The Ballad of Royal Blue

by PonyWithAPen

A Swingin' Party

Rarity was engaged in conversation with Fluttershy when the group arrived. Sweetie Bell went up to her sister and got her attention.

"Sweetie Bell, darling, what is it?"

"You need to meet the new pony!" Rarity looked over and saw him.

Goodness, what a dashing young stallion! She followed her sister over to where he and the crusaders were standing.
Fluttershy followed them as well.

"Hello there, dear. It is rather splendid to meet you. My name is Rarity."

"Nice to meet you, Rarity. I'm Royal Blue." At the mention of his name, she took a step backwards.

"What's wrong? Do I have some food in my mane? I did kinda go crazy on apple pie."

"I do not wish to be associated with any royalty any time soon." Rarity took off running in the opposite direction. Fluttershy went after her. Royal just stood there, dumbfounded.

"Me, royalty? Do I look regal to you, Apple Bloom?" The young filly shook her head. She didn’t even know what the word meant.

"No. It's just...my sister had a bad time at the Grand Galloping Gala with a royal stallion. It was so bad that she never wants to see another royal pony again." Sweetie Bell said. Royal looked over at Rarity, who was talking with Fluttershy again.

Who could be stupid enough to hurt someone like her? She's so elegant. He mustered up his courage and approached them.

"Miss Rarity," She looked at him with apologetic eyes.

"Oh darling, I want to apologize for earlier."

"Don't worry about it. If it makes you feel any better, I'm as regal as a rat. The only thing royal about me is my first name. Let's be friends, all right?" She nodded, sniffling. Even Scootaloo was smiling at this beautiful little moment.

"All right. Thank you, Royal." He stepped off to the side to talk to Fluttershy.

"Hi there."

"I'm Fluttershy. It's nice to meet you. Twilight told me a little bit about you. She said you found a book for her."

"Yeah, I did. No big deal." The two of them continued in conversation, eventually being joined by Rarity and the CMC.

After he concluded his conversation with Fluttershy, Royal decided it was time for yet another helping of food.

Even with exercise, I think I’d get fat if I got to eat like this every day.

When he got to the table, he saw something he hadn’t noticed earlier. There was a tray of muffins sitting on the end of the spread.

“When the heck did those get here? Oh well. I think I’ll try one.” He bit into it, and immediately he knew that he had made the right decision. At that moment, he spotted Rainbow Dash passing by. She walked over to him.

“Oh, I see you found the muffins.” He swallowed it down.

“They’re really good. Who made these?”

“Those were made by Derpy. She just got here now. We told her the party started at 6:30, she shows up at 7:30. Go figure. Let me give you a warning. Derpy is kind of crazy.” Royal just laughed.

"She sounds like quite a character. I want to meet..." he turned around to grab another muffin. At that moment, he came face to face with the aforementioned pegasus pony.

"Meet her." He finished.

"Meet who?" Derpy asked, confused.

"You, I guess. Are you Derpy?" She nodded.

"At your service, captain! Do you like muffins?"

"Yeah, I thought they were pretty good." Derpy beamed.

"All right! I'm so glad you like muffins because I like muffins and I think muffins are the best thing ever! Muffins!" Derpy became unintelligible as she took off flying around the room.

"Wow, look at her go!" Royal and Rainbow watched her soar in the rafters of the barn. Unfortunately, her clumsiness caught up with her and caused her to lose control of herself. She was heading right for the table spread.

“Uh oh!” Royal yelled.

“I’ve got her!” Rainbow flew up to meet her and steered her toward a distant wall where Royal waited to catch her. However, Derpy could not slow down and ran into him at full speed, leading to a huge crash into the wall.

Royal's new friends rushed over to see what had happened. They were greeted by Derpy, who was mortified at what she'd accidentally done. Twilight saw Royal crumpled up in a heap.

"Oh no! Is he okay?” Her question was answered swiftly, as he opened his eyes and sat up, rubbing his forehead.

“Mission accomplished.” He said. Twilight and her friends collectively sighed in relief. Applejack and Fluttershy helped him to his feet.

“Easy there.” Applejack said. Rarity looked on as she watched them.

Oh dear! Poor Derpy could have suffered a concussion. How noble of you, Royal.

Royal shook his head. He could see clearly again.

“That’s better. Is Derpy okay?” Applejack grinned.

“She’s fine. You’re the one who took all the damage.”

“That’s the way it should be. I’ve always had a pretty hard head.” The group shared a laugh.

“You guys can go on now. I’ve got to shake off this headache.” Applejack spoke up.

“All right, you heard him, every pony! Give him some space!” Heeding her words, the crowd went back to partying, as Vinyl Scratch went back to doing what she does best. Fluttershy brought some ice over to him.

“Here. This should help. Just hold it against your head.” Royal took it and followed her directions. While he was icing his head, Derpy came over to him. She looked like she was about to cry. Royal broke into a warm smile.

“You don’t have to say anything, Derpy. It was an accident. Go have some fun.” She nodded; her goofy, yet endearing smile returned to her face. Royal continued to ice his head.

Derpy may be a little crazy, but she sure is nice. And fun. Now if only my head would stop hurting.

A few minutes later, some more familiar faces came over to check on him. Namely Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom.

“Are you hurt?” Applebloom asked.

“Well, I’ve got this bag of ice on the back of my neck. You tell me, kiddo.”

“That was really nice, what you did for Derpy.” Sweetie Belle said.

