5 - Good Friends
"Pardon." Sassy inclined her head at Fancy. "You're friends with Blueblood, I hear?"
"We do move in the same circles," he agreed warilly. "What brings him up?" He eyed the fashion-minded mare. A friend of Rarity, an employee more precisely. He knew that much.
"Oh, just peers?" She was already turning away. "Put a pin in that then. Sorry for both--"
He set a hoof on her shoulder. "Hold yourself, madame. We are friends, yes."
She glanced over her shoulder, the rest of her turning to face him again. "Well, he came by the store the other day." She sat down and began tapping her hooves nervously. "He did end up with a sizable order in the end, I appreciate that, but--"
"But...?" He could see there was more, though Sassy Saddles was not getting to the point. "Go on."
"The first time he visited, he put on a dress." She rolled an ear back. "He was trying to be subtle, but a stallion goes into a changing room with a dress and it's stretched afterwards... Not a lot of other explanations for the event. Now... I'm not here to judge him, I assure--"
"--But you came to me." Fancy inclined an ear. "A curious choice."
"Well..." Sassy danced in place skittishly. "I only know two reasons a stallion would do that. Either they just like the look or feel of a dress, and that's fine. Or..."
"Or they hold some fantasy of fitting the dress," proposed Fancy, a brow raising. "How... interesting. I will handle this with the utmost of care."
Sassy let out a breath. "Oh, good... I was worried I'd messed up. I don't mean to get him in any amount of trouble. I just thought maybe a friend of his could learn more, maybe lend a hoof? I know he has a spotty record with Rarity--" Fancy chuckled at that, but she went on, "but he deserves support, like any pony."
"I will do my best," he assured. "Poor chap... Or perhaps not chap? I will attempt to discern. Whatever the case, We are friends, and I will not let this stand."
"You have mastered another symbol," half sang his tutor and maid. Her form shimmered with heat, his room tidying itself as she spoke to him, proving she was a proper maid. "How does it feel? You are now more talented in magic than most unicorns yet living."
"But that's barely a hoof full," countered Blueblood. "How close am I to casting the spell I seek to master?"
The book with the mare and stallion spells floated over and she waved a hoof over it, flipping the pages without contact. "Mmm, oh, oh! Well, this is much more complicated... We'll be here a while..." She pointed to a new symbol. "This is a master symbol."
Blueblood squinted at the squiggle on the page. "Knowing it means you are a master of magic?"
"Knowing it requires you be a master of magic," she corrected. "It will be among the last we attempt. The contortions you will have to make to form it may break you if we skipped to it." A wicked smile spread on her lips. "As amusing as it would be to see you try..."
Part of him wanted to challenge her, to try it anyway! "Let us proceed in a stately affair. From the bottom up." He put a hoof even with the bed he was laying on and raised it slowly. "I will master this, in due time."
"A shockingly mature reply."
"I am mature," he huffed, tail thrashing behind him. "The nerve..." As tutors went, she was quite the test of patience at times. "Let us proceed."
"Gentle." He gestured to a chair. "Thank you for coming."
She hopped up onto the chair and sat on her haunches. "How could I say no? Fancy Pants, you're... a pony of import."
"That is not how I wish to approach you today." He took a seat across from her. "But as a friend, with another friend in common."
"Another... Prince Blueblood?" she ventured, inclining her head. "He is a peach. I still... get the giggles looking at that wonderful dress he got for me."
"Quite lovely," agreed Fancy, though his mind was not on how lovely or not Gentle Mare looked in that dress, instead imagining Blueblood squeezed into it. "In your time with Blueblood, has he seemed... masculine, or feminine? I ask as a friend."
She blinked slowly, trying to parse the question. "Why, he's a stallion, of course, but... he's also a noble, so... he's... He's gentler than many stallions I've known, but you do that too." She stuck out her tongue a little. "That doesn't make either of you a mare. Just gentle stallions who I feel privileged to know and be welcomed by." Her horn glowed as she took up a little biscuit and nibbled gently at. "Getting better at that."
"You are," he agreed with a small smile, seeing she was nipping at the treat in a way as to minimize the crumbs created. "You're a quick learner. Thank you." It wasn't as enlightening as he hoped. Gentle Mare was not standing in the right place to know what he sought to learn. "We should have tea more often."
"Blueblood, chap." Fancy waved away his cloud of other ponies. "Have you a moment?"
"For you, always." Blueblood's ears quivered towards the playing philharmonic that was in the background. "Hm, they're really out in force today."
