"Umm, what's your name... Blueblood?"
A young white colt with a golden mane shook his head as someone poked him, an absent smile on his face straightening out. "Huh?" he asked.
The purple filly leaned back to her own desk, adjusting her rather cheap glasses. She paled a little as Blueblood stared down his nose at her, but she continued. "You were staring off into space. I didn't want you to be surprised by the teacher."
The classroom was peaceful in the moments before class began again. Since the teacher hadn't arrived yet, the foals were free to do almost anything. Some talked, some worked on homework, one ran down to the bathroom, and one had started staring out the window. That is, until the little purple filly, desk calling her Twilight Sparkle, poked him in the back of the head. "What were you thinking about?" she asked.
Blueblood turned back to the window, which was currently being pelted with snowflakes. "You see that snow?" he asked.
Twilight looked up at them. "Yeah?"
Blueblood sat up a little straighter in his chair. "Well, most snowflakes are hexagons, but there are a few that are are triangles. Well, they're hexagons, 'cause they have six sides, but some have three sides that are much longer than the others. Those encounter a mote of dust on the way down, so that one side faces up. Because of that, two other sides face down at an angle, so they absorb a lot more ice crystals. This pinches the sides that they touch, which makes the third side longer as well." Then he turned back to Twilight. "Did you know that?"
Twilight nodded. "Yeah." Then she looked out the window. "There are only about forty different kinds of snowflake: the ones we think of are called plane crystals."
Blueblood frowned at Twilight for a moment, but that vanished as she turned her head forward again. "Cool," he said. "What's your report on?"
Twilight opened up her desk and pulled out a small book and a wooden box. "Crystallography. I've got a string and sugar water: I got my brother to enchant the process to go faster." For a moment, she paused, staring at Blueblood. "W-what about you?"
Blueblood rolled his eyes and groaned as he reached into his own desk. "My father had a suggestion." Blueblood pulled out his own book, as well as a small bag of coins. "Capitalism. I get to tell everyone about 'the invisible hoof'."
Twilight nodded noncommittally. "Well, good lu-"
The bell rang and the teacher walked in on the dot. "Alright, class," the tall blue mare said, "I hope everyone has their projects ready, because we can't afford to stop if we want to get through them today." She looked over at one side of the room, then turned to face the other. "Let's start wiiiiiith..." her eyes drifted around to the windows, "Twilight Sparkle! Come on up!"
Twilight's eyes widened in surprise. Very slowly, she inched herself out of her desk, lifted the box onto her muzzle, and carefully plodded up to the front of the class. Blueblood noticed that once she'd gotten up to the front of the class, she took her sweet time opening the box, removing a paperclip on a string and cup with a lid, and oh so carefully removing the lid from the cup. She finally turned around. After a big gulp and a fidget, she opened her mouth.
"Uhh, hello everypony!" she stammered to the class, a big, fake smile on her face. Nopony answered. "Well, thi- as I..." She stopped to swallow. "Crystals!" she chirped. "Crystals are... are..." Her eyes flashed back to her desk, where she'd left her book. Face falling, she started to sweat. "Crystals are a solid ordered in a- ordered so that the molecules form an ordered lattice."
Blueblood groaned to himself as Twilight turned around to draw on the board. Then he opened his desk a crack and started skimming over his book, practicing his own presentation under his breath. Occasionally, he'd look up.
Finally, Twilight stepped away from the board, showing a cube. "Th-this is a salt crystal," Twilight stuttered out. "A-as you can see, it has..." She paused for a moment, now gasping. "I-it's a cube shape, so other salt molecules would stick on in a cube sha-"
Twilight had started to wander, so at this point she bumped into a table, causing a small fit of giggles. Blueblood rolled his eyes, but when he looked up, he stopped. Twilight looked completely lost, staring a thousand miles away from the other fillies. After a few moments, she started to sniffle, tears springing to the corners of her eyes. Blueblood's mouth dropped open for a moment. Then he shoved himself out of his desk and strode forward.
"Thank you, Twilight," he gently told her as he stood next to her, "I can take it from here." Then he turned to the class. "As my partner here said, other molecules form different kinds of crystals. For example, sugar forms hexagonal crystals."
Blueblood pulled the lid from the cup. He tilted it just enough to reveal a red liquid inside. "This," he continued, "is sugar water. As you can guess, it's water that contains dissolved sugar molecules, as well as some red food coloring. When I insert the string into the cup, the dissolved sugar will cling onto the string and bind into rock candy crystals." Blueblood looked in the box, then he turned to Twilight. After no response, he turned back to the class. "I'd demonstrate for you," he said, "but rock candy takes a week to grow. So-"
"We're going to speed things up," Twilight announced just as Blueblood lifted his hoof. "I got my brother to place a spell on the mixture so that it forms faster. It'll only take a couple of seconds."
In response, Blueblood smiled. Then he turned to the class, motioning to Twilight. "This is why we're partners," he said. "She gets the best ideas." Blueblood could barely hold in a giggle as he saw Twilight's cheeks go red in the corner of his vision. "Alright," he said, "let's begin." With that, he lifted the string in his mouth and roughly dunked it into the water.
