Redemption

by Mystic_Knightwolf

Chapter 17: The Long Road Ahead

A long, quiet morning gave Blueblood time and thought to cool off from last night. But now that the scab was picked, the wound was open again.

For all this time, he just let himself hurt beneath the surface. He grew to resent everything, and everything just resented him right back. Just the very fact that once upon a time, he was a snobby, petulant waste of fur still vexed and disgusted him. It was only Celestia's motherly smile every morning that made him happy, truly happy, a privilege he jealously guarded. Even through all that, some part of him still to this day told him to call her Aunty. His Aunty, even if she didn't help and comfort him on his feelings towards Shining Armor, she was still always there for him, and thinking back to it, he felt a deep sense of gratitude.

But he thought back to Cadence, and his smile vanished. That was a first. But now that he thinks about it, the pale prince felt... enlightened now. She stopped their time together, time he enjoyed with all his heart. She practically avoided him for a time, and when he finally got his reason why, it sent him on his ten year road of deprivation until he was a pony that took five years just to fix. He was angry, and rightfully so.

But... was it all their fault?

Of course it was! Over those years, could he not have made it any clearer his feelings? He certainly didn't beat around the bush. Did anypony even consider him important enough to tell him of life changes? Did anypony even ask him what was wrong? Or take his plight seriously? 'No. They didn't.'

Doubt gripped at him again. 'I love him!' Like a hard slap to the face, that part of their argument suddenly rung like the bell at his aunty's school, and it gave him pause. Did he become a needy little snot when everypony else was moving on, all those years ago? Did he just have to accept that Cadence, at the time, just outgrew running around and having tea parties with her little brother? Maybe. 'But that doesn't excuse leaving me behind.'

His thoughts were cut short by a knock on his door. "Enter."

"Hey Blue. Holding up well?" It was Twilight. A nagging part of him told him that Cadence talked to her.

"As well as anypony else..." he grumbled before stepping away from the balcony and shutting its doors with his magic before turning towards his guest. "What did Cadence tell you?"

"Oh? What did she tell me? Pfft, she didn't tell me anything! I just stopped by to see if you wanted to... continue the story?" Lying Twilight as per usual; avoiding eye contact, incapable of speaking clearly, rubbing the back of her head...

In normal cases, Blueblood, or anypony else for that matter, would have just given her a leer, implying that they clearly didn't buy into whatever half-baked excuse Twilight nervously hacked out. But it was a shtick so overdone for this over-achieving studious learner that the novelty fell short on Blueblood's dampened mood. And he let her know that. "Twilight." She flinched at how he uttered her name. "I grit my teeth everytime you try to slap together excuses like that. Do you really think I'm that stupid?" He had a much sharper reply in mind, but he managed to dull it before it left his mouth.

Nonetheless, it still cut rather deep, evident by her dispirited and downcast expression. "Oh, um... sorry..." When Blueblood looked back to her, he saw that she was holding back tears.

And he knew he had made a mistake. "... Apologies."

Head still down, Twilight met his gaze. "No, it's fine. It's just... that hurt."

"Well, that's a habit you're better off without. Or you could become a better liar. I'm just not used to being this angry. Is that why you're here? Because I got angry with Cadence?"

"She wanted me to talk to you."

"To tell me her side or to finally hear my side?" Any outsider would look at this timeline of events and simply see that he just didn't like Shining Armor. Asking the deeper questions himself, he's remembering a lot.

"Both, if possible." It's clear now why Blueblood was angry.

"'It's all in the past.' 'It doesn't matter anymore.' I get that. But that doesn't change anything. If you want to change my mind about something, start with something other than that."

Twilight understood now. Blueblood felt ignored. Neglected, even. Was that why he became so snobby and bitter all those years ago? "Blue, did you talk to Shining about this yet?"

And here this goes again. "Shining isn't the problem."

That threw her for a loop. "He's not?"

"He wasn't the one who left me and made me feel like all the time I spent with my sister meant nothing."

That was a body blow. "Oh..."

"Now you know who did make me feel like that." The pale prince grumbled, walking about his room, laying down by the dormant fireplace.

