P.B. and J.

by TheAmazingMe

P.B. and ... Making Things Right Part Two

In the seemingly infinite moment between my knock and a response, I felt like a foal again. It was an odd mix of energies; anticipation mixed with worry and regret for not having done this sooner. Would she remember me as fondly as I did her? What if she'd heard the rumors about me? What if she knew there was much more truth behind most of those rumors?

Was this even a good idea?

Macha Method opened the door and immediately the illusion in my head dispelled. She was older than I remembered, with silver streaking her red mane and tail. Her coat had always been gray. "Your Royal Highness." She said courteously, bowing her head.

"Actually, it's just Your Highness." I corrected. Blushing, I waved a hoof. "But, please, just call me Blueblood or Blue, Sgt. Method."

Smiling, she waved us inside. "Fine, but only if you call me Macha."

Macha led us into the kitchen and sat us at the table. The home was humble. I was horribly aware that a younger me would have scoffed at the low stools at the plain hardwood table. There was a charm to be found here that was entirely lost on that self-absorbed me. While I marveled at my own advances, Macha tidied up the already-tidied-up space. With a grin, I realized that maybe she was as excited as I was.

"I'm just finishing up some cookies. They're not likely to be much competition with what young mister baker can whip up, but I expect they'll be edible."

"Now, I'm sure..." As Joe made to object, we heard hoofsteps thundering down the stairs. Returning to the doorway, Macha yelled out. "How many times have I told you about how a proper lady walks down the stairs?"

"And as soon as I see a proper lady, I'll make sure to let her know--oh! Is this the guest that you had me up in the wee hours of the morning to prepare for?" I was floored. It was like looking back in time. The mare was Macha's younger duplicate. After a blink, I did notice a few differences. She was more slender than Macha. Her muscles stood out marginally less, opting for more lean and less bulk.

"Nine o'clock is not the wee hours of the morning by any stretch of the imagination, young lady! And yes, this here is His Highness, Prince Blueblood."

Bold as brass, the younger mare strode over and held out a forehoof. "Pleasure to meet you, Your Highness Prince Blueblood."

Reaching out, I took hold of her hoof, only to have my own shaken heartily. "Um, just Blueblood is fine." With a small effort, I pulled away from her hoof.

Unfazed, she looked over at Joe. "Well, here's a pony who needs no introduction. How are you today, Mr. Joe?"

"Fine, Emain, wasn't it?" Emain nodded. "Where's your brother?"

"Liath had to fly a chariot out to Ponyville." The name tickled my brain but I couldn't place it. "It's supposed to be his day off, but he took on one of Rhia's runs because she was overbooked."

"Do you pull chariots as well?" I asked.

Laughing, she shook her head. "Thankfully, not anymore. I pulled in a team just after school to save up the bits, but now I run my own Jewelry shop. Stop by sometime, I'm in Prominence, just a few streets from Core, so my prices are very reasonable."

"Enough!" Macha admonished playfully, flicking a towel at her daughter. "Don't you have work to do?"

Swishing her tail in retaliation, Email protested. "I do! I have some repairs to do for that couple who got hosed by a dealer in Saddle Arabia. I swear, half of my work is fixing other ponies' mistakes."

"Be glad you get any work, what with your teasing nature." Macha jibed.

"Ach! Yeah, and exactly where did I learn the best tricks? You might blame Aunt Maeve for all the troubles you two found as foals, but I know better!" Emain retorted before swishing her tail and walking to the front door.

"Your Aunt Maeve did get us into all sorts of trouble!" Macha protested. When her only response was the sound of the front door closing, she turned around and smiled. "Children grow up so fast. Speaking of which, last time I saw you, you weren't much bigger than a diamond puppy."

"I've...been fine." I settled.

She actually scowled at me. "Somepony has forgotten how I can spot a lie from a mile away." Smirking, she turned to the oven to take out a tray of cookies. Setting them on the sill to cool, she turned back to me. "It's been how many years, you've gone from Royal Highness to just Highness, you've left Celestia's house for Luna's and you expect me to believe 'I've been fine'?"

Shaking my head ruefully, I couldn't help but ask. "How did you know all that?"

"I'm still friends with some old fools who were too stubborn to retire. For all the silent, stoic types they may seem, old guards are not much better than a gaggle of hens when it comes to gossip." Macha said by way of explanation. "So, how are things really?"

"They've been worse, but they've also been better." I admitted. "I'm an advisor for Princess Luna and I seem to be doing well. I've started doing more charitable work lately, thanks to a certain somepony."