For the first few moments, the class couldn't really see anything. Still, Blueblood patiently kept the string in the water. "Th-the forming crystals are very fragile," Twilight explained. "Too much sound, even a lot of hoof traffic can cause the growing crystals to fall off or shatter. "However, once they get bigger..." Twilight motioned to Blueblood, who raised up the string, "...they can withstand a lot more vibration. And in the end, we get-"
Twilight was interrupted by a stifled yelp. The crystals had kept growing, and were now growing over Blueblood's red-stained muzzle. As a few of the kids started to laugh, Blueblood tried to smack off the string of sugar with his hoof. However, the crystal was tough, and it was stuck tight to him. Every attempt to pulverize it just resulted in it tugging painfully at his lips. The crystal moved around his nostils, but hit completely covered his mouth. Eventually, Blueblood reared back.
Then crystal quickly shattered, and any laughter instantly stopped. Sternly, the teacher stalked forward, sparing one glare at the class before turning back to Bluebood. "Are you alright?" she asked.
Slowly, Blueblood nodded.
"I'm guessing that the solution touched your lips," the teacher said. Then she moved in to his ear. "That was very thoughtful of you, Blueblood," she whispered. "Go take your seat."
Pulling on his inner reserves of dignity, Blueblood kept elegant posture as he walked back to his desk, scowling all the way. All the while, though, he could hear Twilight sobbing in front of everyone, even as the teacher tried to comfort her.
<***>
Twenty years later, Blueblood was sitting in a corner of a party he didn't want to be at. He didn't want to go in the first place, but Twilight had specifically told him to come and intimated that refusing wasn't an option. Arriving had not improved his mood. The overly bright pastel colors could only distract from the dark broodiness of Twilight's castle so well, and both together made a complete and total mess. Combined with the very kiddy music and food, it just looked awful.
Thus, he was well away from everypony else and the horribly bright colors, a sullen frown on his face as he sat reading a newspaper. The indicated story had made it all the way to the front page. Two earth ponies, brothers, were side-by-side under the headline "COMMODITY CONSPIRACY: Hoof brothers fined for cornering silver market." He read for a little longer before he turned the pages. The other article started a few pages back, including a picture of a unicorn mare, under which were the words "Former Beau Monde Mining Company CFO charged with Grand Embezzlement."
Blueblood yelped and leapt up as something cold poured over him right before somepony landed on top of him. Suddenly steaming at the ears, he shoved the pony off and whipped around. "What in Tartarus-"
Instantly, the wind came out of his sails as he noticed a scrawny teenage pegasus standing in front of him, a splotch of purple on his tuxedo. He was green, with a purple mane and mouth gaped open. "Oh Celestia!" he squeaked. "It's you!" Instantly he fell to his knees, sweat flying off into the air. "Sir, I am so, so, so, so, so sorry! I got distracted, I bumped into something, I-I-I-I didn't mean to-"
He stopped as Blueblood laid a hoof on the back of his neck. "Just be more careful next time," Blueblood admonished him, voice soft. "Understand?" His lips barely quirked upward into a not-frown as the waiter nodded fervently. "Good. Now go get changed."
As soon as the foal was out of eyeshot, Blueblood's scowl returned and he took off his coat. He had a big purple blotch across all of it: the coat was probably ruined. Blueblood closed his eyes tightly as he put it back on, mentally counting to ten. Once he'd counted down, he trod off, trying not to stomp.
The other guests were already engaged it talking to other ponies, but they still stepped aside whenever they saw him. Some of them sniffed as they turned away, others frowned at him with sad eyes. Everypony who looked at him made Blueblood's blood pressure rise, and he started to stomp in spite of himself. Eventually, he came to the center of the room.
There he saw something he hadn't noticed before. A large blue and black fountain had been set up, enchanted so that it was deeper than it looked. At the bottom were a great deal of coins. Blueblood quickly noticed a large sign right in front, which read 'MAKE A WISH AND SUPPORT PONYVILLE GENERAL'S CHILDREN'S WING'.
Blueblood took another look around the room. Then he noticed that the colors chosen were actually very kiddy colors, now seeming very appropriate. He still glared at them for a moment, but that stopped as he turned back to the fountain. A lot of ponies had already donated, it seemed: the floor was half-covered and little mounds of coins were forming. A slight smile forming on his face, Blueblood closed his eyes as he reached into his coat pocket. "I wish for..."
He couldn't feel his coin purse. Smile fading, he pulled open his coat and visually checked. It was gone. He'd definitely felt it when he pulled out his ticket for the event, so that meant... Blueblood scowled and smacked his forehead. The waiter. He'd probably used the drink as a distraction so that he could pick Blueblood's pockets. Scowl only growing, Blueblood spun his head around, trying to find Twilight.
Then he stopped. For a moment, he stood sadly staring into nothing, silent as the grave. Then he just started walking. He didn't have a destination in mind, he just wanted somewhere to be alone. Thus, he wandered away from the other guests. He wandered out of the massive hall where the event was taking place, but at the carpeted corridor to the exit, he stopped. A sad frown gradually spread over his face. Then he turned his head to the side, looking down the other corridor. No-one was down there.
