P.B. and J.

by TheAmazingMe

P.B. and Destruction

Perhaps it was selfish of me. My own thorny pride has a way of getting the better of me anyway. Why would I be so surprised to be standing surrounded by crystal ponies, their coats gleaming in satisfaction as we gazed over our hoofwork, and feel like I wanted Joe to praise me. To have him slap my back instead of Nick Chisel, in spite of the design work we shared and the moment we had to talk to each other about lost loved ones. We had accomplished so much, a band of ponies on the brink of dissolution when I first set hoof here. How could I feel slighted just because one pony wasn't there to praise me alongside the many ponies who were doing so now?

Selfish. That's what I was. What I always ended up being. This was how I got myself into so much trouble. I couldn't just enjoy the satisfaction of the moment. Even among these ponies, these thoughts were swirling in my mind. I smiled as I blamed my own shortcomings for not having a genuine smile. As the sun set, I turned away. It was time to leave.

A hoof tapped my shoulder. It was Jaune, the little treasurer who had done so much to get the new materials here. "Your Highness, forgive me."

I waved a hoof. "No, that's quite alright Mr. Jaune, I should have known better than to try to leave without saying my goodbyes."

"Not just that." He blurted, blushing a darker yellow. "What I mean to say is, I have a few things to go over with you concerning the cost and the materials themselves."

"I'm sure we can discuss this tomorrow. It's been a frightfully long day for me." I said, dismissing the thought.

"I'm quite sure now is the best time, pardon my forwardness." In the brief time we spent together, the little unicorn stallion had never been so forward. I was intrigued.

"Go on then." I instructed, sitting on the roadside.

"Well, we discussed the matter of payment with Mr. Carter and he was insistent that we not spend more than wholesale. I was hard pressed to have him accept much money at all. The sum we arrived at is still much more than the original memorial would have been, but considering the quality of the material, this partial donation is significant."

I resisted the urge to yawn. "I'm sure he'll make it out alright during the tax season. Was that all, Mr. Jaune?"

"Not quite, Your Highness. There is also the matter of the material chosen. It has particular properties that are best viewed...under the correct circumstances."

"Given the nature of crystal, I assume it is sometime during the day?" I asked, wondering when I'd have to come back to see it at full magnificence.

"No, sir. Just after sunset, sir." He said, pointing a hoof over to the setting sun and then back to the southern archway.

Jaune led the way back to the memorial. I couldn't help but to wonder at this puzzle, but my curiosity surely wouldn't have to wait long. As I'd spent the better part of a day poring over every detail of this mural, it didn't quite hold my interest as the sun waned. I silently marvelled at the beauty of the sky at sunset, the artistry that both of my aunts put into lowering the sun and raising the moon. As the last rays shot over the horizon, I felt that insistent tapping again. My eyes returned to the subject of our labor.

For the moment, my brain went blank. When it caught up to what I was seeing, I looked over to Jaune and silently thanked him. The crystal mural was glowing, the light not unlike that found in the bottom of a pool. It flowed around the piece in an unpredictable yet elegant dance. Suddenly, the exactness of each cut and placement made sense. The resultant effect was as aesthetically pleasing as it was mesmerizing.

I quite forgot myself and threw a hoof over Jaune's shoulders. My little yellow pony had surprised me in the best way. Carter came up on the other side and did the same to me. In the glow of the memorial and the triumph of the moment, I let him. Spotting Nick on the approach, I released Jaune and embraced the engraver.

"Quite satisfying, what can be made after something is destroyed. This mosaic mural is a great gift from Princess Luna and the Crystal Empire will remember it fondly. Everypony standing here today will pass on the word of Luna's gift, and of Prince Blueblood's generosity and skill." Nick said eloquently.

"If you wanted to destroy my reputation, you could have given me a bigger part in this little story." I said jokingly.

Thankfully, Nick seemed to catch my humor. "I'm afraid your bad-colt reputation was ruined before your arrival. The soup kitchen incident and your relationship with a certain baker made it to even our gossip magazines." Nick said with faux-smugness.

"Thank you, everypony." I raised my voice enough to at least catch the attention of the group. Most nodded or waved and a few 'thank you's' later I turned back to return to the palace.

The trip back necessitated a cab ride, even my well trained guard seemed grateful for the break. I actually briefly snoozed along the way, waking up in time to see our final approach to the main courtyard of the palace. To my surprise, we'd picked up a slightly soil-coated Dr. Turner while I was asleep. He shook his head at me as we exited the cab.

"Fell in a flower bed." Was all he said by way of explanation. We parted ways at the door, although I did overhear him inquire after the nearest showering facility.

