• Published 2nd Aug 2020
  • 9,360 Views, 857 Comments

Blueblooded Bluebell - David Silver



That Prince Blueblood treats mares terribly. Luna takes matters into her own hoof to teach him a lesson, but it is she that learns something instead.

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1 - Course Correction

With the sound of wet mud, a mare landed face-first into a swampy circle. Blueblood had not assisted her across it. In fact, she felt increasingly certain as she rose up, mud running down across her fur and clothing, that he had put out a hoof to trip her. "Why, I never!" she shouted at the rude little prince. "What kind of prince are you?"

"The sort with things to do." He trotted past her as if she were not even worth the time to care about any further. He kept his ears erect and directed ahead despite her angry tirade behind him. She didn't chase him, and that was a little victory. "Little gold digger," he grunted under his voice. Another mare that saw an easy life and quick access to mountains of bits, if only they could get his attention. "I'm not for sale..."

A face withdrew around the corner, its dark-furred face creased in a small frown. "How rude," spoke Luna to herself, considering things. "Perhaps this is something I can assist with." She couldn't just arrest him. Poor attitude or not, he was royalty. Her sister would be quite cross with her if she started throwing them in jail or otherwise marching up on them in the hallways.

But she didn't need to ever see him, physically, to perhaps give him a taste of his own medicine. A wicked little smile spread as she trotted off. "This should be entertaining."

Finding his dream, later, wasn't that terribly difficult. It helped that he slumbered not far from her. She knew his face, his voice, and the way he walked. She knew him, at least on a surface level. She had not had many deep conversations with the prince, but the knowledge was enough to allow her to hop from bubble to bubble and land directly on the soapy surface that held his.

It was not dark or tense. There were no nightmares there. That was just as well. She might have felt bad, making any nightmare worse. That was the opposite of her usual job! Bad enough she planned to give him a dream to remember...

With a glowing horn, she seeped into the bubble, influencing it as she became part of it.


He awoke in his bed with a soft yawn and languid stretch as he threw his hooves off the side and rolled upright to the floor. He stepped slowly towards the waiting mirror to gaze upon his...

The brush he had been holding fell to the ground with a clatter, the fine bone piece making a sharp echo against the stone as Blueblood stared wide eyed at the reflection.

There, in the mirror, was a mare, looking back at him with equal shock.

Luna smiled from nowhere. She had no body at that moment, being the orchestrator of the dream and not taking a role. Her lack of a body allowed her to witness it all, as if she were everywhere at once. It was a curious sensation, helped that dream perceptions tended to focus sharply on the dreamer and not much further than that.

It was time for him to wail.

"It's..." Blueblood reached out a quivering hoof, touching themself through the mirror. "I'm pretty."

Luna blinked despite having no eyes.

"No more mares chasing after me." She turned in place with a giddy little giggle escaping her. She began to prance in place. "My voice is so high. I like it." She raised her snout high and began to sing. As a royal, she had taken lessons in doing it, but her pitch was so different as a mare. And she liked that too.

She turned suddenly and clopped a hoof to the ground. "I am Bluebelle!" she announced to the universe as if she could etch it into the very stone of reality if she said it loud and firmly enough. "I am perfect." Tears were escaping her and the dream began to dissolve. Emotions were running too high, and the bubble would pop soon. On some distant level, she knew it was a dream, and that was, somehow, the nightmare, not the dream Luna had created.

Luna was thrown clear as it ended. Blueblood had woken up, leaving her dizzy from the expulsion. "What was that?" She had misjudged his motivations. "This bears further investigation."


"He used to be such a nice little colt," reported an older maid. "Such a bright smile he had." She nodded mostly to herself. "That little fire seemed to dim over the years, a real shame too."

Luna inclined her head. "I see... Did anything cause that?" She lifted a hoof to tilt it. "Something at the start?"