His brow furled as he looked around: there weren't any guards in sight. For a moment, he paused, staring at the pillars where guards were likely to be posted. Then he shrugged, quietly chalked it up to poor deployment schedule, and sped off down the hallway. As he ran, his hooves clip-clopping on the crystal, he kept his eyes darting back and forth, just in case there actually were guards there. However, no matter how far he ran, he couldn't see any.
Gradually, he came to the end of the decorated portion of the hallway. Here the dark and dreary colors of the castle were in full effect, marinating the hallway in darkness. Blueblood moved onwards. Eventually, he stopped looking around for guards, just meandering through the hallways, hearing his hooves click across the crystal as he peeked into various rooms.
The library was full of people at that moment, but there were still plenty of other places to explore. Twilight's master bedroom, whatever-his-name-wa-Spike's bedroom, the observatory, the throne room (Blueblood spent a few moments drearily pretending to be the Friendship Council). He wandered through all of them, but never stayed more than a minute before trying to move on to the next place. To his mounting disgust, none of the doors were locked, and he had perfect freedom to wander wherever.
Eventually, his wandering through the castle carried him down into the basements. They were just as dark, but also completely spotless. As Blueblood peered into each of the rooms, he could see scientific equipment for a variety of different tests spread out throughout them. His breath snorted out of his nostrils as he rolled his eyes. "Of course," he muttered to himself.
As he walked past one of the doors, though, he stopped and backed up. Inside one of the rooms was a box producing a bright red glow. Blueblood tried to look around in the room, but from outside he could see nothing that could tell him what was inside. There was a pile of notes on the table inside, as well. For a great many moments, Blueblood tried to make out something that would tell him what was causing the glowing. Finally, he tried the door. It was locked. Blueblood spent a moment trying to unlock it, but then drifted to a halt as his memories called.
<***>
Eleven-year-old Twilight frowned as Blueblood stomped into her house. "You're late," she noted.
Blueblood spun his head around to glare at her and she quickly backed down. Then, however, Blueblood's face softened as he sighed. "Dad," he said. "He locked me in my room."
As he walked by her to hang up his coat, Twilight noticed the bald spot on Blueblood's rump. The coat was starting to come in again, she noted, but it'd still be a while before the other foals would stop calling him 'bald-flank'. Not that there was anything to see yet. Not for a while. At least they'd forgotten about what happened to his eyebrows.
Eventually, Blueblood came back to the living room and walked over to the table, dropping a stack of papers on the table. "That's what I could find," he said. "Your brother and his girlfriend out of the way?" he asked.
Twilight nodded. "Yeah," she told him, "in full costume and everything."
Blueblood snorted, but wilted a little as he noticed Twilight's glare. Then he turned back to the table, and his eyes widened at the machine on top of it. "Wow," he muttered.
Sitting on the table was a upside-down trash can lid with the handle removed. Facing up was a set of nine black spots, eight arranged in a circle around the other. All of them were connected by wires wrapped around them. As Blueblood peeked in closer, the spots started to glow light blue. He quickly shied back. Their entry for his famous great-aunt Celestia's academy Qualifiers. If it was picked, another round of testing would ensue before they were judged for entry into Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. "Did the twisted pair wires work?" he asked.
Twilight moved forward. "Yeah, and I managed to fix the stabilizers," she said, pointing to the outer dots. "Increasing the length of the wires actually helped the magic decay a little before reaching them."
Blueblood nodded. "Not a bad solution," he noted. "And the coiling would help filter out magical interference even more."
Twilight hmmed in agreement. "The magic feed is still a little sensitive, though."
Gingerly, Blueblood reached forward and shifted the lid with his hoof, revealing a tenth spot on top, connected to the others by another set of wires. "Any ideas?" he asked instead.
Twilight shook her head. "Beyond wrapping the pilot's horn in PVC, which would be a little annoying, I got nothing."
Blueblood's eyes widened for a moment, but then he made them narrow back to normal. "You're sure?" he asked.
"I've been thinking about this since last week," Twilight told him. "And we're almost out of money. I can only do so much."
For several moments, neither of the two said anything. Blueblood looked back at the device, then back to Twilight. With a few more looks back and forth, he finally cleared his throat. "Did you try putting insulation on the feed?"
"That would cut off the magic entirely," Twilight said.
"Just a small layer of foam." Blueblood ducked under the table and picked up a thin bit of insulation foam. "The porous material should let just enough magic through that hiccups won't happen." Blueblood slapped the foam over the sensor. "Just stuck it in-"
"Blueblood!"
The dots on the bottom of the disk flashed bright blue, a stream of light flashing out the bottom. In an instant, it was on the other side of the room. Blueblood was on the floor, one hoof covering his nose and tears streaming down his cheeks. Twilight was instantly at his side. "Are you alright?" she asked.
Blueblood snarled as he opened his mouth. "I'm fine," he snapped. "I ju... uh-oh." Blueblood's eyes widened as he pulled his hoof away. There was a trickle of red running down it. As he felt his face, he could feel another trickle running down to his mouth.