As we rounded a corner on the way to meet with Cadence and Shining Armor, I crossed paths with perhaps the last pony I expected to see.

"Aunt Celestia?" I asked, surprised.

Her face was as inscrutable as ever. "So this is how I find out that you're dating somepony?" She held aloft a newspaper in her golden glow. The kiss with Joe on the ramp of the airship was front and center, along with the headline. It read: 'Rumored Romance Rises to Reality: Prince Blueblood Reveals Surprising Special Somepony.'

"I really should thank Mr. Story for catching my good side. Although I will have to talk to him about his apparent love for alliteration." I said, inspecting the paper closely. The first few lines seemed very supportive.

To my satisfaction, Celestia looked stern for a moment. Then her expression softened. "I don't know why I'm surprised to have you treat this so lightly. Please, let's continue this somewhere more private." She led me up the stairs to a nearby room. The window of this room overlooked the throne room, where Cadence's feast was in full swing.

Her tone irked me, and I quipped back without thinking. "I don't know why you suddenly care who I date. It's unlike you to take an interest, unless you have some objection because he's common-born."

Celestia shook her head. "Actually, I'm relieved your newest relationship is outside of the peerage and castle staff. It's a nice change of pace. And if the rumor mill is correct, this relationship has been going on for a while? That's even more commendable. The last relationship to last longer than three months was the cartographer's daughter, I believe."

She was right, but I wasn't about to admit it. It had to have been a lucky guess. "Actually, Lady Fields was longer by a month."

"No she wasn't. She was spreading false rumors so that you would notice her." Celestia countered, right again.

"Since when..." I began, but she cut me off.

"Since the day you came into the castle. I've cared. I've always cared. I wasn't great about showing it and I wasn't aware of everything going on, but I cared enough to at least follow your mistakes." She sighed, a sound of frustration with which I was quite familiar but also had an edge with which I was not familiar. "Why do things have to be this way? I came here to apologize!"

"You've done that, I think." I replied. "I shoved you away last time. I'm surprised you even put up with me."

"Yeah, well I didn't apologize for letting Civil List take the lead on raising you, did I? Or apologize for not seeing how her biases were keeping you from the foalhood you deserved? How about that? Or how about not knowing how horrible she's been to you even all these years later? Did I apologize for not realizing until she didn't do something I specifically asked her to do that all the rumors I'd ever heard about her might be more than just a spoiled foal with hurt feelings?" The frustration I'd caught earlier manifested once more, but this time I could tell it was self-directed. Her voice raised in stages with each additional question. "That all the problems I ever had with you were because I wasn't there and I left you with probably the worst possible pony to handle you?"

Having an alicorn yelling an apology in your face is something nopony could get used to, least of all me. My brain went blank as she backed off, sitting down in a chair by the floor to ceiling window overlooking the ballroom. Her mane hid her face, but by the placement of her hooves and the shaking of her shoulders I knew she was crying.

Unbidden, I crossed the room to sit at the foot of her chair, leaning against it slightly. Peering down at the crowd I could see Joe explaining the rather large donut cake to a small crowd of interested ponies. He actually served up a few slices as I watched.

"He's the first pony in a while who really makes me happy. I want to be a better pony around him. Joe likes cinnamon, to an obsessive degree. Only Philomena has him beat on that count." I paused as I heard her allow a small laugh pass her lips.

"I'm glad. It's all I've ever wanted to hear from you. Whatever happens, please let me know what's going on with you and your life. You're my family. I haven't acted like it, but that means so much to me. More than I realized. I let Luna's return, Twilight's training, and so many other things take up my time."

"They were important. Twilight needed to be trained to know how to restore Luna. Cadence was an alicorn nopony expected, with powers in love nopony could have predicted. Equestria needed them."

"You were important, too. I need you."

I shook my head. "I was just some foal you felt sorry for."

She fell silent. My ears perked in her direction as I felt her shift in the chair. "Say that again?"

"I know. I'm not really a prince. You forged a connection to me to justify taking me into the palace. I do appreciate it, even with everything that went wrong."

"My little nephew, tell me Civil didn't fill your head with such lies."

I turned around, incredulous. "I'm not really related to you? What are the odds? Some nopony son of two doctors?"

Celestia's hooves covered her face as she groaned. "You really are my nephew! It sounds made up, but it actually is true!"

I stood up. "What? How?"

She shrugged. "Destiny, fate, the fault in our cutie marks, whatever force you like to blame. I gave up questioning it centuries ago."

As I stood, staring, she cocked her head. "You don't think...not all this time! Oh, Blueblood!" Wings surrounded me first, alarming me and cutting off escape as hooves wrapped around me. Pressed against her warm chest, I took a moment to process that I wasn't under attack. Well, at least not a conventional method of such.