"But that's why you need to talk to her again!" Instead of sulking, why not correct the problem?

"Not until she has her foal." In his mind, he surmised that if he just waits this out, he can eventually talk to Cadence without her worrying about his niece becoming part of the conversation. He'd actually be excited to see the new member of the family if it wasn't a surprise. There was no questioning why he didn't like surprises.

"But she's innocent in this!"

Blueblood launched to his feet, eyes wide in exasperation. "Ugh! My niece isn't the problem either! My problem is that Cadence won't listen to me as long as she's worried I won't like someone of hers! I'm just finding out that Shining was never the problem all those years ago, and our niece was never the problem to begin with!"

Twilight was at a loss for words. Shining's not the problem, their niece isn't the problem, and that just left Cadence.

But Blueblood didn't wait around for an answer before he stormed past her and out of his room, the pregnant silence following his outburst deflating his irritation enough to deem getting out to cool off as the best course of action.

That just left Twilight alone with her thoughts, bewildered and confused. 'It's just between him and Cadence...'

XXXXX

The thought of a nice, quiet breakfast slash dinner with Aunty and Aunt Luna was an appealing thought, but it would be anything but quiet with his business being all over the place. That, and Celestia could read him like an open book. He was never very good at hiding how he felt. And he had no intention of learning how.

So this morning, he opted for a breakfast out in town...

... only to find that just about every food place in Canterlot was the same, stuffy upper-class restaurant that served tasteless horderves in place of actual food.

By the time he got through checking every food place in Canterlot, it was almost noon, and he was still hungry. 'Maybe I should have taken that breakfast with Aunty and Aunt Luna...' His stomach grumbled again, and he changed course back to the castle. Time to raid the royal kitchen for lunch.

At least he has something to talk with Maximus about later on.

XXXXX

"You are still troubled." It made sense that Luna would come find him sooner or later. And considering the sun just went down, he was apparently the first thing on her mind.

'At least I'm on somepony's mind...' The bitter thoughts are starting to get to him. "Here to lecture, Aunt Luna?"

"To further advise." Luna explained, motioning with her hoof to join her on her balcony, much roomier than his own. Before he left, he used to complain about that. "Any revelations since last we spoke?"

The question shook him from his thoughts. "I thought about it, and now, I don't really blame Shining. Not entirely, anyway. I guess at the time, I just needed somepony to be mad at, and I was too much of a family pony to point hooves at Cadence. I'd have been fine with all of it if she had just told me and didn't step out of my life all at once. I just... waited for her to step back in for so long, I eventually forgot the reason I was waiting. And all I remembered over the years was that I didn't like Shining." He remembered how excited he was to reunite with her in the Crystal Kingdom, and the still-standing grudge against the new prince. "It's only now that I realize both of those sentiments were flawed."

Progress. Progress indeed. "Mhmm. Cadence had left behind time spent with you, and Shining wasn't the definitive reason you had grown used to. Curious; why not go to Celestia for love and affection? Surely, she picked up for your sadness?" For Celestia's sake, Luna hoped she did.

The prince nodded, resting his haunches. "I did, but I already had Aunty. I knew she'd never leave me behind. THat was what I told myself. I just didn't want Cadence to leave me either. A loss is a loss, no matter what you have to stand in its place."

Luna hummed in content, sitting down next to him. "As good a reason as any." she affirmed, looking up at the full moon. "I know how you feel, nephew. Being away from loved ones, especially at your tender age... feels so cold and lonely. You now resent Cadence for willingly enforcing that fate upon you, and the damage it caused only made the resentment grow." She looked back to him, losing the gleam in her eye from the moonlight. "But what does that resentment do for you besides hurt you even more? What is it that you hope to accomplish?"

Blueblood met her gaze for a moment, but eventually hung his head, shrugging. "I can't say, there's so much on my mind right now, I haven't answered many of the big questions. I can't forgive her though. Not now. Not for a while."

Luna tilted her head. "Are you afraid that the past will repeat? That she'll leave you again? Or perhaps that you will be neglected by somepony else close to you?"

That gave him pause. That must have been it. But if so, he does need to let Cadence know how he feels.