"Well, no..." The older mare frowned with thought. "There was one time he asked Princess Celestia about something. I don't think he got what he was looking for. There was some shouting, and he never brought up whatever it was ever again." She lifted her shoulders. "I don't know what they were talking about."

"Thank you, for your time." Luna couldn't think of what else to ask, but it was still information. She felt closer to her goal. But could she ask her sister about that? Would she be seen as needlessly meddling?

She just had to be subtle! "Sister." She slid in alongside Celestia as she trotted down the hallway. "Have you a moment?"

"Luna? I thought you'd be asleep." Celestia swiveled an ear on her sister. "Not that it is bad to see you."

"I should be," admitted Luna. "Just a little question. A tiny thing. You know Blueblood, do you not?"

"A distant nephew," reported Celestia with a practiced smile. "What of him?"

"Did he ever ask for something you didn't want to give him?" That wasn't as subtle as she had desired, but she wasn't sure how else to phrase that. "In theory." Perfect.

Celestia arched a brow high. "Not for many years. He, thankfully, put that well behind himself. Why?"

Luna leaned in, curiosity building. "Good to hear he's grown past that. What was it?"

Celestia rolled her eyes. "He was sniffing after how Cadance became an alicorn. Don't think too ill of him, I know he can be a bit... conceited, and that is exactly why he would make a terrible alicorn, to speak nothing of the fact that alicorns are mares." She huffed and smiled. "I imagine he thought he could work around that somehow, become a proper Prince Blueblood."

Luna laughed, fake and hollow. "Oh yes, quite absurd. He set aside that goal?"

Celestia looped around in front of Luna, cutting her off. "I gave him quite the talking to. He only brought it up once, thankfully. Now, sister mine, I love you dearly, but I was on the way to the little filly's room."

Luna's cheeks darkened red. "Oh! Well, don't let me stand in your way." It was a fine excuse to end the conversation. She let Celestia go off to handle her business. She had a hint, a little hint.

There was really only one specific place she could go to.


Blueblood emerged from his room, ready to tackle the day. What he didn't expect was an exhausted-looking Princess Luna closing in on him.

"Blueblood, have you a moment?" asked Luna, yawning even as she spoke.

"Luna... you look quite tired."

Luna smiled at that. And they said he had no empathy. "I am, but I have enough energy for a little conversation. If you have the time?"

Blueblood stepped to the left, but Luna stepped with him. He tried to the right, but she kept in front of him. "Uh... it would seem I have little choice in the matter." He inclined an ear at her. "What's on your mind, Princess?"

Luna pointed past him, back into his room. "A private affair."

"Oh, certainly." He turned around and walked back inside. "I admit, you being here is a little... confusing."

Confusing enough to brush off some of that brusque attitude, Luna noticed. She stepped inside, her magic closing the door behind her. "Prince Blueblood, did you want to become a princess?" she asked with all the subtlety of a train.

Blueblood went as stiff as a board. "Who said that?!" he spat out in fiery denial.

"You asked Celestia once," reminded Luna. "Speak the truth. I will not judge you this day." Well, sure, she'd already been judging him quite a bit, though she was unsure of how all the pieces came together.

He turned to face her directly. "I don't care about being a princess."

"And yet..." she had to pause her statement for a thundering yawn. "You would have been... fine with being a mare?"

His face began to go dark. It suddenly clicked. "You saw it! You were snooping on my dreams!" He raised a hoof to his face. "You were only supposed to come in nightmares. That was private! Get out! Vile mare, you can't even let me have my privacy!"

"Be at peace," she hastily demanded, raising a hoof, flat towards him. "I would know more, not mock you."

"What is it you want from me?" He threw his head, mane flipping in the motion. "You're already royalty."

"That I am," she allowed. "Though I am unsure how that matters." She thrust a hoof at him. "Speak plainly."

He threw up a hoof with as much force as she had pointed. "So you can mock me? A prince does not tolerate that." He turned partially away, nose up.