Twilight practically flew to the other side of the room and back, carrying a box of tissues in her mouth. As soon as they were in reach, Blueblood grabbed one in his teeth and shoved it to his face, wincing as he pressed his hooves to his nose. "Anything broken?" Twilight asked him. For a moment, Blueblood just glared into the tissue. Then, however, he shook his head. "Good," she said. Then she turned to the disk. "Well," she noted, "it was moving slower than last time. Just wrap the insulation in duct tape..."
Blueblood just sat there, scowling into space for a moment. Finally, though, he spoke. "Forget it." Blueblood pushed himself up onto three feet, the fourth holding the tissue in place. "Just forget it. I'm out."
As Blueblood limped his way forward, Twilight's eyes widened. "What? Blueblood, no!" She dashed in front of him.
Blueblood glared at her. "Get out of my way, Twilight," he rumbled.
Blueblood tried to duck around her but Twilight stepped in front of him. "B-but Princess Celestia's-"
"Pick something else," he growled. "You've got a month, you can make it work. I, meanwhile," he tried to slip past the filly, "need to work on my presentation."
Twilight's eyes widened as Blueblood sidestepped her, but then she stepped back in front of him. "I'll make the machine," she said. "I'll even fly it. You won't have anything to do with it except be a test subject." She paused for a moment as Blueblood raised an eyebrow at her. "Just give the spiel," she said. "I'll take care of the rest."
Blueblood scowled at Twilight for a moment, but her puppy-dog eyes just stayed focused on him. For a moment, he glared back at her. Then he turned to one side. "I'll talk," he said.
"Thanks."
<*>
The lock was easy enough to break through, which made Blueblood roll his eyes. In just a moment, though, his frown was gone as he stared inside the crate. It was full of bright red eggs, several of which were pulsing with red veins. Blueblood reached out to touch one, but stopped at the warning printed on the crate: "DANGER: EXTREMELY HOT". Blueblood noticed a thermometer on the inside of the box. While the outside was nice and temperate, the inside was about 250 degrees Celsius.
Stepping away from the box, Blueblood spotted a collection of notebooks on a nearby desk. He was on them in an instant, setting them down and pulling all of them open to the first page. Finally, he found the earliest entry and began skimming through the book at lightning speed. Occasionally a word from the text would come out of his mouth, such as 'reptilian', 'Mesozoic', 'homeothermous', or 'brumation', but for the most part, the pages just flipped around at warp speed, letting Blueblood finish the first two notebooks in just under an hour.
"Hey."
The lights came on as Blueblood straightened up and spun in his chair. Standing in the door was a yellow mare with her mane striped in yellow and red. "I didn't know anyone else was down here," she said. "You know there's a party upstairs?"
Blueblood squinted at her. For some reason, he could remember her, but her name was eluding him. She didn't seem annoyed at him, just puzzled, which also confused him. Eventually, he decided to just shrug. "Not much of a party person," he said, turning back to the notes. "Thought I'd get some research done."
He could hear the mare's hooves clopping on the floor as she walked up to him. "This late?" she asked. "I thought the researchers had already clocked off."
Blueblood waved at her. "I wanted to stay late," he said. "These are very interesting. The first specimens of Cherufe that we've ever encountered."
Out of the corner of his eye, Blueblood could see the mare's eyes widen. "Wow, they're here already?" she asked. "They must've just been delivered." She peeked through one of the notebooks. "For so long, I thought they were just myth."
"Well, here they are," Blueblood crowed. "They've been around since the early Triassic period, according to fossil records."
Blueblood heard a pause. "Uh-huh," the mare said. Then he noticed her walking around to peek in the box. "I can't wait to see them hatch."
Blueblood then turned around to look at her. "I thought all of the researchers had gone home," he told her.
At that, the mare frowned at him. It only lasted a moment, though. "I'm not really one of the researchers," she said. "But I am a friend of Princess Twilight Sparkle. She tells me everything the research staff are doing, but this is the first time she's invited me back to help her with testing."
Another feeling of recognition washed over Blueblood, and he couldn't help but frown at the mare. She, in turn, frowned back. "Have we met before?" she asked.
Blueblood quickly shook his head. "I don't think so," he told her. Still, he turned his head back to his current notebook and kept skimming it.
Soon, however he became aware of the mare standing at his side, glaring at him. "I think I have seen you before," she said. "But not as one of the researchers here."
"I'm another old friend of Twilight's. She just wanted to show me something."
The notebook was magically closed in his face. "Hence why you're sitting in here with the lights off?" she asked. "Yeah, you look like a friend of hers." She turned to the door. "GUARD!" she shouted. "We have a-"
Suddenly, the crate exploded, and the two ponies jumped away, instinctively shielding their eyes. When the debris cleared, the two looked back. The crate, and the eggs inside, were gone. In their place were three things that looked like dragons with rock for skin. Their exposed veins glowed orangish-yellow, as did their eyes and mouths. Blueblood was vaguely aware of the temperature spiking all around him, but then the things stared at him. The closest one spawned a glowing rock in its claw, then it leaned back and flung it at him.