But Luna kept speaking. "You're the type of pony who would fight their whole life to keep their loved ones safe. As such, you're also the type of pony who would wait their whole life for an apology after they hurt you. But in this instance, too much time was lost and too much damage was done for a simple apology to suffice." Sounded about right. "The problem has been dug up, laid bare, and made clear to you. There is only one step left, nephew; resolution."

"How?"

"Make your feelings clear to Cadence. She's far too loving to not feel regret. Take her apology, and give her your forgiveness."

"Why?! I can't just put this all behind me and forget this never happened!"

Some part of Luna anticipated and knew full well that Blueblood would have difficulty letting go. But to hear him so brazenly refuse still made her flinch. Nonetheless, she pressed onward. "Forgiving and forgetting are two different things, nephew. You can't? Or you don't want to?"

"Neither!"

Luna reached over and rested a hoof on his firm back. That seemed to calm him down some. "Nephew, I speak from experience when I say that holding resentment will do nopony any good. Not you or anypony else. You need to learn how to let this go. Release your anger. For your sake, if nopony else's." He doesn't want to do this for Cadence. Not now, at least. But forgiving her for himself will still allow him to heal.

"But what's to stop all this from happening again?" The last thing he was ready for was to waste more of his life hating the world and trying to fix it. He's only mad at one pony now, the pony mostly responsible, and in his mind, that was a positive result.

"Nothing." Came Luna's simple answer. "Throughout life, choices are made, you know that. Call it fate if you wish, but things are set in motion through the choices we make. But those choices are all influenced by who and what life has in store for us. Cadence was in love with Shining Armor back then, and feared you may never accept him. Cadence now, is pregnant with foal, and feared you may never accept her. Her fears influenced her actions. Her fears of you." This brought to light an interesting point. "She cares more for you than you realize. The same way her wellbeing is important enough to you to fight demons, your opinion of her loved ones is so important to her, she'd do all she could to make sure you approve of them, even if you don't approve of her."

"Too bad for me then that she didn't do anything. I have no issue with my niece, I said that already, and I've come to not blame Shining for all that's happened, I've said that as well. My approval of them isn't the problem now. It never was, honestly." The debacle between him and Shining was just a misunderstanding at this point. He was the one Cadence ran off into the sunset with, but he wasn't the one who left him.

But that, in it of itself, only got Luna's point across. "All the more reason to confront her! Tell her how you feel! Make sure she never abandons you again!" Simply put, that was all there was to it. "It's clear this scarred you as a colt. But you're not a colt anymore. If, in the future, she forgets she has a brother, remind her! Remind her how much you love her!"

"Hard to argue with that logic."

XXXXX

Now, Blueblood knew better than to run off and find Cadence simply because he regained his resolve to do so. No, he'll wait for when the time is right. But in the mean time, he has something else on his mind. Something that'll go a long way in making sure he can one day put this behind him.

He'd found Twilight again earlier in the day, and they opted to talk about something else and do a little bit of work on that book. That was when he found about Trixie and the deal with her mother. And presented an opportunity.

He found her in the grand library, reading at a table with the aid of candlelight. "Trixie. A moment?" he whispered, joining her.

The magic princess looked up from her lofty tome to see her sparring partner slash adoptive brother slash fellow royal taking a seat next to her. "Ah, Blueblood. What brings you here?"

"I'd like some advice."

That piqued her interest. Shutting her book with a thunderous 'thoom', the blue mare listened in. "What with?"

"How do you cope, knowing someone important to you just... left you, once upon a time?"

"Well, Trixie... hmm..." Trixie thought way back to her talk with Twilight about just such a dilemma, but she's never been asked a question that required to think into it. "That... is a difficult question. But what makes Trixie smile in the end is all the good it's done. Trixie is a royal princess, a masterful wielder of magic, adored by the kingdom, and living alongside a family that loves her very much. Although she does wish she could have loved and been loved by her real mother, this is still a life well worth living."