"They've turned a corner with Octavia Melody taking the lead position she has," he gently agreed. "But I would speak about you, not them."
"Me?" Blueblood turned a hoof at himself. "Is something out of place?" He floated over a mirror to quickly examine himself, but everything was where it should be. He was a picture perfect prince of a pony!
Fancy gently nudged Blueblood away from the center of things, his voice lowering. "I just wanted to talk of something a bit... delicate." He cleared his throat. "Allow me to start with a supporting few words."
"Supporting?" Blueblood raised a brow. "You've been quite supportive as far as I've known you." His eyes rolled. "Though you are a bit defensive of that mare, about the only complaint I have. Whatever do you mean?"
"This isn't about her," he assured with a little smile. He glanced about, ensuring no other ponies were close enough to snoop. "Now, this is entirely between you and I, and I am not here to scold, but... How did that dress feel, when you put it on?"
The party progressed around them. A new song began, something that caused ponies to begin pairing up to dance. Fleur trotted over, clearly ready to join them.
"Not now," he gently dissuaded. "I'm having a conversation." She pouted, but moved on. "Sisters, am I right?" He looked back to Blueblood who was still entirely silent. "Chap?" Still silent. "I'm not here to make light of things."
"How?" Blueblood suddenly spat, fighting tremendously against the blush that was trying to rise into view.
"Unimportant. I ask as a friend."
"Not here." Blueblood glanced around wildly, then fled in as stately a fashion as he could muster, walking off stiffly but hurriedly.
Soon they were in a side room, nopony there but the two of them. "Now, really." Fancy raised a hoof to his chest. "Be honest. I've yet to demean you and don't plan to begin now."
"Easy for you to say." With a loud click, he turned the lock to the door to the room closed. "Now, be clear, how do you know about that?"
"You're not contesting it," noted Fancy with a patient smile. "Now, if you could kindly answer my question? I did ask it first, did I not?"
Blueblood sank to his belly. "You'll laugh..."
"I swear." He raised a hoof up. "Not a titter will escape me. You have my word."
Blueblood looked up at him from his prone position. "You swear?" Fancy nodded and Blueblood heaved out a soft sigh, flopping over in a most unseemly display. "Fancy, you have long been the model of a noble stallion, no, possibly even a royal stallion." There was a difference between the two. "Proud, strong, soft-spoken, but firm. Never afraid to have your own opinion even as you rest your hoof on the pulsing life of the social circles you strode in, always so confident..."
"You flatter me." His smile deepened a little, not immune to a little flattery. "But how does that answer the query?"
"I'm not that," he squeaked out. "I'm... not close to that..." Tears began to well up in his eyes. "I tried for so long to ignore it, but as royal stallions go, I am a pale imitation! Maybe Rarity was right to look down on me as she had." He buried his face in his hooves, quivering with released feelings.
Fancy sat beside Blueblood, gently running a hoof over his friend's withers. "Now now, don't be like that. You've been growing quite admirably of late. I hadn't mentioned it, and perhaps I should have. I am not perfect, chap, nopony is. Even Princess Celestia, as wonderful as she is, makes errors from time to time."
Blueblood suddenly sat up on his haunches, tears staining his snout. "When I put it on, I felt... good."
"Good?" Suddenly they were back on target.
"I imagined myself... fitting." His horn glowed, drawing out the mirror. "I imagined the Lady I could be, instead of the Lord I was. She would... be the belle of the ball." He smiled awkwardly, admitting everything. "And now you think I'm a ponce of a stallion."
"Stand up, I must insist." Fancy offered a hoof. "Now, believe it or not..." He paused as Blueblood leaned against the offered hoof, rising up. "I have met stallions and mares that have gazed to the other side of that divide and wondered if they weren't put on the wrong end through no fault of their own." He raised an ear. "Imagine if we had to select for ourselves? Fancy that.... But that is not how it is. It is decided for us, by fate, fortune, destiny? Whatever you wish to call it." He chuckled softly. "I could have been Frilled Skirts instead. I can scarcely imagine it."
Blueblood chuckled at the vision, interfered with by a sniffle. "Oh, I'm quite the mess. Terribly sorry, you didn't come to this function to watch me come apart."
"Actually..." Fancy leaned in. "I only came to this one because I knew you'd be here. I figured I could get you to talk."
Blueblood licked over his lips, quiet a moment. "You've... been thinking about me? Fancy, I don't deserve you." He turned away, ears sagging. "And I was ready to shout you away."