In an instant, a bright blue shield formed in front of it, and the rock disintegrated. "RUN FOR THE DOOR!" the mare snapped. Blueblood stared at the creatures for a moment, but the magical shield shoved him, kick-starting his legs. As he ran, he could hear more projectiles shattering against the layer of magic. As soon as he was through the door (with one quick tug flinging him out of the way), the mare slammed the door shut. "OK, that shouldn't have-"
She was cut off by a loud CRACK! A bright flash of orange light, visible through the crystal door, had knocked a piece out of it. In an instant, Sunset had replaced the crystal and sealed the damage. "GUARDS, SHORE THIS DOOR UP!" From out of nowhere Blueblood could see, a cadre of guard ponies appeared with a quick 'yes, Miss Sunset', various colors of magic pouring into the door. "That shouldn't have happened," she repeated. Then she turned to Blueblood. "You, come with me. We have to find Twilight."
Blueblood watched her dash around a corner and down another hallway for ten seconds before she peeked her head back. He hadn't moved an inch. "Hey," she called. "Did you hear me?" She moved closer but Blueblood didn't move. He was lost in another memory.
<*>
"Very nice. Thank you, uh... Lyra."
A yellow mare with red streaks in her mane lowered the clipboard and looked off of the stage into the crowd. Her face was neutral, but it wouldn't take too much of a look to see the lowered ears and slightly narrowed eyes indicative of boredom. "Alright," she continued. "Up next is Moondancer..."
Meanwhile, backstage, Twilight had set up a workbench and was inspecting their exhibit with a checklist longer than she was. Blueblood was standing off to the side, constantly peeking through the gap in the tent. "I don't think he's out there," Twilight said, looking up from her work on the mechanics. "I mean, why would-"
A brief flicker of Twilight's horn caused the disk to softly smack her in the chin, momentarily shutting her up. "He's out there," Blueblood said. "I don't know why, but he's out there."
Twilight turned the disk over, then reached for a soldering iron. "You said he was on a train to Manehattan," she said. "How could he possibly-"
"I don't know!" Blueblood snapped at her, finally spinning around to face her. "I just- ugh!"
Growling, Blueblood stalked over to Twilight's workbench. Twilight finally finished her work with the soldering iron, then put it to the side. Then she made one final check before she pushed her list away. "Well, it looks good from my end," she said. "It should only trigger with magical energy. Do you want to check it?"
Blueblood took a quick look at the device. After only a brief look, though, Blueblood took a quick step backwards. "No," he said. "I'm sure you've triple-checked all of the problems out."
"Alright, thank you Moondancer," the announcer droned. "OK, up next is Twilight Sparkle with a personal flying machine..." She paused for a moment. "...with Blueblood assisting."
Blueblood and Twilight shared one more glance before they both shouldered the device and brought it on stage. As they made their way through the curtain, Blueblood kept scanning the crowd for the face of his father. Once the two got up to center stage, Blueblood was forced to look down and help Twilight lower the device. As soon as he was finished, he looked back into the crowd. No sign of him, so Blueblood started combing over everyone.
Then Twilight nudged him.
Blueblood pushed back, frowning, then took a moment to prepare himself. Finally, he cleared his own throat and began to speak. "Flight," he started. "A long-held dream for two-thirds of the Equestrian population. Due to the complexities involved in reproducing the natural gift of Pegasi..."
As he continued to talk, Blueblood kept visually sweeping the crowd. He paid no attention to how his own face looked, so as he kept sweeping the crowd, he was frowning. Occasionally he stopped speaking and his frown deepened as he noticed an especially pale stallion, but he then moved on, scanning the crowd all during his brief spiel.
Finally, he finished up and slowly backed over to the device. Twilight, meanwhile, put the flying disk flat on the ground. After a few steps, he spun on his back hooves and walked the rest of the way. Gingerly, so very gingerly, he placed a hoof on the device. It didn't move. He carefully put his other hooves onto the circle of metal as well. For half a minute, he shuffled his hooves so that he was perfectly balanced. Finally, he turned to Twilight and nodded. She nodded back, then her horn lit up.
"Blueblood!"
Blueblood's head whipped back around to the crowd. Charging up the aisle was a red-faced unicorn stallion. His fur was white, his mane blond, and his blue eyes focused right on his son on stage. Blueblood opened his mouth, but before he could placate his father, the device started to rise into the air. Almost instantly, Blueblood's father paled, his mouth dropping open as he watched Blueblood rise into the air.
So intently focused on his father was he that Blueblood forgot what he was doing. At three feet, though, the disk stopping and moving forwards cleared his mind. He took a deep breath and tried to relax. He didn't move his hooves at all. All he did was stand on the flying disk and stay very still as it started to move around. All the while his heart was hammering, but he tried to be smooth as he looked from his father to the device and back.
