Convincing Luna that he'd saved her had undoubtedly been one of Blueblood's greatest achievements, and now he was going to be rewarded for it by becoming her student. He had, unfortunately, failed to account for the alicorn's lack of teaching skills.
Managing to not only prevent Luna from finding out what he'd said about her, but to also convince her that he'd saved her, had been undoubtedly one of the greatest achievements of Blueblood's carrier. Now, he was going to be rewarded for his wits by becoming the Princess' personal student, a path that would lead him to eventually become an alicorn.
There was only one, minor detail he hadn't accounted for. In order for him to become an alicorn, he would have to be Luna's student. It wasn't something he could back out from now that he'd accepted. It wasn't something he was prepared for. Unfortunately for him, Luna wasn't prepared, either.
After seeing it for three times in a row, Blueblood had realized that that one merchant on the corner of the street in Canterlot had, in fact, scammed him when he'd sold him that watch. He was rather grateful that his tendency to experience all of his life in his memory when his brain told him that he was about to die, which happened usually at least once a day, allowed him to notice details like that. He was a little less grateful for the fact that it also replayed all other instances of him seeing his whole life when he'd thought he was about to die, as it was getting a little tiring.
He looked around the room he now found himself in. It was a dimly lit chamber with a pavement made of large blocks of grey stone, the walls built in similar fashion. The only source of light was a series of candles attached to the walls, providing too little illumination for him to see the entire place. Princess Luna stood in front of him, a smile stretching her facial features. The Prince awkwardly smiled back, and the two spent a few seconds staring at each other.
An opossum climbed Luna's starry mane and curiously looked at Blueblood from atop the alicorn's head.
"So," the unicorn began, giving a brief cough, "you mentioned how I would become an alicorn."
"Indeed," Luna replied, still holding her outstretched smile.
"Are we going to start?" Blueblood tentatively asked after a few more seconds of silence.
"Oh! Of course! Your training! Your royal training to become an alicorn! The special training you, as my most faithful student, must undergo in order to unravel your true potential!" Luna stood there, motionless.
Blueblood gave another cough. "Shall we begin, Princess?"
"At once!" Luna remained still for another couple of seconds. "I have no idea of what I'm doing!" she proclaimed, and promptly disappeared in a flash of light, only to reappear a moment later. "No! I cannot ask my sister for guidance in this! I shall prove to her that I am the superior teacher between us! Isn't that right, Tibbles?" Luna asked, grabbing the opossum in her hooves and beginning to pet him. "You know I'm the best princess, right Tibbles? Yes you know! Who's a good opossum? You are! You a-"
"Excuse me, Princess," Blueblood said to draw her attention.
Luna turned towards the stallion. She silently placed Tiberius back in her mane and cleared her throat. "Yes, your training. I believe we should begin. Now, since I am clearly the better teacher, it's only natural that you will be the better student, so I'd like to start by setting up our goals. Now, Twilight has saved Equestria multiple times. How many times have you saved our country, Vladímir?"
"I once stopped a war between the yaks and the Crystal Empire," Blueblood replied.
"Only once, uh? We'll have to work on that." Princess Luna began to walk away, forcing the unicorn to follow her. "For now, though, I believe our first mission should be that of finding your spirit animal."
"My spirit animal?" Blueblood asked, confused, as he walked behind the Princess.
"Yes. You see, Vlad, all alicorns have a spirit animal that accompanies them, one from which they can draw power. Tiberius is mine, and Philomena is my sister's. We inherit the special abilities of our spirit animals." Princess Luna came to a stop.
"Special abilities?" Blueblood stopped behind the alicorn. "What do you mean?"
"After establishing a strong enough connection with their spirit animal, an alicorn will be able to utilize some of the traits the animal possess as their own. For my sister it's the ability to set herself on fire like her phoenix. As for me, well, behold!" Luna fired a beam of magic to a nearby column.
The beam hit a rope tied to a metallic ring, cutting it. The rope flew upwards, and disappeared into the darkness. After a few seconds, a chandelier fell from the ceiling and hit Luna in the head, the rest of the rope falling behind it. The alicorn fell to the ground, her muscles contracting, and she laid there, unmoving.