Fancy came up beside Blueblood, setting a leg over him and delivering a gentle hug. "Now now, it's all out in the open. Let us be friends, as we've been for a number of years. Now... if you wish to dress as a mare and be called a mare, well, I will oblige you." He lifted an ear. "I feel certain you would only do it if it properly fit you."
Blueblood began to darken in his cheeks rapidly. "Wait! But... I wouldn't be a mare. Why would you play along with such an obvious deceit?"
Fancy removed his leg to turn that hoof to himself. "If a pony is a mare, on the inside, what is on the outside matters quite a bit less. To ignore that is just to be rude. We are friends, are we not? What manner of friend could I call myself if I ignored such a simple request?"
Blueblood sagged against the nearest wall. "That simple? But... what if I actually was a mare?"
Fancy smiled a little. "We would need to be introduced again, I should imagine in either event, but I would hazard we would get along just as famously." He raised a brow. "Perhaps I could take you as my +1 instead of Fleur, teach her not to rely on her brother to fill the role forever."
Blueblood laughed at that, a strained but genuine sound. "One day you will reveal to me why she is so comfortable with that? Most sisters I know are not so eager to hang off their brothers."
"She is a model," he advised. "Without me as a shield, she is approached by all manner of pony hoping to earn her eyes and approval." He raised his brows. "Were you a mare, I imagine much the same would happen to you."
Blueblood darkened at that. "Stop that... you're just saying that."
"I do not 'just say' things, chap. You know that." He lifted his nose with a little huff. "You have a royal figure. I doubt that would change. A royal mare with the cut of a royal will draw eyes, of this I hold little doubt. But, let us not talk of impossibilities. You are a stallion, on the outside. I brought you aside to speak of what's on the inside." He reached out, tapping Blueblood on the chest. "I would rather be straight with that part of you."
"But what if... it isn't?" Blueblood glanced away and back. "Were I princess Blueblood?"
"Then I would be friends with a princess," concluded Fancy easily. "And I would not stand for anypony else arguing the matter, whether or not your inside and outside matched."
"Yes, yes, I get that." Blueblood smiled awkwardly, shuffling in place. "And I do appreciate your solidarity, truly, I do. You are a dear and true friend." He backed up a step and flopped to his haunches. "We are unicorns."
"Can't argue that." Fancy raised a brow. "And?"
"Unicorns can use magic..." Blueblood brought his fore hooves together lightly. "There are spells to do the impossible, Fancy..."
"I'm no wizard," started Fancy in an admitting tone. "But such a spell is quite above an amateur level. Do you intend to get Princess Twilight to assist?"
"No!" he blurted, his blush growing fierce a moment as he went silent, speaking in a much more reserved tone, "I will not let anypony else do this for me. I am learning... myself."
Fancy's hoof touched Blueblood's stiff shoulder. "Well, good. I never fancied you to be one to learn such a rigorous thing as such advanced spellcasting. Is it going well?"
Blueblood could not believe what he was hearing. "Just like that? Good? How is it going?" He stood up, staring at Fancy Pants. "I'm learning a forbidden spell to defy the natural order and you say 'good'?"
"Is it not good?" asked Fancy, tail flicking behind him. "You have a wish, and you mean to grasp it between your hooves. Good! I am glad to hear my friend is taking matters under their own control and are striding forward to address it. Now, to me, the question is, do I call you a lady or a lord?"
Blueblood threw his hooves wide. "You are being too understanding by half! My jealousy of you grows uncomfortably quickly. How do you manage to be so perfect?"
"I blame it on my mother." Fancy smiled smoothly, face even, neither up nor down. "Now, come, let's get you cleaned up and rejoin the festivities before they begin to whisper about us."
"Oh, yes... yes..." He hurried to fetch some napkins. Soon they would trot out and blend into the social tapestry as if nothing important had happened at all.
"I never answered him." He sat beside his bed. His tutor was on the bed, watching him.
"What didn't you answer about?" she asked, sounding mildly curious. "This is your friend, right?"
"Fancy Pants," Blueblood reminded. "He asked if I was to be addressed as a lady or a lord."
The imp mare rolled a hoof. "Alright, well, he's not here, just me. So tell me instead. Are you a lady, or a lord?" She rolled over slowly. "You're a lord from this angle."
"I'm a lord from any angle you choose," he huffed. "I... just could choose to change that..."
"Doubt that's what your friend meant."
"What do you mean?" He stood up, glaring at Miss Paradox. "You haven't even met him and already you insist you know him better than I?"