Eventually, his muscles started to relax. The disk was moving slowly and gracefully, exactly like it was supposed to. Blueblood looked down at Twilight. She was completely calm, breathing deeply, eyes focused on the device she was directing with her own magic. Then he turned to his father. His father had walked over to the announcer, but he had stopped right in front of her. Instead, he was just staring up at Blueblood again. A moment later, Blueblood flashed him a small smile.
Then a blast of magic flashed under the disk. Blueblood froze for a moment, just enough time for the device to shoot skyward. In a fraction of a second, one of the other thrusters sent the disk into a wild spiral around the fair. Blueblood clamped onto the device, too panicked to be thankful for the lack of heat. His whole world was a whirl of colors and screaming. The last thing he noticed before blacking out was a massive statue.
<***>
Very unsteadily, Blueblood came to. As he opened his eyes, he had to force his head to stay still, and his hooves and eyes took a few seconds to steady themselves before he could use them. As soon as they were remotely steady, he got up and looked around. Blueblood noticed he'd landed behind the cotton candy tent. The flying disk was gone; probably lost.
"Blueblood!"
Quick as a whip, Twilight sprinted up to him. "Are you OK? Anything broken?"
Blueblood stared at Twilight for a moment, but then stretched himself out. "No," he said. "I think I'm fine." He then started looking himself over.
Twilight let out her breath. "Thank Celestia." She looked up at the sky. "What do you think happened?"
Blueblood frowned. "I don't know," he said. "I... I didn't do anything."
Blueblood fell silent for a moment, staring at his flank. It wasn't blank anymore. Now there was a cutie mark there. It looked like the crest of his family, but something was wrong with it. Instead of being purple on silver, it was gold on silver. Metal on metal, a violation of basic heraldic rule. And a riddle to wit.
He quickly replayed the events of the ride in his head. He'd stayed completely still, he hadn't touched any of the disk's wiring. He shouldn't have had any effect on the device at all. But he couldn't shake the feeling that he had. A deep pit opened up in his heart and he could feel the start of tears welling up in his eyes.
"You think I missed something?"
When Twilight said that, Blueblood's sad frown turned into a scowl. "After triple-checking everything?" he asked her, his voice low and harsh as he moved closer. "No, you don't miss anything."
"Then what do you think happe-" Twilight cut off as Blueblood stalked towards her. "Blueblood? You don't think-"
"Well, I didn't do anything," Blueblood snapped. "And there's no way you could've missed anything. That just means this had to have happened on purpose."
Twilight's jaw dropped open as she backed away. "Bluebloo-"
"Don't" Blueblood growled. "I was your little pet loser all along, wasn't I? So what if you're a pathetic little nerd who can't speak without blubbering over yourself? So what if everyone thinks you're a weird little loner? At least you could laugh at Blueblood the Clumsy!" Now he was shouting at Twilight. "Is that why you made the disk crash? So you could look good in front of everyone else?"
For several moments, Twilight stood there, her lip quivering as tears filled her eyes. Finally, she let out a small whimper, spun around, and sped away, crying as she went. "GET BACK HERE!" Blueblood shouted. "DON'T YOU-"
Blueblood's hoof got caught in a gopher hole and he pitched forward, rolling onto his rear. As soon as he regained his bearings, he tried to stand. A flash of pain in one fetlock sent him sprawling to the ground again. He glared up again. Twilight had vanished. Unable to see her, he bellowed out all of his rage in the last direction he'd seen her.
"TWILIGHT! KEEP RUNNING, TWILIGHT! IF I EVER SEE YOU AGAIN, I'LL..."
Blueblood's rage bubbled out of him. For several moments, all he could do was breathe, the scowl on his face slipping. Blueblood's memories had woken, and were now playing before him. He could see his experiment with an electrically warmed coat: a heating element catching fire in front of the whole school while he was still wearing it. An experiment with an adhesive coatrack that had taken his eyebrows with it. Mechanical attachments to legs that could improve bucking strength which only resulted in him getting a long, nasty cut down his thigh. Through all those and more, Twilight had been uninvolved. His problems had been his alone.
Just like now.
Blueblood's eyes quickly scanned over the area, but Twilight was gone. "TWILIGHT?" he called. "TWILIGHT?" No response. Blueblood opened his mouth to try again, but his breath hitched. He tried again as his vision clouded, and again as his strength left him, but all that came out was a choked sob if anything. Finally, he couldn't even try. He just fell forward, tears streaming down his face, snot coming out of his nose, and inelegant blubbering forcing its way out of his mouth.
"Blueblood!"
After a long sixty seconds, by which time he'd stopped verbally sobbing, Blueblood could hear hoofbeats slamming up to him, then he could make out two blurs: one white and one yellow. "Blueblood, are you alright?" a deep voice asked, sounding hurried and soft.
Blueblood sniffled again as he recognized the voice. As his voice came out, it was wavery and choked. "Da...Father, I-"
In response, a hoof put itself under his chin. "Is anything broken?" his father asked. "Any cuts?"
Sniffling, Blueblood shook his head before stopping himself. Then, slowly, he raised his hoof up and out.
The yellow pony took a quick look at it. "I'll go get some ice for that."
