The Blue Knight

by The_Darker_Fonts

Epilogue: The Witness

Ever since she had heard of him, all she had wanted to do was meet the stallion behind the mask. Whether it was just curiosity, or maybe something more, there was the undeniable desire, even passion, to find the Blue Knight and confront him. There seemed to be an alluring air about him that made the city romanticize his life, a secret stallion hidden amongst the crowd of normal ponies. She, however, wanted to know the truth more than the legends, more than just his identity, but who he was. In the past few weeks, she had come to several of her own conclusions, and had decided to take a huge risk to get her closer to both suspects and information.

From the get go, it had been clear that whoever the mystery stallion was, they were in a relatively strong financial situation, but that only narrowed down the few hundred stallions that lived in the eastern suburbs. However, it had also become abundantly clear that, beyond funding, he also was most likely young and single, with no family to have to hide his secret from. This narrowed the stallion down to being a rich somepony who was attempting to do good in their own way. She had also guessed that, most likely, they, being rich and all, knew the Princesses, and could even possibly have let them in on who he was.

So, in the biggest leap of faith in her life, she had decided to offer herself up as a worker in the palace. It wasn’t that hard to become one of the many servants in the palace, as security was tight, but also very understanding. It helped that she had been a great student and had a closed book as her cutie mark, and combined with who her parents were, the procedure had been short and sweet. She lived in the castle now, and mostly helped with schedule management and the occasional odd job around the interior management. Officially, she was one of Princess Celestia’s juvenile advisors, but the other members of staff called her their “go fer”, but since she held no high rank, she had to listen to basically everyone else.

It was a fun job, however, and getting to talk almost casually to the Princess herself was unbelievable, but the true purpose of her joining the maidstaff had been completely unfulfilled until two nights prior. Until then, she had received almost no useful information or insights by either workers, visitors, or even Princess Celestia that could help her further narrow down who the Blue Knight was! It had been a frustrating, fruitless search, and she had almost considered giving up, when she read a particular news article. The publisher was really just a tabloids and gossip paper company, but they proposed an idea she hadn’t thought of. Perhaps the Blue Knight was an alicorn.

Of course, the bumbling rumormongers attempted to use it as proof that Celestia had a bastard son, but Lavender knew in an instant that they had unwittingly given her the missing piece of the puzzle. It was a stretch, but now she was almost certain that the Princesses were involved in some way, whether through actual lineage or not. Calling the stallion an alicorn was also a stretch, however, he had been seen both using magic and flying, and with the events of just two nights ago, that theory seemed to be proven.

It had all changed though, that night that rocked the city over and over. She had been inside the castle when she felt the strange tingling chill pass through her, a physical shake quickly following. She didn’t know exactly what had happened, but in an instant one of the friends she’d made in the maidstaff, a unicorn mare, came running into the room claiming something big was happening just outside the castle grounds, near the Stairs. In a flurry everypony either rushed to the nearest windows that looked over the steps or away from the possibility of danger.

She, of course, hadn’t seen anything on arrival, but because of the peculiarity of the event, the majority of the staff decided to leave the castle for the night and head to relatives’ homes. She had almost done the same, seeing even the head of her division taking leave in light of the danger, and had been on the doorstep of the castle when suddenly something caught her eyes.

In the distance, all the way on the eastern side of the city, there was a flash of light, and then several more in quick succession. She stood frozen as a sudden glow of blue and white lit up the entire neighborhood, light beaming out from in between houses. Suddenly, the glow was gone, replaced instead by a plume of smoke. As she watched, she saw something suddenly go flying out of the scene at breakneck speed, trailing what looked like smoke and glowing red. It looked like a living comet, and before she could even realize it, the thing flew practically over her head and around behind the castle.

Too curious to be worried about the danger, she had raced off the palace grounds and around an unprotected police barrier that halfway blocked off the Stairs. She barely even noticed the destroyed archway that had hung over it just that morning as her eye caught sight of the smoke trail diving down towards the river. Rushing down the steps, she found the riverbank and began searching even as the traces of the mysterious flying object were blown away.

And then, she found him. The Blue Knight was lying face down on the muddy bank of the river, his back still steaming. She had almost thrown up at the sight of his gruesome injuries, the burn marks that had scorched him to the bone. Not knowing exactly what to do, she had pulled him out of the muddy bank completely and dragged him across the grass and to the small rock outlet that would shield him from both birds and ponies. Somehow, she had instinctively known that wherever she had to tend to him, it would need to be somewhere they wouldn’t easily be spotted. Slightly exhausted mentally and physically, she proceeded to gather random soft plants and wads of grass to wash the mud off of him, fearing infection.

The task took until sunup to complete, and by that point she was too tired to continue. Sighing, she collapsed by him, carefully averting her gaze from his back to not become sickened again. Still, her gaze occasionally glossed over the black and red tissue, but at the very least, she was also able to see that there wasn’t quite bleeding. Those wandering eyes also allowed her to see, for what must have been the first time anypony got a look under the Blue Knight’s costume, tufts of a pure white coat singed and bloodied by the horrendous wounds.