"But a princess?" She stepped towards him, metal shoes tapping on the floor with her small steps.

"I am not one of those," he said a bit more quietly. He peeked over his shoulder to see the tired, but interested, Luna. She didn't seem to be throwing scorn at him. "You are a capable magic user, are you not?"

"Perhaps not as widely knowledgeable as Twilight Sparkle," admitted Luna. "But practiced, yes. Why?"

"Ugh." Twilight Sparkle... "That makes two." He turned towards Luna. "Can you turn a stallion into a mare?" His eyes darted to the left. "If you had to. As a punishment, perhaps?"

"That is a spell that exists..." she admitted. "But it is dreadfully..." She paused to let a yawn escape, shaking herself out. "complex and difficult."

His ears sagged. "Of course, it would be..."

"The most I could offer was a temporary thing." She inclined her head. "A few hours, a day on the outside?"

His expression brightened, hope emerging. "Would you?! I mean... that could be long enough to teach a criminal a lesson, perhaps?"

Luna smiled gently at the stallion that was about as subtle as she was. "That would not do what you're hoping for... but..." She tried in vain to fight the yawn within her. "Damn it all, I am... quite tired. Can we talk, more, later?" She inclined her head. "Perhaps if you could stay up a little, and speak as the sun sets? We have words to exchange, I feel."

"Oh, yes, of course." He reached up to straighten his clothing with fusses of a hoof. "Go on then. Sleep well, Aunt."

Luna's ears perked up. Of course, if he was Celestia's nephew, so too was he hers. "Have a good day, nephew." She started to turn and stopped. "I do have one small request?"

His brows fell and his body tensed. There was the time for a mare to make unreasonable demands. "What is it?"

"No making mares mad today." She finished her turn and began to walk out. "Just one day if you please."

"I can be polite!" he hotly refuted, but it didn't stop her from leaving. He willed the door closed behind her and let out a loud breath. With loud steps and quivering legs, he trotted up to the mirror in his room.

He could imagine that other version of himself, smiling at him, so happy and confident. Was Luna a potential way to reach it, or was she just another mare that would torture him? He reached out a hoof to rest on the glass, but Bluebelle wasn't there. Just Prince Blueblood, looking sad.

He scowled at the mopey prince. "This is not proper." He groomed himself back into condition and trotted out to meet the day. He had things to do!


Later that day, Celestia stepped into his room. He wasn't there, she knew that. She looked around suspiciously. "You did drop that... Hmm?" She pulled with her magic, casually turning some books around and lifting magazines, snooping about carefully.

There were no hints of anything but a prissy prince that kept on top of recent trends. And some romance novels? It was as shallow as her nephew had become. She turned and trotted out, shaking her head. "Not as bad as I had feared." Luna's words were reason for wondering.


A firm clopping knock awoke her. Luna sat up with a yawn and turned her eyes to her clock. It was about time to wake up, at least. "Who is it?" she called as she slipped from bed and got to rearranging herself.

"'Tis I, Auntie."

She raised an ear, confused a moment before it clicked. "Ah, Blueblood. One moment." She stepped into her shoes and finished getting at least reasonable presentable before approaching the door, her magic drawing it open. "Enter."

"Allow me to be perfectly blunt." He stepped inside, his magic closing the door. "If you mean to tease me, I won't have it." He turned up his snoot at her. "I am not here to be ridiculed."

"I am a guardian of dreams." She inclined her head at him. "I've seen stranger than yours, and speak naught of them. I did not summon you here to make jests. I could very well do that without you present." She pointed at hoof at him. "Now, do you wish to speak, or posture?"

"Prove it," he challenged. "Show me you can do it."

Luna let out a little huff. "A simple request. Very well, behold my magic." Her magic began to glow brightly from her horn as she wrapped it around him, enacting the spell she had refreshed herself on earlier in the day. "And be changed."

