The Noblesse Oblige Part I

by Aquarian_Sage

A Birthday Brunch for the Princess, part ii

Princess Blueblood sat on the throne of the round table, seemingly asleep. All around her, House Platinum was seated, continuing on with their conversations from the brunch. Noble Heart had once again taken his place between his mother and his twin.

“You know, you really missed out,” Golden Crown drawled, “I mean, the queen was talking with some of us one-on-one, and she even gave me a hug and a kiss!” The colt then rubbed his cheek where, Noble Heart assumed, Queen Celestia had kissed him. “I was the first to ask her about it, and when everypony saw, they all lined up for one, too.”

Noble Heart, who was resting his temple against his hoof, looked at his brother without even bothering to turn his head.

Golden Crown kept going. “And the food was to die for! Prench toast, pancakes, omlettes, crepes, fruit salads! The queen spared no expense for the princess’ birthday.”

“You certainly made pig of yourself at the brunch, love,” Sapphire teased her son.

“Yes, well, so did you and everypony else at the feast, mother. Even the queen ate freely! The only pony who didn’t seem to eat much was Princess Blueblood.”

“Yes, darling, I suppose that’s true.” Sapphire Diadem blushed at the memory of letting her appetite run wild. “But when one gets older, one does tend to eat less and sleep more, as the princess is doing right now.”

Noble Heart focused his gaze at his great-great-great-great-great(?) grandaunt. His mind wandered back to what the donkey said earlier…

“Not participating in the conversation again, Noble Heart?” Ruby Circlet asked. Everypony could hear the scolding tone in her voice.

He deigned to glance at her before looking back at the princess.

“Do you mind not being rude to us when we’re trying to talk to you?” Golden Crown said.

The colt in question merely shrugged, keeping his focus on Princess Blueblood.

“Ugh.” Golden Crown rolled his eyes. “Why is it whenever we want to include you in anything, you always have to ruin it by pouting or sulking? We’re just trying to talk to you...”

“Oh save your breath, Golden Crown,” Sapphire Diadem sipped from her wine. “If you’re brother wants to be like this, then let him.”

“No, sister, I believe Golden Crown has a point,” Ruby Circlet eyed Noble Heart with cold eyes. “His attitude is simply unhealthy and unseemly. If he doesn’t change his ways, then I’m afraid that he won’t be able to find a lovely wife.”

Noble Heart shot her a nasty glare before giving them a warning snort of aggression. “You mean you won’t be able to find a wife for me, isn’t that right, auntie? Mother?”

Sapphire once again was glaring back at her troublesome son, but Ruby was not going to take his attitude. “I beg thy pardon, nephew?”

“You heard me loud and clear, auntie-dearest."

“Well I never—!”

“If you want to pout, then fine, we’ll let you pout,” Sapphire Diadem said. “But do not speak to my sister that way. You will address her and the rest of your family with the respect they deserve.”

Noble Heart looked his mother straight in the eye, scowling all the while. “Big talk for some mare who had to can barely do magic.”

Sapphire, Ruby, Golden Crown, and everypony else who had been listening in on the exchange looked at him in disdain.

“Now see here, colt—!” one of his many great uncles harrumphed.

“How dare you—?!” another of his aunts demanded.

“Oh, you’re in for it now, Noble Heart,” a nameless cousin said with a malicious grin.

Noble Heart pulled his lip back in distaste and rolled his eyes. “Like you’re all any better,” he said, now addressing everypony within in earshot.

“You will—!” Ruby began Circlet through grit teeth.

“What?” the colt cut in, “What do you want me to do? Respect you? No, I don’t care, and you can punish me all you want, but what’s the worst that you’ll do? Marry me off to some undesirable noblemare? Not let me marry somepony at all? That’s fine by me!”

A deep, cruel laugh resonated throughout the dining hall, and everypony, even Noble Heart, turned to look. Princess Blueblood was alert and sitting ramrod straight on her throne. Her hard blue eyes glared back them in disgust.

“Ah, truly how the mighty have fallen,” the princess grinned. “How the noble lineage of House Platinum has fallen. From founding nations to passing our days lazing away. From battling windigos to gossiping about our own kin. From surviving famine to glutting ourselves with cakes and creams. How we have fallen indeed.”

“Oh, my princess!” Sapphire Diadem said, suddenly aghast. “Please forgive us, both my son and I. I truly have disgraced our noble house for not teaching my son any better. I shall puni—”

“Be silent, fool.” The command hung an oppressive silence amongst everypony else in the room.