"Let me grab Cadence and Shining. If you don't believe me, there is a spell that proves we share blood." She caressed my mane, which I couldn't even begin to be annoyed by in the mental maelstrom I was in.

"You're really not kidding." I stated.

She took it as a question. "I swear it on the sun, Prince Blueblood. By anything and everything I hold dear."

I'd heard her make this same assurance once before. To an incredulous Twilight Sparkle, who was still not ready to believe that she was taken on as Celestia's personal student. If she would make the same promise now, she had to mean it. "I thought...I-I thought..." I stuttered, my brain too destroyed to even get the thought out properly, let alone be dismayed at my own stutter.

She squeezed me tighter. "I know. I am so sorry. I never thought you doubted it so strongly."

"Why did you kick me out of your house?" I asked, tears scalding my face.

She held me at foreleg's length. "You never defended yourself. I had to hear from Lady Fields' driver later on that she took things so far as to threaten you. His conscience got the better of him because you had turned your life around. I am so sorry that you didn't trust me enough to think I'd treat you fairly. I'm sorry that I ever treated you unfairly. I must have, if I'd lost your confidence in the first place."

This was it. All I'd ever wanted. All I could ever think to ask for to change the relationship between myself and Celestia. I bit my lip until it bled, and only then was I convinced that I wasn't dreaming. I pulled away slowly. She let down her wings and lowered her hooves.

"I love you, Aunt Celestia." As incredible as those words were, my next had a more profound effect. "And I forgive you. For everything. But, in all honesty, everything that happened led me to find somebody like Joe. Things had to get as bad as they could for me to find the best thing in my life. Worse than I ever imagined. But I lived through it. And I came out on the other side in a better place. So don't beat yourself up too much, okay?"

As we embraced again, I whispered. "But you owe me a real vacation, none of this royal appearance shenanigans."

She laughed. "Anyplace you want to go. Anywhere at all."

Turning to look back down at the party, I saw Joe wheel in another donut cake. A rich, chocolate covered one. "Aunt Celestia, how much do you know about stealing cake?"

From the mischievous smile and the flash in her eyes, I knew I had myself a partner in crime. From the sparkles of gold around us both, I could tell that we were teleporting.

We both melded into the shadow of the servant's entrance, our rather abrupt appearance unnoticed. With another flare of gold, Joe's serving knife disappeared from the wheeled trolley he was pushing. As he came to a stop, he looked around for the knife in confusion. A small crowd was forming to be served.

"I think we can make off with a quarter without arousing suspicion." I whispered.

Celestia watched Joe cautiously. "Dearest nephew, those ponies have had quite a banquet. I say we could take at least half. But we need a diversion."

"On it." I said as I strode forward confidently.

"Oh, hey Blue. Hungry? I'm sure you worked up an appetite supervising that memorial."

"My dear, I helped build a memorial."

"Right." He said, his tone betraying his thoughts. "Well, just give me a moment and I'll have the serving knife. Could have sworn I set it on the cart."

I grasped him by his apron front with my magic and pulled him through the crowd and to the dancefloor as the band struck up a familiar tune. "I'm afraid I have quite the appetite, my sweet baker. Tell me, can you tango?"

"Well, I..."

"Don't worry; I'll lead." As the violins sweetly finished the opening to Por Una Cabeza, I teared up and entwined my forelimbs with Joe. I lead him though the beginning tango steps, testing his paces through the first piano run until the song calmed down again. He seemed in his element, so as the piano struck again, I added a few embellishments, some rather naughty hoofwork and backward leaning. I did manage to catch sight of Celestia nabbing the cake. The greedy mare actually stole the entire cart without so much as getting spotted in anypony's peripheral vision. All eyes were on Joe and I.

At the song's end, I left my stallion breathless on the dance floor as I left to have my cake.

Author's Note:

I swear I'm not trying with these word counts. They just end up so close that I figure why not?

Comments

[Jaybird78]

I'm loving this

[Grekoy]

Yes Tango, one of the dances of love!

[Frankie2]

She's fired right?
Tell me, that Civil List got tossed out on her rump, disgraced.

[TheAmazingMe]

8316823
We'll see in the upcoming chapter.

[The Great Derpsby]

Having an alicorn yelling an apology in your face is something nopony could get used to, least of all me.

Wait—she was yelling? Did not see this in what was shown. There was no exclamation point or a description of what she looked like as she spoke. I got a completely different picture while reading.

[CGen]

Por Una Cabeza makes an appearance again. You must really like that song.