He lifted into the air, hooves flailing a bit, in worry perhaps? There was a burning silvery glow around him as his broad features slimmed. His little noises raised in pitch, then he... she, began to giggle. "Oh, you can do it!" she flicked her tail, held in the magic that was reshaping her. "Yes, this was the spell I was asking about. Now, how long--"

The magic suddenly flickered away. He hit the ground roughly, the magic gone, his form as he was born to. Luna had a hoof to her head, frowning and rubbing at a seeming headache. "What happened?" he demand as he scrambled to his hooves. "You can move the moon! This should be like foal's play!"

"The moon is my purpose," she hissed, pointing back at her rump. "This spell is not. It was even more complicated than I feared. You are lucky it did not go... poorly." She looked him over, but everything seemed to be in the right place, if one ignored that he was a he when the goal was a she. "Do you feel alright?"

"No," he spat out. He had meant for it to be a hot and fiery denial, but it was more of a sullen whisper.

Luna's magic wrapped around him, but it only drew him closer. She put a wing over him. "I apologize that I could not be an easy answer for you. But I have other ideas."

He perked at that. "Other ideas? You... had been thinking of this?" He glanced away and back. "Why are you helping me? What do you get from this?"

"Not a thing but lost sleep," she huffed with a little smile. "Sister dear worries over the big picture. I fuss over one little pony at a time. Will you accept my doting?"

"What do I need to do then?" He stood up tall. "If you are being honest, and wish me well."

"I do, and I am." She shook her head. "I have duties, as do we all. I will visit you again, in your sleep. I trust you permit this?" When he nodded, she pointed past him. "Begone, for now. We will speak more."


She came upon his dreams. Blueblood was already Bluebelle. "Hello, princess," spoke a guard, nodding respectfully as Bluebelle trotted past, a happy little smile on her upturned nose. Luna followed, just watching.

"Time to gussy up," called a maid, waving Bluebelle aside. Bluebelle entered a private room and sat down on a big pillow. The maid went right to work, curling her lashes and dashing makeup on her facial fur and generally doting on her to make her a pretty princess. Bluebelle accepted it all without a noise of complaint.

Luna remembered her own plans. She had thought Blueblood would be whining and fighting such treatment, a dash of a mare's life.

Bluebelle looked into a floating mirror to behold her freshened appearance. "You've performed admirably," she cooed in compliment. She stood up, her magic flicking a coin at the maid. "Get yourself something nice." The maid dipped her head and trotted away with the tip.

"Princess Bluebelle." Luna and Bluebelle both looked to a pony that was suddenly there in a fit of dream logic. There was Shining Armor, somehow larger and more handsome in the lens of the dream. "You're looking good today."

"How kind of you to notice, Captain." Luna inclined the head she didn't have at that moment. Shining Armor was still a captain in that dream? "Would you care to go for a little walk?"

"It would be an honor, princess. Perhaps a loop around the gardens?" Shining pointed the way and Bluebelle tittered, the two walking off to have a pleasant little loop around the courtyard garden.

Luna slipped away, more questions than answers received in what she had seen. She had other dreams to patrol.


Blueblood entered her room, stance formal and rigid. "You called, Auntie?"

Luna smiled gently. "I think my sister was wrong."

Blueblood blinked rapidly at that. "In what way? I thought you two saw eye to eye on most matters."

Luna snorted with raising laughter. "Oh, you know us so little it seems." Luna raised a hoof to her chest. "We are at odds with one another quite often. We do not always agree by half. I think you were right. At least attempting to learn how to be what you want to be is the right course of action.

She pointed at him. "Celestia scared you away from it, but you are not seeking power, are you?"

Blueblood inclined his head with clear confusion. "I'm already royalty. What more power could I ask for?"

Luna booped him, pressing her metal-clad hoof to his snout. "Your words encourage me. There is a forbidden wing, normally only allowed visitation by a select few." She withdrew her hoof to reach into her fur and draw out a token. "Such as those holding this."