Blueblood walked closer. Luna's body was perfectly still and rigid, and she wasn't breathing. "Princess Luna?" the unicorn called, but he received no answer. He moved even closer. "Princess?" he called again, louder, and again Luna didn't answer. Finally, he reached her cold, unmoving body and slapped her on the cheek.
Luna was startled awake. "Quite impressive, isn't it?" she said, smiling.
"Indeed..." Blueblood replied. "Could you explain to me why it is useful?" he asked after a moment of thought.
"It allows me to be safe from predators. They won't eat me if they think I'm already dead."
"Oh." Blueblood stared ahead for a second. "What natural predators do alicorns have?"
Luna stared at him. "Next question, please."
"Didn't Celestia say that you were already doing this thing before your banishment to the Moon? Back when you hadn't met Tiberius yet?"
"That's how strong the connection between us is! It transcends Time itself!" Luna struck an unconvincing dramatic pose.
Blueblood tilted his head to the side. "What about the other princesses? What powers do their animals give them? And what are their animals?"
Luna took a step back. "Princess Twilight has an owl. I'm sure you've heard of her owl. The owl called... Her owl, I'm sure you must have heard about her owl. It grants her the ability to turn her head back. She doesn't do it in public, she says it scares ponies."
"I did know about the owl, yes. What about Shining Armor's wife, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza? What is her spirit animal?" Blueblood asked, moving closer to Luna.
"Oh, her animal. Yes, of course, how could I forget! Her animal. Her spirit animal that grants her special powers. Mi Amore Cadenza's spirit animal." Luna fidgeted awkwardly with her hooves.
"Well?" Blueblood asked.
Luna turned her head to the side. "I've... never asked her what her spirit animal is."
"So you've never as-"
"But she has one! I know she must have one. All alicorns do, after all. All alicorns have their own special pet that gets to live with them forever. Isn't that right, Tibbles?" Luna said, taking the opossum out of her mane to pet him once more.
Blueblood awkwardly looked to the side. "So, okay, we'll find my spirit animal. What animal should it be?"
Luna placed Tiberius back inside her mane. "Well, since my sister's student's animal was a bird, like my sister's, yours should be a mammal. And since my sister's is a diurnal one and her student's is a nocturnal one, then given how Tiberius is a nocturnal animal yours should be a diurnal one. Which means we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find one." Luna looked up, thinking. "In the meantime, I guess I should teach you something."
"So, what will it be? What's our first lesson?" Blueblood asked.
"I'm not sure. I've got no idea of how to teach. I shouldn't have said that. Lesson number one," Luna said, posing, "don't accidentally reveal your weaknesses to others."
Blueblood tilted his head to a side, unimpressed. "How about some advanced magic? Like, oh, that spell that Princess Twilight had to complete? Or any other spell that can turn me into an alicorn? Or some advanced research on topics such as how to become an alicorn? Or a quest for some powerful artifact that will turn me into an alicorn? Or how about turning me into an alicorn?"
Luna shook her head. "Nah, those all sound like things my sister would have done with Twilight. After all, magic is that pony's special talent. And she's good at research. And at questing. And at being an alicorn. But no, my lessons must be different! They must be better! We'll design them around your special talents!" Luna triumphantly smiled while looking at her student. "So, hum, what are your talents, exactly? I see you've got a cutie mark there, what does it represent?"
"Oh, My special talent?" Blueblood smiled and readjusted his mane with a wave of his hoof. "I'm an excellent diplomat. I once saved the Crystal Empire from a war against the yaks that Prince Shining Armor almost caused."
"You mentioned that already," Luna replied. "Any other impressive things?"
"Well, I look beautiful."
"Something else?"
Blueblood's eyes nervously moved left to right. "Well, I'm an excellent diplomat. I once stopped a war between the Crystal Empire and Yakyakistan, did you know?"
"Vladímir, how do you spend most of your days, if I may ask?" Luna said.
"Well, I invest my time in pointing out flaws that others might have unfortunately not noticed in themselves, as to help them become better ponies."
"So you complain all the time."
Blueblood stretched his smile. "Did you know that I once stopped the yaks from invading the Crystal Empire? I am an excellent diplomat!"