"Duh," she half-laughed out. "He wants to know what you want, and he's nice enough to give it to you, even if you never finish the spell. Real nice guy." Her eyes flashed with thoughts of how to corrupt such an innocent soul. "So, what do you want, besides learning magic?"
She rolled and hung her hooves off the side of the bed, clopping them together. "Pow, you can cast the spell. Do you?" She smirked viciously. "Maybe you wait until you have the stallion spell worked out too, so you can switch back and forth, whenever the mood strikes... Play both sides of the field, get a paramor of either lined up. Oh, what a life you could lead."
Her laughter did little to calm his nerves. "I should think not. That is not proper decorum in the slightest." He directed a hoof at himself. "I will choose and I will abide by that selection. Besides." He huffed as he turned half away. "Imagine the stationary costs of constantly changing lady and lord?"
"So... Lord Blueblood, or Lady Bluebelle, is it?" She leaned off the bed, almost falling free, a big grin on her face. "How lovely. So which side are you on?"
"I have not made that decision." He crossed his arms on his chest. "And we appear to be wasting study time."
"Oh, you want to suffer some more? That's fine by me too." She drew herself back up onto the bed fully on her haunches, a book floating over to flop before Blueblood. "Pop quiz!" She said word that was not usually said out loud, a strange noise. In his mind, he could see the symbol she was referring to. "Go."
His horn glowed with the rune of power. "This one."
"Oh ho, have you been practicing? This one." She spoke another word in a language not known, and somehow still clear to him. She made him show off each of the symbols that had run through in turn. "Good, good... At least you're serious about this. Let's tackle a new one." She thrust a hoof down to the open book. "Third line, fourth character."
His eyes swept over the book quickly, finding the mystery character. "It looks like an infinity?"
"Good eye," she sang, hooves pedalling in the air, her back to the bed. "That symbol can make a lot of trouble, or power your dreams. Or both! Either way, time to learn it." The lessons continued, not at all helping him decide his gender identity, but becoming a more practiced spellcaster pleased him. He would prove he could do more than just be a prince, as lovely as that was.
Gentle Mare tipped to the left and right before turning likewise, displaying her clothing off with a little smile. "Is it as good as the other? It seems lovely!"
"That was my question for you," argued Blueblood. "Your first is just fine, but it is becoming fall, and wearing the same fashion between seasons is noticed, unkindly."
"You poor thing." She turned towards him. "Why are they always judging you?!" She thrust a hoof at him. "Even your friend started asking about you. It's unfair. You are a lovely royal that deserves respect, not staring eyes."
Blueblood inclined his head faintly. "My friend?"
"Fancy Pants? He seemed so nice at first, but then he asked me rather pointed questions about you." She sat and crossed her arms. "About you. I felt like he was digging for gossip and I didn't like it at all."
"Oh... no. No no, he's...." Blueblood let out a slow breath, considering how to answer that. "He is a dear and long friend, and he was worried for me, not making trouble, I assure."
"Are you certain?" She rose back up and did a turn in place. "It does look nice! Really, asking if you were mare-like. Of course you are, in some ways. But that's because you are a proper stallion." She looked over her shoulder at him. "You respect other ponies, you aren't trying to show off. You are well mannered and lovely and I adore you."
His cheeks warmed. "Adore me?"
She returned the expression swiftly. "Sorry! I meant... I very much appreciate it. You are perfect." She nodded firmly. "Neither too much mare nor too much stallion, as if there was such a thing." She mused on that. "Well, if you were too entranced by physical competitions and spent your days honing your body, that would... be less attractive, I suppose," she admitted. "That is not a stallion trait I admire."
That only rose questions. "What is a stallion trait I have that you do admire?"
"Oh, hmmm." She raised a hoof to her chin, considering it. "You see what you want and you go for it. You worry less about other's opinions and simply make it so. You're not rude about it, but you don't let it hold you back either. I appreciate that." She pointed to herself. "Like me! I didn't know what to do. I was so lost, but you insisted and you gently nudged me forward... That was a very stallion act, but done so kindly. I have nothing but thanks for it."
He hrmed out loud, unsure if that really qualified as a distinctly male thing to do. "Well, what are mare traits I may have that you admire?"
"Oh, goodness, really, hmm..." She pointed. "You enjoy a good snack. You always make a beeline for the snack tray when we go to events, but then you eat them so delicately. I'm still trying to catch up on that front, but you seem so... proper, and yet... the pleasure is clear on your face. It's a wicked little treat you make look so perfect. I'm jealous, if we're honest. I'll catch up, perhaps, eventually."