“Well, I can’t take all the credit. Dash acted first. She steered Derpy away from crashing into the table. I caught her, more or less.”

“How are you going to get home?” Scootaloo asked.

“I’ll manage. I’ll just sit here for now.” To his surprise, the crusaders sat around him so the four of them formed a circle.

“We’ll keep ya company.” Applebloom said.

“Maybe you could give us some ideas on how to get our cutie marks!” Sweetie Belle said. This gave him an idea.

“Would you three like to hear the story of how I got mine?” The youngsters nodded.

“Yeah, we’d love to hear it!” Applebloom said. Royal began to tell his story.

“It happened when I was just a little filly. I wasn’t much older than any of you.” The girls settled in, giving him their full attention.

“As you’ll recall from earlier, I was raised by my grandfather. My parents died in a terrible accident on a dark and stormy night. I was told that the storm was the work of Nightmare Moon. I grew up hating her.”

“But we saw you happily chatting it up with Princess Luna earlier.” Scootaloo said.

“Exactly. It doesn’t make sense, does it? When I heard she was defeated, I was ecstatic. But then Princess Celestia sent out a report detailing her sister's return. It made me realize that behind Nightmare Moon was a confused and lonely princess. Now I just want everypony to forgive her, like I have." As he continued talking, Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash came and joined their sisters and #1 fan, respectively.

“I thought it was the end of the world after I lost my parents, but my grandfather took me in and raised me with as much love as I’m sure he raised my dad. Anyway, now I’m getting to the part you really wanted to hear about.” The fillies beamed. By this time, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Twilight had joined the group.

“I was quite the crusader back when I was little. I did all kinds of crazy things, only to wind up disappointed. But then one day, my grandpa showed me the most wonderful thing.”

“What was it?” Applebloom asked.

“My dad’s drum set. He’d kept it all this time…for me.” Royal was losing control of his emotions. Fluttershy approached him. She put her hoof on his shoulder. He uttered a few minor sobs, and then he was able to continue.

“Thanks, Fluttershy.” She smiled.

“Oh, it’s no problem at all.” She went back to her spot.

“It was on that day that my grandfather taught me to play the drums. A few months later, there was a talent show at my school. My friends and I were in a band, and we played in it. Toward the end of our song, I felt a rush of emotion within me unlike anything I’d ever felt before. We were really rocking it.” He paused, once again trying not to lose it.

“And then what happened?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“We didn’t win. I was disappointed as I left with Grandpa. But when we got home that night, I went to go get ready for bed, and there it was.” He raised his cape, showing off his cutie mark. “And that’s the story.”

“Wow! That was a great story!” Pinkie Pie said.

“So, what made you decide to come to Ponyville?” Twilight asked. Royal felt a twinge in his gut again.

“Gramps…he’s been gone for about two months now. I sold the house in which I grew up to some of my relatives, and left. I couldn’t…I couldn’t live in that house…not without him…” At that point, he completely lost it. Fluttershy once again flew to his side. This time, she enveloped him in a hug; her motherly instincts had called her to do so. Twilight, feeling terrible for unintentionally setting him off, joined her friend. The rest of them followed suit, being careful not to aggravate his sore neck. None of them left his side for a good five minutes.

Royal’s sobs had finally stopped. He was still surrounded by the Mane Six and the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“Thanks, all of you. I’m okay now.” All nine ponies broke away from him.

“Gramps would be really proud to know I’ve found some new friends here.”

“Well of course, silly! I threw this party so you could get to know a lot of new friends! It's hard fitting in when you move to a new place.” Pinkie said. Royal didn’t say another word. Instead, he barreled into her (not that hard, mind you. He didn’t want to hurt her) and hugged her the same way she had done to him when they met.

“You’re the best! All of you! Thank you for making this a glorious night!”

“You’re very welcome, sugar cube.” Applejack said.

“That’s quite all right, darling.” Rarity replied.

“We’re all glad you’re here, Royal.” Twilight said.

“We hope you’ll stay forever!” Pinkie Pie said.

“Welcome to Ponyville, Royal.” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah, what they said.” Rainbow Dash said. Royal stood up, noticing that he felt a little better physically.

“I’m going to be sore tomorrow, but there’s still a party going on tonight. So, let’s dance!”

Royal and his new friends danced the night away. Every pony at the party wanted their chance to dance with him, and most of them got that chance. Derpy ran up to him and happily hugged him when she saw he was in good enough shape to dance.

After the dance, Royal stumbled home. He was exhausted, and he knew he would be in pain due to events at the party. He didn’t even make it to his bed. Instead, he sprawled out on the floor.

It’s true what they say…Pinkie Pie really does throw the best parties.

Author's Note:

I hadn't realized it before, but I actually wrote Royal's Character Establishing Moment in this chapter: forgiveness. He overcomes a personal demon very early on; managing to forgive Princess Luna for her exploits as Nightmare Moon that killed his parents (likely a story made up to establish a scapegoat for the horrible tragedy, like gun violence and video games).

Comments

[ParadiseK]

Nice start, I can't wait for more. Keep on writing!

[Graeme97]

While this is good, Fluttershy is insanely OOC. Fluttershy (From what I can tell) is more shy around ponies than animals, even monstrous ones. Her just talking to a new pony without knowing anything about him is just OOC for her. Remember the first episode of MLP? She hid behind her mane and talked in a whisper, being friends with Twilight and everyone else may be opening her up a little, she is still a very shy pony (Fluttershy(SHY is in her name for bananas sake))