Luna walked away. "I'll have to check the mirrors to see what other talents you might have."
"Mirrors?" Blueblood asked, following Luna.
"Well, you can't see them. Celestia never told Twilight about them until she was forced to, so-Wait! That means you should see them! Come here, please."
The two walked out of the room and reached a corridor full of mirrors on both sides.
"What are these?" Blueblood asked.
"Magic mirrors," Luna replied, walking up to one of them, "they can show us worlds beyond our own. And technically speaking they're also portals to those worlds, but we're not allowed to use them because my sister once almost caused the destruction of our reality after she'd fallen in love with King Sombra from another world. Which she never told me about, just like how she never mentioned that she'd replaced me with Luna from that world. And then she left me alone for a week with no explanation." Luna banged a hoof against the wall.
Blueblood stared at her.
"Sorry, I got a little carried away," Luna said while awkwardly returning the stare. "I'll check if there's any universe where you did something." She began to walk down the corridor. "Feel free to watch, but don't touch anything."
Blueblood walked up to the nearest mirror and looked at its contents. "Princess, why do you and Twilight and that other unicorn look like scaleless dragons in this one?" he asked.
"Oh, that one. You might not want to-Hey, I found one where you were picked by Celestia as her student! This should be interesting."
"Princess Luna, why is there a giant red cross made of metal in the room? And what exactly is Princess Twilight doing to you?"
"You should see this, Vlad. Now you're helping Ponyville deal with my return as Nightmare Moon. Sort of."
"Princess, I think she's-Oh, no, I can't look at this!" Blueblood covered his face with a leg. He then peeked out from below it to keep watching. "Wait, is that the Dragon Lord?"
"You just survived getting kicked to the Moon! That's... something, at least. But hey, you refused to let my powers corrupt you and didn't put on my helmet. Because it would have ruined your mane, but still."
"Does Celestia know about this one?" Blueblood asked, still peeking out from below his front leg.
Luna turned around. "That one? Yeah, I think she even ordered a pony to keep a diary detailing all of the events. Anyway, now we know you're good at building things with rocks. It's at least something Twilight can't do." She began to walk away.
"So what are we doing now?" Blueblood said as he began to follow her, after he'd stopped to look at the mirror some more.
"The night is still young, my student, we have plenty of time before the day comes and we can go look for your pet."
"Isn't it still morning? Celestia came to see your coffin right after she raised the Sun, and that wasn't so long ago."
"Even better!" Luna turned around to face the unicorn. "We'll have even more time!"
"But, forgive me, Princess, I need to sleep at some point." Blueblood came to a stop in front of the alicorn.
"During the day. And how else are you supposed to fall asleep at morning if not by staying awake for two whole days, both today and tomorrow?"
"Help from the alicorn who can control dreams?" Blueblood tentatively asked.
Luna smiled and stared at him.
Blueblood smiled and stared back.
They remained like that for a while.
"So," Blueblood began, "are you going to-"
"Start with your lessons? Of course! Here's how you properly feed bats-" Luna pulled out a chalkboard with a series of formulae on it.
Blueblood began to doubt that going back inside through the window had been the best course of action.
"...and that's the entire history of Equestria. Have you memorized all of it? Well, anyway, we don't have the time to go over it a third time, Celestia will probably already be annoyed that I kept the night going for longer than usual. But finally morning is here, and we can begin our quest to find an appropriate pet for you!" Luna turned towards Blueblood.
Blueblood didn't answer. He just stared ahead, his eyes wide and with some rather prominent eye bags underneath them, his mouth slightly opened. He then fell to a side with a thud.
"Is everything okay?" Luna asked, moving closer.
Blueblood remained silent. His eyelids slowly moved to close themselves, but as he was about to fall asleep the collar Luna had made him wear zapped him back to his senses. He mumbled something unintelligible and rolled back to be on his hooves, slowly getting back up. He looked at Luna with the same distant gaze he'd worn for the majority of the night. He then fell to the side again, and the scene repeated itself.
Luna rubbed her forehead with a hoof, a frown on her face. "I can't believe you're this tired already. And we're only halfway through! I mean, I could let you sleep now, your sleep pattern should be properly switched, but how are we supposed to find your animal if you sleep during the day?"