That was equally not a distinctly mare thing to do. He began to wonder just how much Gentle could assist with the matter. "Were I, just for fun, not a stallion, what would you do?"
She blinked at him owlishly. "I don't understand? If you were not a stallion? What would you be then? A Griffon?"
"A mare," he posited. "Really, a griffon? Perish the thought." He raised a brow. "They don't even have nobility."
"They don't?" she admitted her ignorance in naked shock. "How awful. Now, a mare..." She tapped a hoof on the ground. "That would make some of my thoughts... inappropriate." She inclined her head. "Though it would make you dressing me feel a bit less odd."
Thoughts? "What thoughts?" It clicked after he said it. "You... chase me?"
"Chase? No! What?"
"You wish to marry me?"
Her face went beet red. "I like you! You've... been nothing but lovely to me. Why wouldn't I like you? You're handsome and nice and you really care, about me... We can talk, like right now." She wobbled a hoof between Blueblood and herself. "And I feel like neither of us are judging the other unfairly."
He took a slow breath. "Sorry... That one, I will accept the blame for. You are not a prince chasing mare. It was I that insisted we speak this long." He turned away, gazing out a window to the garden below. "But you are still a mare, and I, still a prince. Could a mare also befriend a princess?"
Her head tilted with obvious confusion. "Celestia and Luna both have mare friends, don't they? Princess Twilight has a whole herd of them!"
As much as he disliked hearing Twilight come up, there was a point there. Two mares could be close friends.
Just like two stallions.
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Hmmm. A conflict? Oh dear, I wonder if Gentle will be able to handle Bluebelle?
I wonder if he knows the spell well enough to spend a night as Bluebelle?
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Do you dare cast a spell you don't know completely that reconfigures your anatomy?
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Twilight does.
How can you argue bookhorse logic?
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And the scars of that choice will remain forever.
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It all worked out!
She just had to mind rape her friends (again!) to get the cutie marks all to their proper owners. The wings were a definite benefit and such disregard for magical safety or respect to her friends was all the proof Celestia needed; one princess of friendship! Who (apart from a small circle) treats friendship as callously as Facebook.
Who knows what Celestia will do when she finds out about the Imp.
All hail Emperor Blueblood!
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They really should.
10465591
I think the spell is permanent. Blueblood would need to learn a separate spell to turn back to a stallion.
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Luna had already cast it on him. Even if for a flash, a single moment.
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It could be argued Luna got lucky.
I do like the imp. Beyond a few lines here or there she is a rather normal pony. Unless she is not allowed to corrupt Blueblood unwillingly due to some master servant clause. Maybe just by accepting the contract the corruption is happening?
Still though...
The meters running.
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Slowly. Gently. This is how a soul is taken.
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Depending on her home life she might try to milk this for all its worth. Become "The Thing that Will Not Leave".
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10466516
Power corrupts, they say. Offering a way towards it seems in line.
I’m predicting that Blueblood/Belle (whichever they choose in the end) will learn the spell and discover their cutie marks destiny is to help guide others towards happiness. Hes already been helping guide Gentle through the minefield of the noble courts. They’ll master the spell and use it to help others.
Also predicting Celestia will misunderstand and make an ass of herself.
I ship it.
Which ship?
Yes. All of them.
Polycule time
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Great is the weapon that cuts on its own
Yeah, he actually kinda is, I'm surprised too.
This had to be the high society version of cicada song and a tumbleweed blowing across the scene.
I love how it just captures the awkward silence after an ill timed comment.
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I'm quite glad I captured the emotions I was going for properly!
Ah, but which infinity is it I wonder? There are different infinities after all.
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Is there one besides ∞ that I missed?
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Well, there are countable infinities, and then there are uncountable infinities.
Video: "How an Infinite Hotel Ran Out of Rooms"
Fancy Pants wins the title of best damn friend ever by a landslide.
Fancy Pants is the ally none of us mentally unstable transes deserve <3
"You are being too understanding by half! My jealousy of you grows uncomfortably quickly. How do you manage to be so perfect?"
I'm going to start saying this to people. She's not wrong, and you have quite the way with words!
I confess reading about our traditional slow methods of transition being so callously disregarded (not by you, of course, but Blue Belle, who doesn't know better yet) is a bit saddening, but such are the perils of reading fantasy. Oh dear, your prose has infected me.