Macha looked at Joe meaningfully. "I can imagine. Is this somepony special to you?"

I looked at Joe, who shrugged. "Yes, ma'am."

Macha sighed, settling her bones into a chair at the table with us. "It's better than it was in my days, but some noble ponies still have odd ideas about love. I'm glad that you didn't pick any of that up, Blue. You were a very sweet colt."

"Thank you, Macha." I said, looking down to cover a sudden bout of emotion.

Macha looked at Joe. "Some things never change."

He placed a hoof around my shoulders and squeezed me close. "Some things change when you least expect them to." Joe replied.

"Isn't it funny, the way things work sometimes?" Macha said, laughing. "Yes, I've heard the news and the rumors about you, Blue. I had my fears, but when I heard you wanted to see me, I guess I felt flattered that you even remembered me."

I looked up at her, but then back down at the table. I scratched above one forehoof with the other. "Um. I have to admit, I have some...ulterior motives for getting back in touch with you. I need your help."

Macha sat in silence, looking at me oddly. The silence dragged as she took a few deep breaths. "Whatever it is, if it was important enough for you to dig me back up..." She looked at me angrily. "Then this is probably a problem you should have seen me a long time ago about and I should thrash you for taking so long!"

"Huh?" I said, surprising myself with my own expansive vocabulary.

"OF COURSE I'll help you, Blue!" She thundered. "Just name it, you wee bairn. I take it has to do something with something I did when I worked as a guard."

Blinking a few times, I opened and closed my mouth in what must have looked shockingly like an imitation of a fish out of water. Given my confusion, that analogy wasn't too far off of the way I felt. Luckily, Joe piped up. "Actually, yeah. It does. Do you remember the day when Blueblood got his cutie mark?"

"His second birthday after coming to the Canterlot." She recalled fondly. Seeing the look on my face, she smiled widely and patted my hoof. "It was one of the biggest moments in my career, to be trusted with Celestia's nephew in one of the few times they let you out of the castle. You were so excited and curious. And nervous. I'm sure Celestia..." A shadow crossed her face, and she looked at me, shocked. "You can't mean to tell me you still don't know what your cutie mark means!"

I nodded numbly. "Even after all this time. Civil thought she knew and Celestia went along with it, but I've never been sure. And my magnificent failures since then have all been to compensate for..." I felt her hooves wrap around me and suddenly I was locked in a very tight embrace.

"I'm so, so sorry, Blue. That's terrible!" She leaned back to look me in the face. "What can I do to help?"

***

The map of Canterlot unfurled on the table and a plate of cookies within easy hoof's reach, we looked over the sites Joe'd laid out. Thundering down the stairs every bit as loudly as her daughter, Macha returned with a small book and a fair coating of dust. "Hmm. Well, given that it's been a fair few years, I really do have to praise myself for still having this! It's my diary from back then. So, given that I already had to file a report about it, I should have been in good record-keeping mode. Let's see." She shook off the dust, Joe rescued the cookies from the impending dust-storm, and she sat, cracking open the diary.

Flipping a few pages in, she came to the proper date and smiled. "Sure enough! Um...well." She read down the entry and blushed. "I...might have put a few things in here that I never expected you to see."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm all grown up now, Macha. I've likely heard much worse."

Sighing, she passed the diary over and took up a pencil. "Well, first off, we went to the Canterlot National Museum. Blue was very insistent about it and we ended up getting there much too early. The museum's caretaker was quite taken with Blueblood and so she let us in. I guess it didn't hurt that he was royalty with royal guards. I guess the risk there was low enough to make an exception. She was even more impressed when you insisted on paying for admission."

I looked down again and smiled, remembering the pleasant surprise on the caretaker's face. "I used to like surprising ponies. In a good way."

"Don't worry, you made up for that at the next place." Macha said, her ears twitching in amusement. Looking at Joe, she explained. "Blueblood insisted on ice cream for breakfast."

My ears flattened as both ponies broke out in laughter. Spreading my hooves, I shrugged. "It was my first time away from Civil and Celestia. I just really, really wanted to do it once."

Macha patted my hoof comfortingly. "I was fine with it, once I realized that. It took some convincing to get my partner to go along with it, he was such a big brother type. But, I had more seniority and it was an order from our Prince, so we won out in the end. This ice cream place..." Here she pointed out a spot near the museum. "...is the one we went to."

"Then my partner insisted on getting a proper breakfast, but Blue and I conspired and we ended up at a bakery. Hmm, none of these bakeries were open back when we did this trip. It was here." She marked the place carefully. "But the owner passed away a few years back and it's now a sub sandwich shop."