Blueblood fell once again.
Luna looked at his body. "Okay, fine, but only this time." A small ball of energy detached itself from her horn and entered Blueblood's head.
The stallion shook his head, suddenly aware of what was happening once again, and looked up at the alicorn. "Couldn't you have done that sooner?"
"Well, you see-"
Luna was interrupted by a letter materializing in front of her, accompanied by a flash of golden magic.
"Excuse me for a moment, would you? Sorry, the formalities of being a Princess." Luna grabbed the letter in her magic and began to read it, her expression shifting from one of confusion at first to a devious smile.
"What does it say?" Blueblood asked, trying to get a look at it.
"Nothing much, really. My sister says that she's sorry for leaving me inside a coffin, and she asks me to not turn into Nightmare Moon and start another war over it. She says she'll bake me a cake if I lower the Moon right now."
Blueblood took a moment to think. "So what are you going to do?"
"Lower the Moon, of course," Luna replied, looking at him.
"But could you not ask for more?"
Luna tilted her head to the side, confused. "What do you mean? What could there be that is more than a cake?"
"Money? Power? A promotion for your student? Fame? Giving a pair of wings to your student? Territories? Making your student an alicorn?"
Luna shook her head. "A cake is better than that, Vlad."
Blueblood smacked his head with a hoof. "How about two cakes?"
Luna perked up as she heard that. "Wait, you mean I can ask for two cakes?"
Blueblood's hoof slowly travelled down his face, and he looked at Luna. "Well, yes. If she's asking you to lower the Moon and offering something in return then it's clear that you're the one with the power to decide if what she's giving to you is enough."
Luna thoughtfully stroked her chin. "So you're saying I might even be able to ask for three cakes?"
"You might even ask for unlimited cak-"
"Oh, what am I saying, two cakes is already a lot." Luna wrote something on the scroll and sent it back to her sister.
Blueblood was about to speak again, but he was interrupted by a new letter appearing between him and the alicorn.
Luna picked it up and unrolled it. "She says she accepts!" She threw the letter behind her and jumped on Blueblood, hugging the unicorn. "Thank you! As a reward, I will allow you to eat some of the cake."
A new letter appeared, and Luna picked it up, letting go of her student. She assumed a guilty-looking expression and her horn glowed with magic once more. Likely to lower the Moon, although Blueblood had no way to tell, since he'd been stuck there for more than a whole day at that point, the only source of light the candles in the room.
"Well then, now that that's settled I believe we can start our quest!" Luna exclaimed.
Without further warning, Blueblood found himself being magically transported to the surface once more. Not having slept at all during the previous night, his digestive system was in a rather unstable condition, and the only reason the event didn't cause him to throw up was the fact that he hadn't eaten anything in the past day. That and the fact that his brain was mostly focused on how the way he'd suddenly found himself in broad daylight was making his eyes feel like they'd been set on fire.
"What a lovely day, wouldn't you agree?" Luna asked, staring into the distance.
The only answer were the unicorn's muffled cries of suffering as he laid barely conscious on the grass.
Luna turned around. "Come on, I know the grass is comfortable but we need to go looking for your animal."
A small dog moved closer to Blueblood, licking the unicorn's face. The stallion stared at the animal. "I think I found one. Can we pick this one? He likes me already."
"That dog?" Luna picked the animal up in her magic and brought it closer to her face, examining it. "No," she said, and the dog was unceremoniously launched away.
Blueblood got up. "Why?"
"Why?" Luna said, staring at the unicorn. "Because my student deserves far better than a mere dog. You need a legendary creature, something mysterious and exotic that will put even my sister's phoenix to shame. Like a falip!"
"What is a falip?" Blueblood asked.
"I have no idea," the alicorn replied, "I encountered the name of the species once in a book, with no further explanation given, and never found it elsewhere. Clearly a creature about which so little is known is perfect for you. We shall name him Akran!"
Blueblood looked back at Luna. "Why Akran?" he asked, unsure of whether or not he wanted to know the answer.
"It was the name of a legendary warrior," Luna replied, looking at the horizon.
"A legendary warrior that did what, exactly? Because I have never heard of him. And I don't recall you mentioning him as you went over the history of Equestria."