Hearing that, Blueblood was given pause. His ascension wasn't as cut-and-dry as Trixie's, he was already a prince with a loving family, adored by the kingdom before it all went south. And after the fall from grace, he's been through resentment, hardship, and turmoil what wouldn't have made him any worse a pony, had he not changed for the worse to begin with. He didn't gain any new character or love for his family during those ten years of snobbish squalor or the five years of absolving it. He was back where he started, and he never stopped loving his family.

So what did he gain?

He gained the strength to protect the ones he cared about. To fight for the good of his kingdom alongside its other saviors. And he'll only come to rely on that strength more and more as he continues his service to Equestria as its prince. That was good, definitely. He gained a vast amount of knowledge about the world and gained the respect and friendship of the many he helped. That was also good. He even found out who his real father was, and made it a goal to meet him someday. That was a mystery waiting to be solved, but it was still a boon he very much welcomed.

But was all that worth the time he wasted? That was the question.

And just for the heck of it, he'll say it was.

"Thank you, Trixie." He shot her a grateful smile and stepped out of his chair to leave, having gotten what he needed.

But he didn't get far when Trixie called him. "Blueblood." He looked over his shoulder to see she stepped after him. "When you're given the choice, take it from the Great and Caring Trixie that the best choice is the one that allows you to heal."

First Luna, then Twilight, and now Trixie. Getting through this must be easier than he thought. "And forgive." He might as well give back.

"Hm?"

"I'm told you can't heal unless you forgive." Trixie was left to herself again, now in deep thought of her own.

XXXXX

"Blue... why don't you like Shining?" Surprisingly enough, it wasn't Blue that confronted Cadence tonight. It was her that sought him out. Either way, all that advice didn't make him any less angry to see her.

His back was towards her as he looked over the twilight balcony. "Now you care, apparently." Resentment just felt so... right, seeing her again. He regretted saying that the moment it was said, but that regret vanished as soon as it came. And the kicker is that she's doing exactly what he wanted; she's seeking to fix the newly opened rift between them. Why was he angry? Was it because she asked the wrong question?

Cadence's breath hitched in her throat, but she came this far, and now wasn't the time to give up. "Blue, please. I want to help."

"Me or him? You had plenty of time to help me. You had a long time... to help me." Advice from everypony he talked to today replayed in his mind, but as soon as a pearl of advice or wisdom entered his mind, it was smashed to pieces under the resentful stress it had to hold up to.

Cadence felt like she had been physically struck. She was never used to Blueblood speaking this way to her. Not even after every obstacle their relationship took. And now, it was all aimed at her. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea... "I know you're angry. And you have every possible right to be. I hurt you, and I never even knew it. But please, just this once. Tell me. Please. If I at least know, you can..." Her eyes grew hot, and she swallowed the lump in her throat. "... You can hate me, and I'll never bother you again. I... I promise."

Blueblood felt his stomach turn into a pit, but ushered the feeling away with a bitter sigh. That was the love in him talking, he knew that from his talk with Luna. And it quickly faded at the oncoming torrent of thoughts rushing to the forefront of his mind like a bursting dam. "You don't understand! I don't want to stop seeing you!" He took a breath. "Before Shining Armor, I cherished every moment we had together. Learning, playing, running around, having tea... that was my world. My happiness! Sure, I had Aunty, and I'm grateful for that. But I also had you. You, my sister." He looked back at her for the first time this evening, but it was only a brief glance. "And one day... it all stopped." He began to pace. "I didn't know why because nopony ever told me. Did you not like me? Was I boring to you? Why didn't you tell me? Did something happen to you?!" Cadence could make out the anguish in his features as he began replaying those troubling thoughts in his head, seeing just how much it affected his young mind all those years ago.