"I think I know that sub shop owner." Joe remarked, picking up a cookie.

I laughed. "Of course you do. You know everypony." As he turned to give me a sour look, I bit the cookie right out of his hoof.

Joe shrugged and finished the rest of the cookie. "What can I say? I'm a pony person."

Macha laughed, the sound resonant in the cozy kitchen. "Well, all the sugar really came back to bite us in the rump. There was a festival in the Prench Quarter that seemed to pop out of nowhere. A certain foal who shall not be named was quite out of hoof at this point. We really were lucky we didn't lose you for more than an instant." Returning to the map, Macha pointed out a place in the Prench Quarter. "We went to this little cafe after somepony nearly slipped away from us." Joe marked the place. "I've never been chewed out so thoroughly by a junior before, but I couldn't just pull rank on him and tell him to stuff it when he had a point. You actually passed out after the sugar rush and we debated about whether or not we should just go back to the castle. By the time we put you over my back you were awake again and raring to go."

"You know, I've completely forgotten who was with us that day." I said, tapping my chin. Macha looked up slowly, her lips slowly tugging upwards into a grin. "What? Do you remember who it was?"

Macha coughed into a hoof, although it sounded suspiciously like smothering laughter. "Yes. Yes, I do, as a matter of fact." She 'coughed' again, although it covered even less laughter than the first time. Waving a hoof towards her eyes, Macha tried getting a hold of herself.

"What's so funny?" Joe asked.

"Well, I'm sorry. Maybe you'll find it at least as amusing as I do. He was just getting started as a royal guard at the time, but he was specifically selected because he had a younger sister about your age." Macha explained. "I should really drop him a letter, but I guess he's a busy pony now. He really was a pleasure to work with..."

I coughed meaningfully. "The name, Macha."

Her grin went wide again and she looked at me with the cheekiest of expressions. "Shining Armor."

Joe looked as thunderstruck as I felt. "Captain Shining Armor?"

Macha's laugh filled the kitchen. "Well, he wasn't Captain back then! But yeah, Shining Armor was with Blue and I that day. It was one of the early feathers in his cap."

"What, surviving a day with me?" I asked, crossly.

Her laughter rang out again. "No! Escorting the prince around for an entire day and impressing a seasoned veteran." She pointed at herself. "He even managed you pretty well when I had to take a trip to the filly's room. You both ended up at the train station a block away, but he managed you pretty well, I guess."

"What?" Joe and I asked.

Macha nodded. "Yeah, it was right after the ice rink. It was getting late and we were heading home. You said you wanted to see the station, but I really had to go. You begged Shining to take you, but he wanted to stay near me. I guess you must have convinced him because that's where I found you two."

"Why don't I remember this?" I asked myself out loud.

"You were very tired at the time. It really was a very long day. We were almost reprimanded by Civil for having you out late enough that you missed the lowering of the sun ceremony." Macha said, standing to tidy the table up. Joe and I stood to help, but she whirled a dish towel menacingly.

"You know, there are two strong unicorn stallions here who could take care of the little things while you rest your hooves, Miss Macha." Joe said calmly.

I snorted. "Oh, Joe. You haven't dealt with many Royal Guards, have you?"

"I'll tell you exactly what a good string unicorn stallions is good for!" Macha started, the corners of her mouth betraying the humor behind the threatening tone. "And feel free to pass this along to Captain Armor as well!"

The door opened and a voice rang out. "Ma, I'm home. Emain said you made cookies, so..." As he came into view, the tingle of recognition returned. He stood taller than anyone present. His puffed up gray chest only made him seem larger. His close-cut red mane glistened with sweat from the day's heat. His eyes narrowed at me and the tingle turned into foreboding.

With a start, I suddenly remembered why the name Liath sounded so familiar. The last time I saw him was from across a crowded restaurant. There was...a disagreement. He'd been escorted out.

I'd stolen his marefriend.

Comments

[Skarsnik]

Yay, it's back. Poor Blue

This is gonna be a good next part probably xD

[Grekoy]

I should be surprised a piece of Blue's past has returned, but I'm not.

[RadicalDishonesty]

How much older than Blueblood is Shining Armor? I usually see them put among the same general class of age...

[TheAmazingMe]

7410415 Look for an upcoming blog post to go over my reasoning, but long story short, about seven human years difference between Blue and Shining. The Mane Six and Blue are around the same age, give and take some months