Princess Celestia finally has enough of the selfish Prince, but everypony has a story. Can an unlikely special somepony bring out the best in Blueblood? Some flavors clash. Some flavors mingle. Does a bit of sweetness make up for a lifetime of sour?
The lives of the pampered prince and the brash and brawny baker become intertwined thanks to Blueblood's uncanny abilities. Can this donut-doling darling deal with the prideful, persnickety Prince?
(I promise there isn't a ton of Alliteration in the story)
Chapters (36)
Ill keep reading this
A prince and a baker....this I need to track.
I already love it, the world need more Blueblood stories!
6970584 Glad to hear it!
6972579 I thought the concept might catch a few reader's fancy.
6972788 He gets a bum rap from his Canon appearances and being more or less mandated by Hasbro (at least as far as being a prince). I think the idea of Blueblood is underdeveloped. Hence, the story.
6973391 A what?
6975798 there's going to a comic about him and shining armor soon.
Oh, I like this. Joe's cheerful refusal to be pushed away is quite delightful. And I would like to know more about what the prince's problem with Celestia is. At a cursory glance, it looks similar to what happened with Sunset Shimmer's bitter falling out with her before she ran away.
interesting shipping, I am looking forward to see how it will develop as it goes on.
I am divided.
On one hand, I've seen stories where Blueblood is cast out for less than this, and it's refreshing to see he is not being banished for basically being a crappy date.
And the punishment, which is civil service, seems like a relatively positive one. One that, hopefully, will facilitate learning and responsibility and overall be a rather good thing to have done for that time.
On the other hand, he was apparently very rude to his date. He didn't take advantage of her, or hurt her (aside from her feelings) or anything. For this he was going to be punished for a year. That seems like a highly excessive punishment for a single night of being a lout. Six months is still quite a bit of punishment anyway.
so now BB has a reason for fraternize with Joe albeit somewhat forced into it. this is getting interesting.
6999610 The punishment took into account multiple factors.
1) He's had complaints from nobles before.
2) His rudeness to Luna in her own court (while she wouldn't mind personally, Luna has appearances to keep up in court)
3) It was a very old system of punishment.
6999706 I hope to keep your interest!
6976345 I need to look that up
Wow. Joe is smart in this chapter. He's using the alternative punishment to expand his donut business. Brilliant.
Poor Blueblood, He get defeated by a donuts
Haven't read the story yet, but I've got to say something about that title:
BRILLIANT
Interresting to see that BB might be a hypochondriac in some or is OCD clean freak to some degree, which would be very difficult to break him of that problem. The big problem that I have with the story is that I really don't recognize Donut Joe's personalty, in his worrying of BB's episode. In the show, Joe is talk like an new-yorker of Italian descent, he is gruff, loud, a no nonsense type of pony that doesn't worry about the delicate stuff, just a long a it is done, he like to socialize with others and has a guttural laughter to him. I could understand that he get concern for BB, but mothering him with a stain will only make things worst if the cooking suffers for it which is the point of his training, to learn how the commune folk work.
7001378 Fear the jelly donut kamikazes!
7001402 Thank you! To tell the truth, I came up with the title first and thought, 'Hey that'd be great for a Prince Blueblood story. Now who could be the 'J'? ... Ooh, no, that's perfect!"
7001566 Definitely OCD-like, although there are contributing circumstances that made the reaction to the stain so emotional. This all ties in to my headcanon for PB's back story and will be explored as we continue.
As for the portrayal of Joe. I think it's fair to say that he doesn't get a lot of development in the show proper (and I'm completely unfamiliar with the comics, so I'm not drawing from that or any other secondary source). I do agree that Joe's a bit rougher with folk he doesn't know but to me, that tough exterior hides a very good heart. This mindset led to my fancanon that Joe would help homeless ponies and that he would use his favor to help PB. We'll probably still get a little Tough Guy!Joe, but that's not the pony he is around ponies he cares about. To me, at least.
Thank you all for your comments, they really help me think things out that I might not have considered consciously.
7002018 I have a hard time imagining that public persona and his private one is really that different and while I definitely agree that he has an altruistic side to him, he trikes me as more akin to a "bon vivant" attitude, that live life and that he like to indulge in the good things in life and loves to share it with others, always loves to make Joly laughs. I imagine him always on the move, always working hard to serve others, always making shouting encouragement to keep on working hard, always in a up beat attitude hint the love of baking in a very animated stressful environment and he never holds back to way what he feel. I feel that the delicate attitude he had toward BB is a little out of place to me, but seeing that Joe is in love with BB, I don't know if he is showing a this side of him only for him.
7002084 Glad to have your perspective on it. Thank you for commenting!
Damn, that became seriously interesting :)
Mmmm. I have difficulty recognizing a BB personalty, seeing that he is a royal, even if he is a spoiled one, he is also a socialite that knows how to keep a good front in public or to his family and knows how to verbally defend himself of any accusations that are thrown his way and isn't shy in showing his disagreement to any one, he has been raised to be in the public eye and to be order people around. In short, I don't think that the more introverted timid attitude that you are giving him is appropriate in this setting, even if he is in a funk at the moment and the fact that he doesn't stand for himself and protest against Celestia's opinions of him, or at least make excuses, to try talk his way out of his predicament would have been more him like what I would imagine him to act. What sort of personalty are your imagining BB to be? I could understand that he could be intimidated by the Princess authority presents, as both ruler and family member, but he must have be his own person if his interest differs to that of his family.