Cadence knew the questions were rhetorical, but to know that these were the things that troubled him so much it turned into somepony else, all because she was too wrapped up in her love of Shining to spare the time and console him, it stabbed at her heart all the more. "Blue, I-"

But one raised hoof reminded her that it was his turn to talk, years and years of bitter grief dug from its grave for her to finally hear. And she was going to hear all of it. "I worried about you! And I was happy to see you safe! I was always happy... to see you safe! And I didn't want Shining to take away our time together! Yet when it happened, everypony just laughed at me! Do you know how that feels?! To know that you just lost somepony important and have all those around you laugh?! But all this time, I never blamed you! I saw you and Shining together for the first time, and all of the blame immediately went to him! In my mind, this stranger took you away from me! And I never liked him since. But it wasn't until recently that I opened my eyes enough to realize that I blame you and not him. For not ever telling me. 'Hey Blueblood! I'm probably not going to see you much at all now because I met somepony!' Don't you think that's important?! To a pony like me, who cares for family more than anything?!" It was so incredibly liberating to finally get all of it off his chest, hidden because it wasn't until now that he asked himself why he was angry. He felt a crushing weight he was hardly even aware of lifted from his back. The very air itself felt lighter and cooler. But it took only a glance at Cadence for him to realize the sheer amount of damage he had just dealt in his rant. The weight came crashing down as quickly as it left, and he suddenly wished he took every word of it back. "Cadence, I'm-"

He'd beaten her back and forth with each sentence until all that was left was a grieving wreck of a sister. But now, it was her turn to raise a hoof. Even through the sniffling and the weeping, she knew. "Y-you... you're right." The sad smile she had when she looked up at him made that pit in his gut return. "Part of me always knew you weren't going to like Shining. At least at first. When you two finally met, and you said you didn't like him, I panicked. I'm not gonna come up with excuses. You're right to be mad at me. I'm sorry, Blue. More than you know."

Blueblood felt another rant coming, but hearing that apology took away some of the momentum, even if just a little. He wiped away his own tears, though his expression didn't betray any grief. "This all hurts, me yelling at you like this. And looking back at it, I was the only one who was ever hurt really hurt. All this time. It's not that I wanted you too to hurt, that's the last thing I'd ever want. But I want you to know what you put me through. You could say it was my responsibility to get over it, grow up like everypony else, and you'd be right, but I was also left to fall without anypony to help me. Is that not what family do? I certainly made my thoughts clear the day I met him. But because of everypony's neglect, it changed my life for the worse, turned me into somepony I'll hate for the rest of my life. I was that pony. For ten whole years. It took another five to fix it. And I'll never get that time back. I'm grown now, yet I feel I'm still back where I started. Even if I cared to acknowledge at the time that Shining was a good pony, I still wouldn't have liked him. Just because he was part of the reason you seemingly forgot I existed." Seeing that he was now just ranting again at this point, each word a scathing reminder, he took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts again. "What I'm trying to say is..." He looked directly into her eyes, hurt but understanding. "I just wish I was told. But now, I can't just forgive and forget. Not now." So much time was lost, and so much damage was done, the very thought of forgiving made him feel insulted.

Nonetheless, Cadence nodded, wiping her cheeks dry. "I understand. I can't find it in me to ask you to. And none of this probably would have happened if I did." But then came another torrent of tears, wiped up by her foreleg. "But even if it takes the rest of our lives to make it up to you, please..." She lowered a tender hoof down to her slightly plump belly. "Please at least give your niece a chance, when she comes. She deserves that. None of this is her fault. If..." She took a deep breath to steel herself to say these next few words. "If you don't want to forgive me for a while, then I won't force you to. But my daughter... your niece... deserves to see her uncle."

Blueblood turned away again, towards the balcony doors, took in a deep breath, and eased it out, hoping his anger left with it. With any luck, it did. "Okay."

"I'm glad we talked." Today wasn't a day he was happy to see her smile.

"... I'm glad you listened." He said that, but he had to convince himself she did. With their conversation over, he was on his way back inside. But before he passed the curtains, he stopped. "You know, I never could stand to see you cry. Even when you're crying tears of joy. I love you that much."

Cadence wish he had said that with a smile. And hers vanished before it even came to be. She'd say she knew he loved her, but after all that was said, she just couldn't.

...

"I love you too..." 'I hope you know...'

XXXXX

She had done it again.

For the second time in her life, she had put her own wants and desires before her brother's. The pony who was there for her since his beginning, who'd share his cookies simply because she finished all of hers, who'd fight till the end to save her, who'd cry simply because she herself was crying, whether from grief or joy... who hurt for fifteen years because she wasn't sure if he'd like her coltfriend.