The glow around the token shifted as Blueblood took hold of it. "What do you mean for me to do with this?"

"Study." Luna nodded firmly. "Learn, and find your answer. I am too occupied to perform such exhaustive research. But, this I can do. Enter the forbidden wing and learn the magic you need. You made quite the face when last I mentioned her, but know that Twilight Sparkle could manage this. You can't let that upstart new-royal show up a proper born royal, now can you?"

The play to pride was an instant success, his stance going tight. "No! Of course not. If she can learn such a spell, there's no way I cannot." He brought down a hoof with a loud clop. "Does she know this spell?"

"She knows it exists," allowed Luna. "But even she admitted it was beyond her. Perfect this and you prove you are better at magic than a commoner who thinks their cutie mark makes the difference."

"Oh, jolly good! Auntie, dear, you have proven me false." He nodded firmly. "Your head is put on quite straight. Thank you!" He suddenly stepped in and put an arm around her, hugging her. It was a light exchange, barely more than touching her with the arm. "I will take full advantage of your generosity."

"One thing. The token will allow you inside, but if Celestia sees you in there, she will raise uncomfortable questions. Take what you wish to read and study it elsewhere." Luna trailed paths with her right hoof to emphasize. "You don't want sister dear ruining your plan before it even begins."

"Too right." Blueblood nodded as he turned. "I will waste no time!" He charged right out of her room, only to poke his head right back into her room. "Where is this library?"

Luna barely restrained a chuckle as she described how to reach it. "Good luck."

"I need not luck!" And off her went, striding with full determination.

Luna resumed her business, feeling confident that Blueblood would try his best. Maybe he'd even succeed! Wouldn't that be lovely... "I never had a niece..." Though, as she thought of it, she likely did have some of those, but never really met them and talked to them. Cadance was an adoptive niece, did that count?

Luna shook her head softly. "No, get your head down from the clouds." And she got back to work.


"Auntie!" Cadance smiled at the image of Celestia. "Always a delight to see you. What brings you this way?"

"Do you remember Blueblood?"

"Prince Blueblood," scoffed Cadance with a little frown that eased away quickly. "What's that braggart up to now? Did he get into trouble?"

"No." At least none that she had been able to find. "I was trying to figure him out. I looked around his room--"

"Auntie!" Cadance frowned at her elder princess. "That was rude."

"I didn't find anything of note other than some romance books."

Cadance's face brightened. "Now we're talking. What kind of romance books?"

Confusion played over Celestia's normally careful features. "I confess I hadn't studied them much. Why does that matter?"

"Auntie!" Cadance waved at the image she was speaking to. "First you charge into his personal space, then you ignore obvious clues? The romance books a pony decides to read can tell you so much about them." She leaned in on the image, making her own face become much larger in Celestia's view. "Tell me you remember a title or two. This is of vital importance!"

"The Maiden of Halboney Estate," quoted Celestia slowly. "I remember that one."

"Ooo." Cadance sat back, clapping her hooves together. "A tender romance, about a mare who comes out of her shell and finds true love. Classic, just classic... But not one I'd imagine a stallion would be that interested in, more of a mare story really." She inclined her head faintly. "What a sweetie!" she suddenly gushed. "No wonder he's so snippy. He wants a soft and delicate mare, not one of the usual noble ones with their noses up in the air! This requires further research..."

"Cadance, I didn't..." But it was too late, Cadance was gone, likely already making plans to come visit. "Niece..." Celestia shook her head, but also stood up, the image fading. There was little she could do to stop Cadance at that point. She was a princess of shipping, and trying to get in the way of a ship got one run right over.

"Maybe it's for the best..." She envisioned Blueblood with a mare he treated well for a change. A little smile spread on her face. "That would be nice... Cadance, I hope you know what you're doing."

Author's Note:

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