It was only then that it struck her that she was sitting down besides him, saving his life. The shock had worn off, and now there was a sense of both pride and awe as she sat there, staring him in his masked face. His entire suit was covered in ash and scorched here and there, torn and ruined like the stallion that wore it. It was surreal, sitting down besides the invincible legend, and yet, the iron strong image the stallion had touted was now shattered.

An urge to see his face, to remove his mask and uncover the secret identity that was beneath came over her with the realization. He was still completely passed out and in no good working condition, but for the most part he was at least breathing stably. She reached out her hoof slowly, touching the fabric of the mask, feeling the fur bend slightly beneath it. And yet, it was then, when after so many weeks of wondering, the risks she’d taken to find out, that the morality of revealing him struck her. He was a stallion unlike the rest of them, and probably had a good reason to keep his identity, whether for his safety or others. She couldn’t be the one to remove from him the choice of privacy, even if it would just be her knowledge.

With a pathetic chuckle at the twist of fate, she retracted her hoof, begrudgingly consigning herself to obliviousness. Instead, she sat herself up and once again went to grab water to wash his wounds. The only problem was that there was still no effective way to bring it to him. That was until the mare came down the steps suddenly, sending her back to their hiding place with a flash. How the mare hadn’t noticed them right away was beyond her, seeing as for a few minutes she was able to stare directly at her. Nevertheless, she did find them, and that was where her story got even more confusing.

The mare, River Lily, had spoken almost as if she expected the secret that Lavender was attempting to hide, though she obviously hadn’t expected the condition of the Blue Knight. The stress of the night, her choice to keep the Blue Knight’s identity secret, and the sudden arrival of the unknown mare and her peculiar attitude finally broke her emotional walls down. Desperately, almost pathetically, she had begged River Lily to help, which she did.

In an instant, the mare had taken charge of the situation as if she had been preparing for it, even commanding Lavender to grab moss of all things. Of course, not knowing the mare or her intentions with the two of them, she had refused and instead got the flowers that shared her namesake color, doing exactly as River Lily had said. Lo and behold, the flowers actually worked in waking him up, and seemed to even give him some strength. The stallion who had been nigh on dead mere moments before was suddenly awake and strong enough to groan in pain and lift his head slightly.

From there was a flurry of attempting to cool him off and patching wounds with the large amount of moss River Lily had managed to gather. When they had finally managed to gain control of his temperature and halt the bleeding, they woke up to the reality of their situation, laughing almost hysterically that they had just saved the life of the Hero of Canterlot.

That was when he decided to pipe up with a bitter quip, and for the first time in her life, she heard the Blue Knight’s voice. It was harsh, with a good deal of weight behind it, and thanks to the severe wound, it sounded husky and dry. But it was fitting, as in spite of everything they had done to save him, he acted the same way he sounded, bitter and even annoyed. Shockingly enough, it wasn’t the first time River Lily and him had met, which brought up a great deal of questions, all of which almost drowned out a shocking detail she would soon come to know as truth.

“The Blue Knight’s a killer and a dangerous stallion,” a mare suddenly said beside her, making her jump as she was wrenched back into her surroundings. She quickly sat up in her chair, watching as a unicorn mother quickly pushed her son away from a newspaper stand. Lavender sighed, the start of fright fading. She often found her mind wandering back to that night and following morning, even though it was only yesterday. It just didn’t make sense how that stallion had managed to overcome a wound as fast and easily as he had, even though it seemed to have been crippling. It also had made no sense how he, a hero, could have been so dismissive to her and River Lily, after everything they had done for him.

Of course, the reason behind the severe wounds and the truth of the situation haunted that memory as well. He had received the burns shortly after killing a stallion during a confrontation in the streets between him and three stallions. She still couldn’t quite believe it, but the shocking evidence remained. Images on the newspapers of the charred remains of eleven houses and a pony, terror among all of the civilians of Canterlot. Even the Princess herself had spoken of the event. It was terrible and true.

All of these details, however, left her with only one suspect as to who the stallion behind the mask could be, and now that she knew who he truly was, a stallion out for himself, hiding his crimes behind a mask, she had no moral qualms with revealing him. Besides, with what she’d just seen, the small speck jumping from the balcony of one of the castle’s many spires, there was solid evidence pointing to the only stallion left in question, Prince Blueblood.
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End of BOOK ONE of the

BLUEBLOOD SERIES

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Author's Note:

“I’d reckon that scary and amazing can be the same thing, right?”

Comments

[Bronycommander]

Eager to see the sequel.

[StarzGecko]

Thought it would be longer but nice story dude

[The_Darker_Fonts]

11194387
Well, it kinda needed to end here for the moment. You'll see why next book though!

[The_Darker_Fonts]

11194381
Me too, man!

[Bronycommander]

11194389
Glad to hear it. Heh, still have to think back what got your Story my attention with the title

[DarthEquus]

Thanks for this delivery. Happy to see the first arc come to a conclusion.

[The_Darker_Fonts]

11561676
That can be seen. A chapter covering the search for Blueblood could have been added, but with it being unsuccessful regardless, letting the spontaneous panic release of his return felt more natural than building tension that was already there. While yes, it comes off as blunt and uncaring right now, it makes the interaction when he returns that much more genuine.

[Silentwoodfire]

11604757
Probably can't hold a candle to sparkle though