Destination: Equestria

by Zervziel

Chapter 7

"Sid'down, Braeburn. We know where we're goin'. No need to tell us!" The hay-colored pony did as he was bidden, his exuberance at heading back to 'Aaaaaaappleooosa!' momentarily deflated at the sound of the cranky voice. Placing the hat he'd been waving back on his head, he plopped down into his seat. Looking about the train compartment he noticed a few other passengers that he didn't usually see on the regular apple shipment to the capital city of Canterlot. All three of the new passengers were unicorns.

The first two he could recognize anywhere. Braeburn had gotten an earful from his cousin Applejack about the two hooligans, Flim and Flam, who'd tried to run Sweet Apple Acres out of business. The colt shivered at the memory of how worked up AJ had gotten just talking about the two, despite it having been several years at least since the incident. However, Braeburn knew the duo of red-maned unicorns were no threat to his families' business. In fact they were going in for a partnership!

The twins' ingenuity with machines coupled with Appleloosa's resources meant that together they could rake in more money by distributing to nearby cities than they could as competitors. The only thing that seemed to threaten the plan had been some hesitance on the Lunar and Solar Princess' parts. Something about worry how the Apple family's monopoly was expanding too much. Braeburn didn't understand the situation very well.

Eventually they had relented and allowed the partnership to happen after Princess Luna had Flim and Flam change their claim of seventy-five percent of the profits to a mere fifteen percent allowing the Apple family to take the majority considering the operation was dependent on their apples. The two had agreed readily, remembering the premature destruction of the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 7000 at the horn of Princess Celestia during a demonstration of its abilities in Canterlot.

The rumor-mill had it the machine had created a sound that had effected the white alicorn the same way a hoof dragged across slate effected others. The resulting flash of light from her horn had been followed by a tremendous explosion as the machine was torn apart. Despite her actions, Celestia still thought of her ponies first, shielding them with her magic. The World Famous FlimFlam brothers had beat a hasty retreat from a very relieved Celestia as she had sat massaging her ears.

The SSCS 7000 reduced to charred bits of wood, melted metal and flash vaporized cider, the brothers had felt their luck had run out until a scroll of apology had come from the Princess complete with a sum of gold to aid them on their next project. After a complete overhaul of the design to eradicate the noise that had doomed it's predecessor via destruction by princess, the brother had finally completed the design just in to receive the offer from Appleloosa.

After watching the two brothers chat animatedly with each other for a while, Braeburn switched his attention to the last passenger, who was currently asleep. From his vantage point at the front of the car, he couldn't tell what gender the pony was, partially because the pony's dark blue mane was draped over their face. What the earth pony did know was the pony was a unicorn due to the long horn sticking out the blue mess of a mane. Said horn was currently propped against the window, the right side of the unicorn's face was pressed up against the window, canting the head at what looked like an extremely uncomfortable position.

Braeburn was starting to wonder if the pony was actually asleep when a curve in the train track caused the pony's head to slide off the window and backwards over the back of the seat. Now he could see it was a fairly pretty mare. However with her head canted back as far as it was now, coupled with her long neck, the cream-colored mare started to snore. Loudly. Braeburn winced at the sound. The loud snores very quickly drew the attention of everyone within hearing distance. In this case that meant the entire car.

"By Celestia's Beard, th' lass can snore!" An ancient gray stallion rasped in surprise. It was Hard Cider, one of Braeburn's older and more distant relatives who the family had brought in to lend his long years of expertise to the new project. "Sounds like a pack wild boars in th' middle of one of dem bison stampedes."

"It's buffalo, uncle." Braeburn automatically corrected him. The colt however agreed with the old pony. The stentorian sound coming from the mare was enough to drown out the rattling of the train.

"Maybe someone should wake her up and let her know she's disturbing the whole car!" One of the unicorn twins had spoken. Braeburn couldn't tell if it had been Flim or Flam who had spoken up. Still they had a point. Sighing, the gold-maned pony got up and trotted down the aisle towards the source of the horrendous noise. Sliding into the empty seat in front of the mare, he reached over and put a hoof on her shoulder. Shaking her slightly, he whispered "Ma'am?" No response from the mare. Shaking her a little more vigorously, he tried again "Ma'am? Can you wake up?"

Finally, tired of his nephew's rather weak attempts at awakening the mare and exasperated at her tremendous snoring, Hard Cider, the curmudgeonly old stallion, walked up down the aisle. Everypony else in the car watched the elder pony come to a stop next to the seat. Suddenly Hard Cider reared back and stomped his fore hooves down. The loud CRACK of his hooves on the wooden floor accompanied by his shout of "Wake up, young'un'!" finally elicited a response from the mare. Mayberry jerked awake at the sound, hooves flailing. "I'm awake! The answer is 89 to the square root of coconut!"