And now, she knows it.

Her eyes burned from crying, her throat ached from choking, her head anguished from the guilt. He had poured out his heart to her, told truths unearthed from years of buried resentment, and all she could think about was if he'd approve of her niece. She understood his plight perfectly now, but seeing how he left, she might as well have not heard him at all.

"Cadence?" A soft, comforting voice called from outside of the room. Shining. Just the pony to help calm her down. Igniting her horn, she opened the doors, and in stepped her terribly concerned husband.

They joined in an embrace next to the bed, and with his help she calmed down enough to speak. "I-I talked to Blue..."

"What did he say?" It couldn't have been good, all things considered.

"He's hurting... a lot."

Twily told him about the situation, but a lot of blanks were left. "What's he hurting from?"

"... me." It took some mustering on her part to say it.

"How come?" One step at a time.

"I... haven't been a good sister."

Shining knew he to pick his next words carefully. "If you talked to him and this happened, then we'll just need time to make things right. Just give him some time. He'll come around."

"I hope." She sighed, breaking the embrace and plopping down on the soft bed. "If not for my sake, then for our daughter's."

Shining hummed in agreement, and after a minute or two of relative bliss in his wife's company, a thought occurred to him. "You know, I always respected him, in a way."

"How come?" She found herself asking. How was this possible if they couldn't stand each other?

"He was never afraid to share his thoughts. But now that I think of it, he did his part in communicating just fine. It was us that didn't think to meet him halfway. And since we were always together, it was my job too to look after him. Some brother I turned out to be..."

Cadence huffed, the first semblance of a grin tugging at the corner of her lip, the first positive feeling she felt all day. "Some sister I turned out to be..."

"Nowhere to go but forward. Let's give him some time, alright? There's still a good few months until you're due. That's plenty of time to cool off."

"Okay."

XXXXX

Blueblood slept pretty well last night. No nightmares, nothing looming over his head like yesterday morning. And he felt good enough to make amends. Make amends with Shining Armor.

With magic of his caliber, he was but one teleportation spell away from the Crystal Empire. After walking through the city, greeted and paid respects by its kindhearted people along the way, he asked around for Shining and found him by the stadium, clipboard and whistle in hoof. Being outside the stadium, he must be taking a break from whatever he was doing.

"Blueblood?" the older stallion asked, seeing the blonde prince roaming the city streets being quite a shock.

"Morning." Blueblood greeted, his voice absent of the typical malice, another shocking surprise.

"Are... you looking for Cadence? I thought you talked." Shining simply didn't know how to react. Every encounter they got into over the years, they either avoided each other alltogether or saved face until they could. Conversation was always the least of their concerns.

But today, it wasn't. "We did. I wish to break words with you." Blueblood picked relatively secluded spot next to the stadium's outer pillars, and beckoned him over.

When Shining joined him, it was safe to say his mind was racing. "What is it you wanted to talk about? Something happened? Is Cadence safe?"

Blueblood stopped his brother-in-law's stream of questions with a hoof, and a face that betrayed a certain grief. "She's fine. She's eating breakfast with Aunty and Aunt Luna. But right now..." A deep breath gave him resolve to gather his thoughts. "I've been wrong. All these years, I've been wrong. Wrong to judge you."

He was apologizing. "Blueblood, you don't-"

"You're right, I don't." He really didn't. "But I am. You do love my sister, that much was certain from the beginning. And we'd have probably been the best of brothers otherwise. But fate wasn't kind to me."

"I did wanna help at first..." It was worth mentioning, though their relationship quickly degraded into their famous one-sided squabble, then their mutual agreement to ignore each other.

"I was likely too blind to see it. But I know you never meant any harm." He turned to face him. "But too much was done to be water under the bridge. And I don't think I'll be able to recover from all of it. Not in this lifetime, anyway."

"Hey look, I'm really sorry you lost out on everything. It never was fair, especially after seeing the kind of pony you were before it was all said and done. When we first met, I kept in mind that you were Cadence's brother, and I was kind of afraid she would be torn between time with me and time with you."