“You all truly disgust me, you really do.” Blueblood laughed another joyless laugh. “When I was still but a foal, even I could see the rot that had long-since consumed House Platinum. Now in my twilight years, it has become apparent our name has grown weaker. I would weep for us if my heart were still able to spare the sorrow, or my eyes the tears. But why bother?” she asked rhetorically. “Ah, poor us, poor me having to live this glorious life of luxury, where all save the queen bows and scrapes to serve us… for now.”

Everypony shivered at her last words and even the princess looked ill at ease at her own assertion. Nevertheless, she regain the silky steel in her voice.

“Do you know why I am still alive after one hundred and thirty-eight years?” Blueblood asked, again rhetorically. “Do you know why I cling to this miserable husk of a body instead of walking through the gates of Tambelon with our Lord Death?”

They all looked at her stupidly, fearfully, apprehensively, and one even in contempt.

“Because of you. Because of each and every one of you has failed to even show the slightest modicum of competence to bear the title of Blueblood. But it is not only me who thinks so, oh no! Even our queen, our patient, benevolent queen who always finds the best in ponies could not even find any trace of goodness in any of you.

“Well congratulations, my little ponies!” she sneered. “For I have made quite an achievement today: the longest serving Blueblood in our one thousand years of service to the queen. But I shan’t claim all the credit for myself, oh no! I could not have reached this tremendous feat without you: you who gorge yourselves at feasts every other week, you who spurn discipline of the mind and body in favor of ‘courtly pursuits’ like parties and gossip, you who have never lifted a single hoof for queen and country, yet still prattle on about how Equestria owes its very foundation to us, to our grandmothers who forged ahead in this once wild land, who tried to maintain order during the reign of chaos, who had propped up Queen Celestia when she first settled on the throne. Congratulations indeed!”

The Platinums looked at one another, unable to say anything to refute her words. None of them had served in the military nor became prolific mage in Queen Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, none save for Princess Blueblood.

Noble Heart pondered her words, and he, like the rest of House Platinum could find no fault in her argument. And yet… and yet…

“You’re one to talk,” he finally said.

The princess raised an almost nonexistent eyebrow at him. “I beg thy pardon, colt?”

“I said,” he repeated clearly and loudly, “that you’re one to talk.”

She closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat. “Oh? And how so, young one?”

“You’re right that we don’t really do much except rub fetlocks with other nobles, and you’re right about us being nowhere near as amazing Princess Platinum or her earlier descents, but honestly, why do you think you’re so much better than the rest of us? Because of your title? Well, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but for the last fifteen hundred years, Queen Celestia has managed Equestria just fine by herself, and not a single Blueblood has ever had to bear her crown in the completely impossible chance that she couldn’t rule the nation. You may have been a good duelist and mage back in the day, but you’re still nothing to a god.”

And Blueblood opened her blue eyes and gave him a bone-chilling smirk. “You think so, colt?”

“You're not Starswirl or Clover or, or—”

All of a sudden, Noble Heart felt a magical field envelop him and he quickly flew across the table until he was hanging upside down before the princess.

“Please don’t hurt him!” Somepony pleaded on his behalf, but neither Blueblood nor Noble Heart registered the voice.

The decrepit mare’s eyes pierced through his own and as much as he wanted to fold his ears and look away in submission, he instead chose to glare back at her with defiant eyes.

Finally, the princess brought him closer till his muzzle literally hit the back of her throne and her lips were a hair away from his ear.

“The future is wrought with darkness, colt, and I, unlike you, have the good fortune of not having to bear witness to it, as well as the misfortune of not being there for our queen, but above all our country. The title of Blueblood is not as superfluous as you think, colt, particularly in this gathering tempest. Find the darkness hidden within her, and when you do, seek her, for only she may decide what becomes of us. Speak of this to no one, save for Queen Celestia when you find the nightmare of the moon.”

Noble Heart then felt himself move again, and this time, he was hovering in the center of the round table.

“Do with yourselves what you will,” Princess Blueblood said as she got off her throne and made her way to the doors. “Just leave the young fool alone; the spell will break on its own soon enough. Maybe all that extra blood rushing to his head will help him learn tact.”

Author's Note:

Please point out any typos.

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[The Great Derpsby]

So...

Is this like the past or the future?

I'm confused.