Noticing where she was, Mayberry looked at the old pony standing next to her. Hearing what sounded like a snicker, she looked to her right at the seat in front of her. Braeburn's face was centimeters away from hers. Unfortunately, as her face swung into line with his, her long horn cracked the poor pony along the right side of his head.

"Gah! My face! What'd you do that for?" Holding a hoof to his sore head, Braeburn shot a glare at the mare. "What do you mean? Your face was in my space." the mare retorted. "Anyway, why'd did you guys wake me up?"

"Oh it weren't nothin'. Yer snoring was drownin' out the engine and some of us would like to get some shut eye around 'ere." Even with the pain of the accidental blow from the unicorn, Braeburn winced at his crotchety uncle's sarcasm. Mayberry couldn't help but blush. It wasn't the first time someone had been disturbed by her snoring. Granted she didn't snore unless her head was canted back, but that wasn't quite the answer her professor had wanted when it happened in her economics class.

"I'm sorry about that. Must have drifted off." Mayberry took the time to explain she had been about to catch some sleep in the sleeping car when the final call for boarding was made. With the passengers coming aboard, she figured she go back and see who all had boarded.

Afterwards the stallion and his uncle returned to their seats. Pressing the end of her nose against the window, the unicorn mare admired the view. The train hadn't gone too far from the city, as when she looked out the window she could see it a mountain back. The glittering palace with its immense array of spires and towers dwarfed the city below. Looking at the rich city, Mayberry could have sworn she saw the top of Fancypants Manor. As much as she wanted to get home, the mare truly wished to pay back the two for their hospitality. Maybe at the same time she could find a way to pay back that louse of a horse with the compass mark. Even if the unicorn wasn't the most pleasant being in the city.

Hours later a certain Prince was still entangled in the mess the absent Mayberry had accidentally caused. Prince Blueblood found himself backed into a corner figuratively speaking. The blonde-maned pony had escaped the fracas in the market a few hours prior. After he had jumped onto what he had thought was the thief, the prince instead found himself with his fore legs wrapped around an exceedingly irate Rarity. Still believing she was the pony who had assaulted him with a vase and then had the nerve to steal from him, the drunken pony had accosted the fashionista.

Blueblood winced as he looked out at the city from his room in the palace. He'd definitely said a few things that no civil pony should ever accuse a lady of, especially in public. Even in his drunken state before, the prince had known he'd just crossed the line at the look on the mare's face. Shortly afterwards, Blueblood found himself trying to weather a dressing down of proportions he'd never experienced before from anyone even Aunt Celestia. The elegant and ever so polite Rarity verbally ripped him asunder calling everything from his intelligence to his taste in women into question.

The unicorn stallion had hoped she'd fall into the trap of calling his bloodline into question so he could turn his exceedingly distant relation to the princesses on her. However Rarity had neatly avoided that verbal pitfall. Blueblood never got to hear what she thought of his choices in life and he admitted he probably never wanted to. Thankfully, right as the fashion designer had been about to share her opinion, the Royal Guards had shown up to investigate the disturbance. Calling Rarity to silence, the two pegasi guards asked for an explanation for the two's shouting match.

Blueblood had tried to accuse the mare of stealing from him, but unfortunately Rarity told the guards he had practically attacked her while she was looking about the market stalls before the Prince could get a word out. Finally finding his voice, the stallion defended himself, claiming that a pony with colors similar to Rarity had smashed a vase over his head and had run off with his coin purse. Rarity interjected at the end that was a waste of a perfectly good vase.

The two guards prevented the two from getting into another row, asking either if they had any witnesses. Blueblood had none whereas Rarity was able to call on the entire market place as witnesses. Several stall vendors supported Rarity's story, saying she had been at their stalls and couldn't have been the villain.

The guards then inspected the alleyway at the Prince's instance and lying at the very corner where he had been attacked was the Prince's coin purse. A quick search found no evidence of a smashed vase. Blueblood was certain the purse was lighter now, but couldn't say how much had been stolen as he'd simply scooped up a small amount from his safe in his room for a quick drink at the bar. With no evidence to go on and the coin purse found, the two guards released him while informing the Prince they were going to inform the captain of the guards of the disturbance.