"Oh, he was likely not from this world. But I'm sure he was a great hero. Why would such verses have been written about him otherwise?" Luna turned back towards Blueblood.
"Verses?" the unicorn asked, confused.
"Indeed. I found them in a small book when I visited Shining Armor and Cadence. It was kept together with a weird metallic-looking disc with a drawing on a side, which I assume was a representation of what he looks like. Now that I think about them, he definitely wasn't of this world, since they mentioned eight suns. But that's not important, what's important is that it's the perfect name for your falip." Luna began to march away.
Blueblood began to follow her. "May I ask why it's the perfect name?"
"Because I have decided that it is," Luna replied without turning back.
"But didn't Princess Twilight get to choose the name of her pet for herself?" the unicorn asked, struggling to keep up with the taller pony's pace.
"And we all saw how that turned out. I will not make the same mistakes my sister made in granting too many liberties to my student." Luna began to walk faster.
Blueblood had to almost run to keep up with her. "Princess, where exactly are we going?"
Luna stopped, the unicorn coming to a halt a few metres ahead of her and almost falling on the ground. "You see those mountains in the distance?" she asked, raising a hoof to point it at the horizon.
Blueblood looked in the direction she was pointing at. "Yes," he said, noticing the mountains Luna had mentioned.
Luna began to walk again.
Blueblood remained frozen in place for a few moments, and once he went back to following the alicorn he had to run in order to catch up to her. "Wait, you mean we're going there? Why?"
"To find your falip, of course."
"But I-But why there? And can't you just teleport us there?" Blueblood found it increasingly hard to speak while having to keep up with the Princess.
"It would be pointless to just go there, Vlad. This is about the journey. We have no idea of where the falip might be, so we need to look for it through all of Equestria, and beyond if necessary." Luna began to walk even faster.
"You mean we have to walk there?" Blueblood asked, rapidly running out of breath.
"Not only do we have to walk there, Vlad, we have to cover as much terrain as possible and carefully search for the creature's hideout. Of course, we have no way of knowing what its hideout looks like, so we'll have to check every possible nest and burrow. We might run into some dangerous animals, but it'll serve as great combat practice for you, and as an occasion to demonstrate more of the ability Tiberius grants me."
Blueblood's tired, sleep deprived, untrained and almost starving body fell to the ground with a thud, its owner having lost all motivation to continue.
"So, while on the road, I think we could test what you've learnt. Go ahead and repeat the entire history of Equestria," Luna said after having walked for roughly a hundred metres from where Blueblood had fallen. After numerous seconds of silence she looked at her side and noticed the unicorn was no longer with her.
Blueblood's body spasmodically thrashed on the ground, unable to fall asleep but too weak to move.
After a few minutes of walking back, Luna finally found her student. "Well, what are you doing here?" she asked.
Blueblood's eye was the only part of his body that moved to acknowledge her presence, the unicorn too weak to even speak.
Luna sighed. "How am I supposed to teach to someone who can't even go a full day without food, sleep and water? We'll never be able to catch up to Twilight if you waste time with such trivial activities like eating or drinking or sleeping."
Blueblood didn't move.
Luna tilted her head to the side. "Are you still there?" she asked.
Again, no movement was visible on Blueblood's body.
Luna began to chew on her lower lip. She gave a small kick to Blueblood's body, and she received no reaction. She began to nervously look around. "You!" she called, addressing the first pony she saw. "Come here!"
The unicorn walked up to her.
"Do you know how to check if a pony is still alive?" she asked.
The unicorn nodded.
Luna pointed a hoof towards Blueblood, lying on the ground.
The unicorn moved closer to check Blueblood's breathing and pulse. "He's alive, Princess."
Luna sighed in relief. "Thankfully, I won't have to blame you for murdering him."
The unicorn looked at her with a puzzled expression, but before he could say anything Luna and Blueblood disappeared in a flash of light.
The cook gave a puzzled expression as the limp body of a white unicorn materialised over his table, Princess Luna standing at his side.
"Feed him," the alicorn simply stated, pointing at the blonde stallion. She then walked out of the room, but stopped once she'd closed the door, noticing a presence in the room.