Blueblood could hear the yellow pony run off. During that brief moment of silence, his head fell. Finally, his father's voice started up. "You said you wouldn't be doing this any more."
Blueblood said nothing, so his father continued, his voice gradually rising in intensity and volume. "You promised me, very clearly, that you wouldn't put yourself in danger like this. Remember when you set yourself on fire? You could've been killed this time!" Blueblood's father tried to speak for a moment, but he couldn't make anything come out of his mouth for a good several seconds. Just as he finally started to speak again, though, Blueblood found his voice.
"I don't want to do this anymore."
Blueblood's father paused as his son choked out those words. "I want to learn business," he continued. "I-I shouldn't be a scientist."
Then Blueblood sobbed, his head falling to face the earth. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his father move around to the front of him. A hoof under his chin tilted his head back up. His father wasn't scowling, just softly frowning. For a brief moment, his eyes flitted to Blueblood's flank. They quickly returned to Blueblood.
Blueblood flinched as his father summoned up a handkerchief and started wiping his face. "We'll talk about it later," his father assured him. "Once your fetlock's healed and you're feeling better. And once you've had something edible to eat."
Blueblood's father glared at the cotton candy stall as he lifted Blueblood onto his back. The last thing Blueblood remembered before his eyes closed of their own accord was the announcer returning with a bag of ice.
<***>
"...have fun with that."
Sunset Shimmer stared at Blueblood as he turned and walked away. "What?" Blueblood could hear clacking on the crystal floor as Sunset ran up to him. "Oh, no you don't," she hissed. "You've got to help me get this under control!"
"Trust me, you're better off without me."
Before Blueblood could take another step, Sunset appeared right in front of him. "You're the only one who got to read those journals," she snapped at him. "The nearest expert is in Canterlot! By the time he gets here, the castle will collapse!"
"If I have anything to do with this, the castle will still collapse!"
Sunset's jaw dropped for a moment as her brow furled, but she still magically grabbed Blueblood by the mane before he could try and pass her. "Hold on," she said. "You're not making a whole lot of sense."
Blueblood tried to strike her, but Sunset managed to block his hoof, then shove him back onto his rear. Blueblood's nostrils flared as he tried to pull himself free. "LET GO OF ME!"
"What do you mean?" Sunset asked, her earlier irritation cooling only slightly. "How would you make this castle collapse?"
Blueblood tried to free himself, twisting and writhing and jerking away, but Sunset's magical stamina was stronger than he was. After a few moments, he ran out of energy. He glared up at her for a few moments. Then it faded as realization flashed across his face, his eyebrows rising as his eyes widened.
Soon, though, his glare returned, though his eyes were much less narrow. "I suppose you've never gotten to hear of me, Sunset Shimmer," he told her, "having just returned from the dead and all. I am Blueblood. Prince Blueblood, as everyone used to call me. I was named the brightest financial mind in the whole of Equestria, hoof-trained by my father, helping to take the mining business in our family to heights they could never have dreamed of. When my father retired, we were five years from being included in the Industrial Average."
Then his head dropped as he sighed. "Then everything came crashing down. Three months later, one of my regional managers turned out to be cutting corners on safety and criminally underpaying his workers. The press leapt at that, and combined with a deep market slump, the company took quite a hit. It hurt to settle with the workers and get everything up to code, but I managed. Stressful, but nothing too hard."
His frown turned into a scowl. "Then my Chief Financial Officer retired, so I hired someone else. On paper, she was fine: performed the same job, but wasn't given a proper salary and was often overworked. So I hired her, with the blessing of my head of HR." Blueblood had to pause here, his breath getting caught in his throat. "She then proceeded to steal me blind over the course of three months. By the time I could get her arrested, all I could do was close the doors."
Blueblood's lips pinched together as his eyes started to shimmer. "That's pretty much how my whole life has gone," he continued. "Everything I do, even when supervised, even when someone else does all the work and I just present it, turns into a disaster. I just looked at that crate, and it failed. If I try and help you now, I'm probably going get everyone killed." Then he turned away.
All the while, Sunset frowned at him, though softly. When she tried walking around to face him, he turned his head back around to the other side. For a few moments, Sunset just stood there silently. Eventually, though, she cleared her throat.
"Then what else can happen?" she asked him. "If these things get out, the heat they make could cause another volcano, which will destroy Ponyville and probably get a lot of people killed. If you help me and it doesn't work, then the same thing happens. If you help me and we at least manage to delay the problem until the expert can get here, then we can save at least a few lives."
This got Blueblood to turn around for a moment, still scowling and with water trails down his face. She raised her hoof and brought it towards Blueblood, but he shied away from it. Sunset stayed silent for a moment. "I know what it's like to hit rock bottom," she told him, "and I know how it feels not thinking it can get any better. But I had friends who helped me pull myself back up."
"So did I," Blueblood rumbled. "It still didn't work."
With that, Blueblood's eyes closed and he sighed. Sunset was quiet, keeping her eyes on Blueblood as her mind worked. For a good, long time, neither of them said anything. Finally, Blueblood's eyes opened. "They were fed live prey," he said. "During a specific ritual. But according to the archaeological records, they only ate from the bellies of victims."