Now Blueblood sat in his suite in the palace, moping. Of course the disturbance in the market place would eventually reach the Princesses' ears and true to his estimation, one of them had asked them to speak to either one of them at some point today about his behavior otherwise they'd both come down for a talk. Blueblood was now biding his time. He was hoping to get Princess Luna shortly after Celestia had surrendered the throne to her for the night.

While he had never truly spoken to her outside of some formal occasions, Blueblood was willing to face Luna's displeasure over her elder sister simply because if it came to punishment Celestia's familiarity with him would result in a more personalized punishment meant to strike at his personal vices. Vices which Blueblood valued too much to relinquish.

Finally deciding that Aunt Celestia had probably retired for the night, Prince Blueblood walked to the gold plated doors of his suite and opened them and suddenly stopped. On the other side, a guard waited there to remind him of the Princesses wishes. The usually pompous stallion merely nodded his head in acknowledgement and headed towards the main throne room. Stopping at the massive gold-clad doors, the unicorn nodded his gold-maned head at the grey unicorn guard to announce him.

"Presenting Prince Blueblood to see their royal Highnesses." the Guard bellowed out. The volume of it, meant to cut through the murmur of crowds, caused the prince to wince before he realized what the guard had said. Sure enough, both Princesses Celestia and Luna were present. In fact, it looked as if instead of waiting for Celestia to hand control over to Luna for the night, Blueblood had actually interrupted them in the middle of it.

"Ah, Prince Blueblood, I was expecting you to drop by at some point today." Princess Celestia spoke first slightly stressing the last word. It was now late evening. Blueblood tried appear nonplussed. "I apologize if I inconvenienced you, your Majesty. I decided to wait so I wouldn't disturb court." Almost immediately after he said the words, Blueblood knew he'd firmly planted his hoof in his mouth. He simply looked up at the throne. Princess Luna was already seated in the throne, her imperious face devoid of any emotion. Her bat-winged Night Guards in their stylized armor had already replaced their golden-armored counterparts.

Since Princess Celestia had already passed the mantle of leadership on to her sister for the night, the white alicorn was seated a little below the throne. However her height put her head on level with Luna's. The Lunar and Solar Princesses were looked over the little Prince in almost the same way a predator sized up a potential meal. Finally it was Princess Luna who broke the silence following Blueblood's excuse. "We have heard thou created a significant disturbance in our city this day Blueblood." Celestia continued for her sister "Not only that you accosted the Element of Generosity herself and accused her of stealing of all things. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Blueblood could feel the displeasure practically rolling off from the two Princesses. He'd known he had screwed up, but now the stallion realized he had accused one of the Elements of Harmony of going against her very Element. The unicorn decided telling them what had happened and hoped for the best. As Blueblood explained how he had heard someone calling to him after he had left the bar and when he went over to investigate someone broken some crockery over his head, grabbed his coin purse and ran.

"Why did you simply not call a guard to go after the pursuer?" Princess Celestia interrupted. "After all the thief could have been a dangerous criminal. Why risk yourself?" Blueblood had no real answer to that. "I do not know. I was still quite drunk and the thought the crook might pose a threat didn't cross my mind. I wanted to accost the criminal as a way of proving myself" Both Princesses seemed mildly surprised at the Prince's blunt yet honest reply. The white stallion could have sworn he saw a ghost of a smile on the elder sister's face briefly.

Encouraged somewhat he forged onward. "After the thief brained me and took off, I decided to chase after them. I caught a glimpse of their flank and tail. Even though I couldn't see well enough to tell what color they were exactly I know their tail was a dark color and their coat was a much lighter color." Blueblood hoped they'd see his reasoning there.

"Could thou not see the villain's cutie mark? This time it was Princess Luna who had interrupted him. Shaking his head, the Prince replied, "Nay, your majesty. Whoever they were, the thief was too fast for me to see their mark."

"Nephew, if all this is true then why then were the guards unable to locate any evidence of this….attack." Celestia nodded her head towards one of her ever present guards to emphasis her point. Blueblood had actually thought about this. "It's possible that during my….altercation with the Element of Generosity, that the thief circled back and erased any evidence." Fighting the urge to use his hoof to mop his forehead and betray his nervousness, the unicorn continued. "After all the search was a cursory one at best and probably wouldn't turn up any evidence if the thief had hid them well enough."

"What of thy purse?" Princess Luna spoke again her voice as imperious as ever. Waving a dark blue leg capped with a silvery blue horseshoe in a grand gesture towards the Prince, she spoke again. "Thy purse was found in the very spot the guards searched and it still contained gold." Blueblood shivered a tiny bit at the tone of her voice as well as its volume. It was by no measure the infamous Royal Canterlot voice she'd used many years before when she had returned, but it was still quite loud.