7020602 Glad to hear that!
7020787 Alas, here we disagree again. In my view, Blue definitely is a consummate courtly player, in Celestia's Court. He doesn't respect Luna's Court the same way, mostly due to arrogance and feeling that he doesn't belong there. His biggest problem, in terms of this story, is that he doesn't know what he wants. He has no plan. That's the story I'm trying to tell here. Would this story fit 100% in with the show? Probably not but that's not my intent.
Honestly, I appreciate your viewpoint but critiquing the characterization, especially as the story unfolds, forces me to tell via comments rather than show via story. I hope to continue to earn your readership and that of others, but if we cannot come to agree to disagree then I understand that we must move on our own ways.
Thank you for your comments, and have a good day!
You are machine AAM. I want a death by chocolate donuts now.
7021132
Well, you don't have to explain the characterization in the comments, if you don't want to....
You could be careful not to write on things you intend to have in the story, and say something like "I hope that I do a good job showing you more about his character" in the comments.
Now that was a more interesting image we get to see the relation between Celestia and BB, How much disgrace did BB do to get on her bad side, to be removed of the court? Okay I have known of senators being kick out abusive expenditures or drunk scandal but A prince is normally harder to do. Still, if BB is was that bad then who the change in attitude all the sodden from him?
7029361 Yeah, I could go for some myself! So good.
7029541 Good idea. I hope that I do a a good job showing you more of these characters.
7030140 Celestia and Blueblood's interactions are going to be increasingly important.
Glad to have your comments! Thanks again.
7030425
Haha maybe not exactly that. Just you don't have to put explanations in the comments if you'd rather the readers wait on the story, especially for things you intend on being clear from the story itself.
If it's not too presumptuous of me... you could also consider, if it looks like people don't entirely understand your characters the way you were trying to write them, to consider what causes your readers to see your characters that way and see if you could be writing it more clearly.
But, even then... it's not like everybody delivering criticism is going to have a good point, and it's up to your own judgement to determine if they are saying something with value, or if it's baseless. Or if it's just a difference in opinion/perspective and nothing needs to be changed.
7030552 Thanks for the advice. Really, this time.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/6/18/7222__safe_image+macro_artist+needed_donut+joe_jimmies.png
The prince is so mad he forgot Joe's tribe!
Anyhow. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree here, but Blueblood's behaviour looks to me like self-sabotage. Like he's internalised a negative image he believes Celestia has of him. And much of it is probably a mechanism to blunt the edges of Celestia's disappointment and anger and the resulting guilt. "She thinks I'm a lost cause anyway, why bother changing anything? She doesn't love me, I'm just a broken tool she gets mad at."
And, well, from all we've seen, it's not entirely undeserved he would think so. Luna and Celestia both go on about how she supposedly loves him, but what has she done to show that as of yet? She abandoned him to Luna's court, like he's some hand-me-down she's grown tired of. And the line about how "he was taught better", that hints at another problem; that one being that he might've had a rather strict, impersonal upbringing. Hay, he can still hear his etiquette teacher in his head, like the time he failed to make donuts right and the pressure drove him to tears.
I really wonder if there was one particular catalyst for their damaged relationship. As it is, I doubt Blueblood would even believe her if Celestia suddenly hugged him and told him everything will be alright. He probably wouldn't trust her. Maybe those teachers who "taught him better" kept moving the goalposts, or something else happened. We'll have to see.
703564 First off, oops. Somehow that slipped up. I hope I didn't do that more than once. (Checking after I post this) EDIT: Yeah, no. Apparently this isn't the first time. I guess I was blind to a rather prominent feature. *shrugs* Fixed now.
Second, wow. No, you are definitely at the right tree.
Thanks for barking at it. 
I think I would have appreciated more of a conversation between Joe and Blue about Blueblood's frustrations, but it's not like I don't know more or less what he's upset about...
... The number of words in every chapter is alarmingly regular.
7036671 I am nothing if not a terrible tease. I assure you this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Also
FINALLY! Eight chapters in and someone finally brings up the word count! I've been waiting for this! Now I can unleash the story of how an accident became a habit! I've picked up the habit of word counts in the hundreds from Crystal who is a bad influence and you should stay away kids (no, actually read her stuff, it's good.) and so the first chapter I finished by rounding up to 1300. Not too long, not terribly short. The next chapter, I ended up around 1300 again. I didn't have more I really wanted to do so 1300 #2 became a thing. Then, writing out chapter three, I started doing it intentionally. Chapters four and five followed (fairly quickly, as I recall) and I saw no reason to break the streak. It was starting to become fun and I wanted people to enjoy the story without dedicating too much time reading it. 7 and 8 have been a little harder because there is so much I want to say but I know I can be wordy if unchecked, By now, I've cut a lot of extraneous stuff out of chapters and it really has helped it flow, in my opinion. Without saying too much, I don't plan on sticking with 1300 for too long, as there's going to be a lot to resolve fairly soon. This story was originally supposed to be about 5 two thousand word chapters and at this point, I'm past that word count.
