood,” she said nervously. “What are you doing here, right after lunch?” “Lesson let out early: apparently my substitute teacher hasn’t argued the flaws of Polemic’s research with an eleven-year-old. She’ll be fine, she just needs some time to stop frothing at the mouth, so everypony got sent home.” He looked at the ministers. “Good afternoon.” Nopony returned the greeting. “Blueblood,” his aunt said, “I’m about to start a meeting, so if you don’t mind-” “Actually,” he interrupted, “I was wondering if I could sit in and watch?” “...pardon?” “Well, Cadance is still in class, and I am going to be the Duke of Cambreeching when I’m older, I thought I could use the experience.” Celestia looked up at her ministers, who silently pleaded with her with puppy-dog eyes. She then looked back at Blueblood, who had followed suit with even bigger eyes. Celestia looked back and forth as the eye race escalated, then groaned. “Alright, you can stay,” Celestia said. “However,” she said as the ministers stifled moans, “if you are not completely quiet, you’re going right back out.” Blueblood nodded. “No exceptions. If I hear one peep out of you, you will leave.” “I understand.” Celestia turned back to her cabinet. “OK, let’s begin with the minutes…” For the first fifteen minutes, Blueblood remained silent as the grave, sitting right next to Celestia as the adults went about their business. Blueblood had a few questions, but he vowed to voice them to his aunt after the meeting was over. However, as the minutes ticked on, Blueblood started accumulating more questions and comments than he knew what to do with. He reached for his book bag, but then realized that he’d left it in his room. Annoyed, he sat back, looking around the room and “WAAAAAAAUGH!” The other adults looked up and recoiled from the cockroach on the floor. Celestia very calmly picked it up with her magic, walked over to the door, called a servant, passed the bug to him, and shut the door. “Alright,” she said, “I don’t think I’m going to count that. Shall we press on?” Blueblood sat back as the conversations started again. However, he smacked himself in the face as he realized that he had forgotten some of his questions. A resolution to ask his aunt for a copy of the minutes after business had concluded died in committee as the Prince stared at the nearest minister’s notes. Finally, he couldn’t hold himself back anymore and walked over to the old, black Chancellor of the Exchequer’s side, who tried to ignore him. Blueblood flipped through the stallion’s notes, silently taking everything in. Then, however, he spotted something. “Palladium’s a bit steep, isn’t it?” “Blueblood!” Blueblood stiffened at his aunt’s voice. “Of course, that’s, uh, your area, Chancellor.” “Blueblood, get over here.” Blueblood turned and walked towards his aunt, who was frowning at him. “Blueblood, what did I say?” “I have to be quiet. I’m sorry, I forgot something, so I thought I’d...please let me have another chance. I promise I’ll be quiet this time.” Celestia glared at Blueblood, who had added a whimper to his pleading. “...very well, but I have one more condition.” Blueblood sighed in relief. “Yes, a-” Poof! “You are to hold that bucket of ice water in your mouth for the rest of the meeting. If you let go of it, you have to leave. No excuses, no more chances. Understand?” Blueblood almost opened his mouth, but remembered to nod instead. “Very well,” Celestia said, “don’t disappoint me.” She looked back up at her cabinet. “Item eleven, Purple Mountain?” A purple earth mare stood up. “About a month ago, a private lumber camp five miles into the border of Bull Moose National Park started reporting-” “Hang on,” a blue unicorn stallion with a country twang said: “a lumber camp in a national park?” “I know that sounds strange, Valence Electron,” Purple Mountain said, “but it was grandfathered in because Gold Pan v. the National Park Board required compensation. It was either that or a platinum mine and lumber is cleaner. Anyways, a month ago, the camp reported odd animal activity: birds flying in unusual directions, foxes being unable to catch their prey, et cetera, et cetera. The whole site was attacked by a hydra twice in the week before last. Since hydras don’t live anywhere near the area, this is understandably something of a concern. No fatalities so far, but the owner’s had to pay for four-hundred thousand bits in repairs and the attacks are only getting worse.” She grimmaced. “I know this partly because the owner’s friend is the Director of the National Park Board, whom I have had to put up with every day for the past week.” “Wait,” the Chancellor of the Exchequer said, “Beryl ‘Chocolate Milk Fountain’ Pie is friends with the Dour Director?” “Mm-hmm,” Purple Mountain replied, “even in the same sorority in college. She’s even met the family.” “Alright, any ideas about the animals?” Celestia asked, ignoring Blueblood’s raised hoof. “None. Magic reads normal and there aren’t any odd plants in the area. I’m going to need some more people to try and find a cause.” “You sure it’s not just nature pushing back?” the Press Secretary joked. “You know, Mrs. Edition,” Purple Mountain said, “I’ve been thinking about that. The camp expanded a few days before the animals started to act funny. I’m wondering if it’s something the construction workers brought in.” “Have the guard towers reported anything?” Valence asked, pointedly ignoring Blueblood almost bouncing up and down. “Nothing’s been going on, but that’s another thing. There’s been a whole lot of static on the wireless.” “Well, it’s not me,” Celestia said with a smile. “Oh, of course not, your highness,” Mountain said, turning back to the rest of the cabinet before she could see Celestia’s frown. “The director is sending in a research team next week in order to take a look around. Hopefully we can find what’s wrong without having to set up a lab.” “Well, good luck,” Celestia said. “Alright, if there are no other comments, then lets-” “HO-YAIII!” Everypony glared at Blueblood, who had dropped the bucket on the floor and was covered in freezing water. “Alright, Blueblood,” Celestia said, “Get-” “I have an idea, please just hear me out!” Blueblood blurted out. “Purple Mountain, you said that the local fauna were behaving strangely, correct? Foxes not being able to coordinate their hunts, birds flying in odd directions? In addition, you said there’s a lot of interference on your radio tower in that