Mistaking his reaction as something else, the Lunar Princess leaned towards the stallion, making it seem as if she was towering before him despite the fact he still sat at the base of the ramp leading to the throne. Princess Celestia cocked an incredulous eyebrow at her sister's scare tactics. It wasn't like Luna to resort to such a threatening demeanor like this. Celestia had heard of the bare bones of their nephew's most recent shenanigans from Luna. The guard captain had brought up the issue with Princess Luna, as she had been free at that particular moment.

Adopting a bored expression, Celestia began to inspect her golden shoes. They were a bit scuffed on the very bottom, but were in good condition over all. Every couple years or so, she needed new shoes. Instead of wasting her people's tax dollars to have new ones made, the Solar Princess opted to recycle them. After all gold was gold no matter what condition it was in. It was a simple matter of using her magic to melt down the old shoes and recast them as new ones. Plus sizing them was easier to do when the metal was soft. It was simply a matter of manipulating the still hot metal around her hooves and then cooling them.

Blueblood didn't know what to think at that moment. Aunt Luna seemed quite upset at him and yet Aunt Celestia was looking at her shoes for some reason. For the life of him, the Prince couldn't figure out what fascinating her so about her shoes. Even Luna broke off glaring at her irritating nephew to give her sister a look of exasperation. After a few moments of intense hoof and shoe related introspection, the Ruler of the Day turned her attention back to Blueblood and Luna.

"Thou art in need of a farrier, Celestia?" Luna gave her sister a sardonic look. Blueblood hoped Princess Celestia didn't hear the snicker that had tried to erupt from his throat.

"Blueblood, you have still not told us why your purse was found at the seen of the supposed crime with your gold still inside." The Sun Princess ignored her sister's teasing and addressed the issue at hoof.

Clearing his slightly tightened throat, the stallion responded. "While my purse was indeed there, it was significantly lighter than when I had left the restaurant." At this point the white alicorn had slowly descended the ramp, walking up to the Prince. "And yet you don't know how much was stolen? That's incredibly irresponsible for someone with access to the royal treasury." By now Celestia was mere inches in front of Blueblood, her magenta eyes boring into Blueblood's cyan eyes. The Prince couldn't help but notice how tall she actually was at this point.

She stared deeply into his eyes for a moment seeming to peer directly into his brain, the Princess abruptly broke off her stare. "Prince Blueblood, you have behaved quite poorly today. You've embarrassed the Royal Family and have accused one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony of going against her very Element. On top of that, you have been abusing your position as Prince far too much recently. It seems almost every other month, my sister and I are having to speak to you again about your constant misbehavior." Breaking off from her tirade for a moment to glance at Princess Luna, who acknowledged her with a tip of the head.

"We hereby suspend thy allowance and title as Prince until thou has proven to us that thou art worthy of such an honor. We shall allow thee a two-month period to prove thyself capable of worthy of such an honor. Begone, we will speak again if and only if you do this." A raised hoof on Luna's part and a freezing blast of air swung the throne room's doors open, startling the guards outside. Just as the golden armored grey unicorns went to rush into the room a dejected and deflated Blueblood exited.

"A little heavy-hoofed, don't you think Luna?" Celestiia asked the dark blue alicorn. "Perhaps, but maybe this will teach him restraint and control." Luna brushed aside her ethereal blue hair. "Also you weren't there to hear exactly what Blueblood said to Ms. Rarity. Several of the shopkeepers were able to recall a good part of what he said."

Despite the fact she still didn't quite agree with Luna's reasoning for her fairly harsh punishment, Celestia wasn't going to undermine her sister's authority by continuing to question her decision. "Did you get the memory of the thief from him?" Celestia asked.

Luna gave her beloved sister an enigmatic smile. "Oh yes. He wasn't lying about one thing. There was a thief. Perhaps the same one who stole the Arcane Lexicon from the Royal Mage's vaults."

Read and review mates!

Comments

[Fernin]

Huh, I'm surprised. I incorrectly assumed that the bit with Blueblood was just a passing swipe at a generally disliked character and a way to get your main character some funds, not setup for further plot down the road... but good choice doing it that way! I'm interested to see where you take this.

[Zervziel]

227379 Thanks, mate. As disliked as Blueblood is, I didn't want him to simply be a simple punching bag character. So I decided to flesh him out a bit and then have him work for his title. And he's not the only one who's going to be working.

[FinalFan]

The plot thickens -- I'd been assuming Amber just got ponified, but this suggests a body swap.

[ShadowWing09]

227616 Showing him in the wrong and then having him work for character development...I approve