"I suppose you found it fortunate that you didn't have to worry, then." Blueblood meant no ill will when he said that, but it was the sentence itself that made it impossible to sound like anything else.

"Well, not now, I don't..." That dropped his mood a bit, but he still understood.

"It's also fortunate I don't blame you anymore."

He quickly added that surprise to the pile. "You don't?"

The golden prince nodded. "You two love each other. I didn't understand love at the time, but now I do. You love each other so much, you're having a foal to celebrate it. I'm still mad, but now I get it. And it wasn't your fault that Cadence left me."

Shining couldn't deny that she did that. Their conversation and Blueblood's resentment was all the proof he needed, not to mention the conversation he himself had with his wife. "I'm... I'm sorry."

Blueblood had no idea why he just wasn't all that happy to hear that. But an apology is an apology, and he knew Shining meant it. "Thank you." It took courage to say it, but now that he did, he looked and Shining, and the resentment felt... far away. "Now, let's change the subject before I come to my senses and take it back."

"Hey, if you're still mad, I don't blame you. I'm fine if you just wanna keep business the same as usual." Them saving face in polite company grew to be the norm, and Blueblood was still justifiably angry. But he'd definitely feel better knowing they didn't keep it up because they despised each other.

Either way, that still wasn't the decision. "No, it's not that. I guess I just need more time to cool off. That, and well..."

"Cadence pushing the envelope about our foal?"

Took the words right out of his mouth. "All that and a bag of chips. I said my niece wasn't the problem, that wasn't even called into question, and I told her I stopped blaming you, but I had to convince myself that she actually listened to what I had poured my innermost thoughts to her about."

All the noble husband could do is shrug. "Well, she told me that she'd be happy as long as you didn't blame our daughter. She'd be willing to live with that, even if you didn't want to speak to her again."

That struck a nerve, however. "But your daughter is not the reason I'm mad! She never was! I'm mad because once upon a time, a colt named Blueblood was left all alone, it took five long years to right ten wasted years of wrong, and at the end of the ride, the one that caused it is worried about my relationship with her husband and daughter instead of doing everything she can to fix the one with her brother. All because she was afraid we wouldn't all get along!" But it was more of a complaining rant than an argumentative one.

"I love her more than the world itself, but her mood swings have been driving me a little crazy too. Provided her pregnancy is the reason she's been on and on about our daughter. At first, it was fine, but the later months have been pretty hard on the both of us."

'And the last fifteen years have been hard on me. But please, go on.' The sheer snark in that voice in his head made him bite back a laugh, suppressed with a grin. And Celestia, it felt good to want to laugh again! "Well then, if that's the case, then I guess I'll wait till the little one is born. Maybe by then, we'll get some closure and I'll be able to move on. There's too much on my mind right now for resolutions."

"I hear ya." The concept of feeling agreeable alongside the one pony that never liked him sparked just the craziest idea. "So uh, you wanna go out to eat this morning? There's some great places to eat in the Crystal Empire. Not that pish posh horderve stuff that took over Canterlot."

"I like you already."

Author's Note:

Whoo! Six thousand words!

I had this bad boy beta-read by Frankie, and boy, was I happy to find he liked it! I can only hope you guys appreciate the handy work as much as I did writing it.

I didn't want this to be episode thing in which this problem that accumulated for years was solved in one day. Progress has definitely been made, but I wanted to emphasize that this will take time to heal. And it might be a few chapters before the big moment comes. Once I look at the MLP episode list again.

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed, and have a nice morning!

It's 4am, so...

Comments

[The laid back hunter]

8439740
I'm glad you think that. Fighting with magic is about using the world around you.

[Mystic_Knightwolf]

8439745

If you read on, you'll see Blueblood thinks that way. And Trixie. But in a way, I believe it's how unicorns stay relevant among a family of alicorns.

[harts fire]

i am sorry to say i am pulling this story from my primary list and moving it to my UN-finished list.
i hate to see a story die as it is just happening way to much but well i am thinking this one is finished.

[starship55]

DOES ANYONE KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE WORD "TO...AND TOO" ??? IT'S LIKE THE WORD "TOO" HAS BEEN ERASED FROM THE DICTIONARY !!!!