area? All of the animals you mentioned are magnetoceptive, they can sense magnetic fields and they use them to navigate.” “I know that,” Purple Mountain said. She stopped in the middle of rubbing the bridge of her nose. “So do hydras.” She sighed. “Are you saying that there are a bunch of magnets out in the woods that are messing with their senses?” “Yes! Your stations track magic but they don’t track magnetism, and since there isn’t any strange solar activity going on, no infection can spread between that many species, there aren’t enough radio signals to cause an effect, and a poison that can affect foxes and hydras should also affect ponies, somepony had to…” Everyone in the room was staring at him. He turned to Celestia. “Your highness, I know this sounds stupid, but I’m not-” Celestia motioned with her hoof. “I know,” she said, “go ahead.” “Your highness?” a minister asked. “Let him speak. He seems to actually have something to say this time.” Blueblood gave his aunt a smile, then turned back to the ministers and cleared his throat. “While nopony has that much magical power, it’s possible to fit a sufficiently powerful magnet inside of a knapsack, which can be easily carried by a tree scout, if you use the right materials and the right power source.” “Namely a special magical battery that would set off any magicometer in a three-mile radius of the border,” Valence Electron said. “I know that,” Blueblood said. “Didn’t that logging camp, which was five miles in and is the epicenter of animal-related activity, and I remind you, has suffered zero fatalities from several hydra attacks, recently perform some expansion? Expansion that would require a large amount of concrete?” “If you’re implying that they smuggled the cores in the concrete,” Purple Mountain said, “Only aggregate came in. I saw them make the concrete on site.” “What kind of aggregate did they use?” Blueblood asked. “Any of the heavier stuff like magnetite or any of the barites could be used to absorb any magical radiation. The wire coil could have been smuggled in as ordinary wire and the cores could have been melted down from other equipment. As more damage is done to the camp, more supplies have to be imported and thus more magnet parts can be smuggled in, increasing the range of effect.” “OK,” Electron said, “you’ve explained the how, but not the why.” “Or why my scouts didn’t pick up magic from the magnets that could not be buried?” Purple Mountain asked. Blueblood straightened up. “Bull Moose National Park is one of the oldest wildlife preserves in the nation. However, it was also the site of a platinum mine, which, I’m guessing, also contains the still very valuable palladium, that was bought with the rest of the land before it could be mined in earnest. There was a large court case about eminent domain and compensation, I understand, which allowed for that very logging camp to be built on the grounds of renewable resources. And it just so happens that the logging company currently belongs to a mare whose also owns a rather large mining company in addition to the companies that supply the logging camps? She has opportunity, she has incentive...” “And that’s very nice that you’ve worked all of that out,” Purple Mountain interrupted, “but why would Beryl Pie use magnets to try and mine platinum? And again, why haven’t my scouts said anything about magic?” “I’ll admit, this is the most speculative part of all this, but what would happen if the animal attacks did not stop?” “We’d have to set up camp and investigate.” “No, you would have to close the park for public safety and set up a research center, which, given the creatures in the area, would require guards, heavy fortifications, and all manner of scientists and wizards to comb the area for any possible causes. Only they could dedicate their time and government funding to expanding the mine and smuggling ore out of the park, because they would all know the cause, because the Director of the National Park Board here in Canterlot is a close friend to Beryl Pie, and could thus falsify her scouts’ reports, if not use scouts whom she’s personally paying.” Blueblood took a breath. “I don’t have any proof that they are collaborating, but that is the only reason I can think of for electromagnets, the only possible cause of the magnetism upsetting the animals, to be in the park and have nopony notice. Furthermore, given the recent rise in platinum and palladium prices, I’m willing to wager that Beryl Pie’s already started mining and is hoarding the two metals to corner the market on both.” The ministers stared at him. Blueblood stared back at them, now feeling a blush start to rise. “This is just supposition, mind,” he said. “You’ll have to investigate in order to…” “I don’t believe it,” one of the ministers fumed. Blueblood’s blush blossomed. “As I said, it’s complicated, but Beryl Pie doesn’t seem to be the kind to…” “That’s...not what she meant,” Celestia said, suppressing a chuckle. “Would you mind just turning around? No no, sit still and do it. Now look down.” Blueblood fell over, mouth wide open, as he noticed the new compass rose on his flank. He looked back up at Celestia. “Uh, I, I don’t…how did I...what does i-” “I think I can guess.” Celestia got up from the table and walked over to her nephew. “Blueblood, I’ve seen you reading books on almost every subject available and you’ve been able to find your way through every one of them. In order to come to the conclusion you did, you had to draw on knowledge from biology, physics, geology, history, law, executive procedure, and a little bit of economics. Even if your theory turns out to be wrong, you still had to be familiar with a good many topics in order to make it. That’s your talent: you can find your way through anything.” Blueblood looked up at his aunt, then back at his new cutie mark. Then he looked back up at Celestia, smiled, and chuckled. That chuckle grew into a full laugh, and then a stream of happy ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’es as he bounced around the room. Valence Electron cleared his throat. “Yer highness,” he asked Celestia, “not that Ah’m not happy for yeh, but-” “That’s alright,” Celestia said, “I’ll consult him after meetings.” She stood up. “Purple Mountain, please start a corruption investigation, as that is so far our best theory. Meanwhile, if the rest of you wouldn’t mind discussing possible alternatives, I have a Confirmarktion to plan.”