Sunset nodded. "OK," she said. "So, we can guess they like fats and tender meats. If we were to give them a non-pony substitute..."
She gasped as Blueblood's frown faded, and the two spoke together. "Bacon."
<***>
A moment later, several pony-sized portions of bacon had been wrapped together and were laying on the floor. By this point, most of the guards had formed up, casting magic at the wall. Despite their efforts, though, they were now running all of the way down the now red-hot wall, and the hallway felt like a blast furnace, even behind the magical heat shield in front of the hallway. Everypony was covered in a thick layer of sweat. "OK," Sunset said. Then she turned to one of the guards. "How are the guests?"
"Evacuated," he said. "Princess Twilight is directing emergency crews to stand by."
"Good." Then Sunset turned back to Blueblood. "You remember the words?"
For a second or two, Blueblood stood stiffly. Soon, though, he nodded. Sunset nodded back, then looked back to the guards. "OK, weaken the barrier on my mark." She then moved to the front of the door. After a momentary pause, Blueblood followed. "Ready?" she asked Blueblood.
Blueblood shook his head. "Probably not, but let's get this over with."
After a brief pause, Sunset patted Blueblood on the shoulder. Then she spun around to the guards. "Alright," she snapped, "ready? MARK!"
The shield in front of the ponies and the magic on the wall started to fade. Instantly, a wave of heat blasted forwards. Sunset's horn lit up, layering the guards in magical heat shielding of her own. Without its own magic, the physical wall cracked and splintered, leaving a hole in the door. "Alright, Blueblood," Sunset said. "Your turn."
Blueblood walked forwards. He magically picked up the three sacks of meat as he walked forwards, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach or the oppressive heat of being cooked alive. He stopped right behind the magical barrier, packs of bacon at the ready. He tried to take a breath, but the oppressive heat reminded him not to dawdle. Thus, he started to speak. He had no idea what the words meant as he began to speak them, having not delved into linguistics too much, and nothing seemed to happen at first.
But then Blueblood could see the light on the wall fading away, and the temperature seemed to drop a fraction of a degree. The words coming out of Blueblood's mouth momentarily dropped in volume, but that only lasted a tick. The three packages of bacon drifted forwards as Blueblood kept speaking, trying not to fumble as the sweat continued to pour into his mouth. As the packages drifted closer and closer, the heat dropped little by little. When they entered the room, though, it was still sweltering.
At last, Blueblood finished his chant. For a moment, nothing happened. A loud CRACK showed one of the cracks widening. Blueblood turned back to Sunset, who spared him a brief glance before turning forwards. The stream of magic to the shielding spells flickered a little as one of the guards stumbled. At once, Blueblood dashed to his side and propped him up, but his magic stream failed, and the heat shield began to collapse.
Then the crystal began to stop glowing, and the heat began to fall. As the incandescence ebbed back into the lab, the temperature continued to drop. Blueblood watched in a small bit of awe as the cherufes' magic began to undo itself. Finally, the only part of the castle glowing was the crystal on the walls of the lab, and that was much softer then it had been already.
Sunset's magic then shot forwards, establishing another barrier over the laboratory. "Alright," she called out. "Good work. Everybody fall back and rehydrate." Sunset herself then moved forwards, watching Blueblood pass the unconscious guard pony off to another guard. "Well done," she told Blueblood, smiling as she said it.
In response, Blueblood just looked at her, mouth set in a grimace. "Give it a moment," he said, turning back to the lab. "For all I know, we're about to have another blast of heat or something."
"We won't."
Blueblood and Sunset turned around. Twilight Sparkle, out of her regal regalia, was walking a green earth mare down the hallway "The cherufes should be easily containable for another two years," the mare said, "even with just one unicorn. Though I am curious, the stasis box wasn't supposed to fail like it did."
Blueblood glared at the mare for a moment, then turned to Sunset. "I didn't see her here," Sunset said.
"Rainbow Dash just brought her back," Twilight said. "I think she actually broke a speed record getting here."
As she spoke, Blueblood's eyes zeroed on Twilight, but almost instantly, the anger winked out of them. Instead, he just turned to the side and sighed. "Well," he said, trying to sound composed, "please thank her for me."
Twilight walked over to Blueblood. "It wasn't your fault," she assured him.
For a moment, Blueblood stiffened up. That quickly evaporated, though, into another sigh. He tried to walk off, but Twilight stepped in front of him. "Blueblood-"
"Twilight, thank you for inviting me to your castle," he told her, very softly, "but I need to be getting back to my... hotel. I need to shower all of this sweat off."
Blueblood tried to walk around her, but Twilight moved to block him. "You could-"
"I'd rather not," Blueblood interrupted. "Twilight, please don't worry about me. I'll start another business or something. Wait until all of this blows over, call in a few favors, I'll get on with my life."
Blueblood moved to one side. When Twilight didn't move to block him, he continued down the hallway. His face was completely neutral as he kept walking. Then, though, Sunset dashed in front of him, a smile on her face.
"Blueblood," she asked, "would you like to see something interesting?"