7036752
Yeah I do see that all your chapters are in 100's of words.
You really think that limiting yourself to this length has helped? Interesting.
I like cinnamon rolls. They're so soft and sugary, but sometimes I called them corsets instead. Don't know why. I guess I like the word.
7036989 Yeah, IMHO it's helped me cut out a lot of overly-detailed bs. This is my opinion, of course.
7037087 Cinnamon rolls are among my favorites. Never heard em called corsets, that's different.
Oh, interesting, Blueblood is a useful it seem :)
If bitches like Civil List were to influence anyone's life only she can blame herself for not coming out as perfect as she likes. Good for blueblood for being mature enough to not let her get to him.
Celestia did not really take care of him :(
Yeah this seems like a likely scenario for "Why Blueblood is a spoiled brat (and possibly emotionally traumatized)": Overly strict tutor plus a mostly-absent Celestia who had no real effect other than to unintentionally reinforce the tutor's attitude, which is somewhere between overly harsh and unpleasable parent.
7052105
7052041
What makes it even worse is that, I believe, what he wanted to show her was his new Cutie Mark.
That... hurts. Especially in light of how Celestia acted around Twilight. And the fact that he doesn't even remember where he got it because he was so busy. It hasn't been a factor yet, but I wonder if it played a part.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/3/6/567691__safe_twilight+sparkle_princess+celestia_sad_hug_prince+blueblood_winghug_jealousy_artist-colon-felixpheonix66.jpeg
Also, yeah, what Civil List and Celestia are together doing is perfect to screw up a child. They really were moving the goalposts. He's supposed to call her princess, then he's not, and if he doesn't know any better, it's his fault.
7052041 As the sole ruler, Celestia didn't really have time for a foal like Blueblood. She wanted to provide a better life for the foal, but really had no clue how to do it and her job at the same time.
7052105 Quite. This dynamic is my own personal headcanon, but it's made sense, to me.
7052236 Well, you're not wrong. We've only really started to dive into the many issues between Celestia and Blueblood. And his relationships with Twilight and Cadence.
Interesting to see how the BB past, so he was an commoner orphan that was adopted into the royal family, for some reason, by Celestia herself and his education was taken charged his tutor and if I am not mistaken Celestia did not concern herself with his wellbeing, I can under stand that BB might have issues with her but I don't understand how he could have ever had any attachment to her, or even concern himself of what she think of him, if Celestia was so distant with him in his upbringing and was address as an authority figure and not as family. I don't get it either why he would feel ashame of his failures to hold the proper comportment of a prince now or why his apparent affection for Joe has any bearing with his statues if royal sisters don't even care ho he fraternize with.
Good to see Blueblood and Luna opening up to each other. It's a start.
You are on a good roll AAM, keep providing our daily? fix.
7052901 Always interesting to get your take on things. Thanks for the comment!
7054489 As the first tentative bud of spring, slowly opens the heart hardened by strife.
7054651 Ha! I make no promises as far as schedules go. With this new word count, we'll see what I can really do.
Just how I like my romantic comedies to start... With whole-minded obsession.
Tsk, tsk, I thought you said you left the filthy ponies behind, hmm?
Really love the imagery here.
Gets the message across loud, clear, and perfect.
What... you mean all the cartoon physics of shaking mud off doesn't work? Lies! All lies and slander!
Ahaha!
"I'm trudging." Love it.
I wouldn't necessarily disagree with this statement...
Oooh... I smell mommy—err, auntie issues!
... Ahahah! I'm going to wear out the rainbow laughing icon at this point! Oh, AAM, you slay me.
Okay, just one more.
I love, love, love your characterization of Blueblood. It thoroughly delights me. The narrative just oozes with his personality! And, well, I don't have a good enough read on Joe yet... but I like what I see already.
Really enjoyed this chapter and I can sum my reaction up in one little statement...
img.pandawhale.com/49659-George-takei-oh-my-gif-stCy.gif
Looks like Blueblood was already over the line by the time that particular conflict with Cadance happened...
It does sound like she succeeded pretty wildly in a way he did not.
... Did... Civil already say that deciding to heal Blueblood was inappropriate?
I mean... There's something to be said about someone who can be caring but harsh, or someone who has to be very politically careful but... seems like a bit of a red flag.
7084721 Inappropriate for the Princess to do it herself, not for it to be done at all. Either way, Celestia wasn't having it that day.
7084855
Heh. I'm more referring to the idea that saying "oh... we should not help this child it would be improprietous" would be a slight red flag to giving the person that said it primary care of said child. Especially when this was the first significant thing they said about that child.
The "but..." comes from the idea that... it would actually be a somewhat compelling story, to have the heart-hardened political adviser learn to care for a poor orphan child.
But that might still be a pretty bad idea! And this story it hardly went well.
Is this an April fools chapter or the real thing? I thought it was an April fools chapter when the other stallion shared the same description as Life and Life was capitalized too. Either that or a crossover.