"Hi Luna," Celestia greeted her sister as she saw her walking out of the kitchen, "I see you are no longer angry at me for leaving you there in that coffin. Thank you for not starting a civil war. I'll have those cakes ready by tomorrow, I promise."
"Yes, yes, of course," Luna said, not paying much attention to the other alicorn but nervously glancing back at the room she'd walked out of.
Celestia cocked her head to a side. "Sister, what were you doing in the kitchen?"
"Nothing!" Luna squeaked, jerkily turning her head to look straight ahead.
"Oh," Celestia said, getting up, "then you won't mind if I take a look inside, right?" She walked up to the door. "Could you move out of the way?"
Luna's instincts took over and her body went rigid, her eyes rolled back, her breathing and heartbeat stopping.
Celestia slapped her. "Luna, please. What are you hiding?"
Luna nervously glanced left and right, then straight into her sister's eyes. In a fit of panic, she teleported inside the room, grabbed the food, Blueblood and the cook, and then teleported away.
Blueblood woke up with a jerk of his body, startling the pony leaning over him who fell backwards. He only had a brief moment to look around at the mostly empty room he was in and realise he was in some sort of bed before the other got back up and started to shakily head for the door.
"Princess Luna!" he called, "Princess Luna! He's awake!"
Blueblood observed the room more closely. It looked as if it had been carved in the side of a mountain, the walls and ceiling made of rock and the floor covered by a carpet. Other than the bed he was in there was a small table at his side, on it a bowl with some food left and a spoon in it. Feeling quite hungry, and having figured out it had been likely intended for him, he grabbed it and finished the food.
"Ah, you're finally awake," Luna said as she entered the room, wearing a heavy fur coat with traces of snow stuck in it.
Blueblood quickly placed the bowl back down and got up from the bed. "Princess Luna. How long was I passed out for?"
"Months," Luna replied with a grave expression.
Blueblood gulped. "Months?"
"No, it was actually only a couple of hours," Luna replied, smiling. "Though it certainly felt like months," she quietly added while looking to the side with a more serious expression.
Blueblood sighed in relief and walked closer to her. "So where are we now?"
"The mountains," Luna answered, "I needed a place where my sister couldn't find us. This is an old abandoned outpost designed for one or two guards, it mostly served as a checkpoint when travelling to the other side. It fell in disuse once the railroad was built."
"Understood." Blueblood curiously walked up to the exit and peeked out, only to be greeted by the biting cold of the raging blizzard outside. "What happened to that other pony?" he asked while walking back inside.
"The cook? I sent him back to Canterlot once he made sure you'd been fed and had woken up, I had him keep an eye on you while I stayed outside and made sure Celestia wasn't following us." Luna went up to the bed and grabbed another, smaller fur coat from under it. "Take this," she said, passing it to Blueblood.
The unicorn instinctively grabbed it and started to put it on. "Why do I have to wear it? Can't we just teleport away?"
Luna looked at him with eyes wide open. "Are you insane? We can't teleport now! Celestia might be tracking our magic, we can't risk her finding our position. It was lucky enough that she didn't follow us here, teleporting right now would be practically asking her to come to us."
Blueblood looked at the closed door. "So we're going out there like this? With that blizzard going on?"
"Greatness doesn't come to those who wait for it, you must chase it, Vlad." Luna began to walk towards the exit.
"Through that blizzard?"
Luna arrived at the door, and looked back at Blueblood. "Yes." She kicked open the door, and snow began to storm inside the room. "We can't leave traces behind," she said, as a blast from her magic incinerated the bed, the table, the carpet and the door, as well as a couple of strands from Blueblood's mane. She then began to walk away.
Blueblood quickly ran after her, into the cold of the ice and snow. "Where are we going now? Back to Canterlot?" He had to almost shout to surpass the howling sound of the wind around them.
"No," Luna replied without turning to look at him.
"Where then?" Blueblood asked, a little confused. "We're getting away from this mountain, right?"
"Quite the opposite, actually." Luna seemed to stop and look around for a moment, then resumed her march. "We will search the mountains for your falip. Oh, don't look at me like that," she added, despite having her face pointed in the direction opposite to the unicorn's.
He stopped for a moment, confused, then began walking again. "Why?" he asked, slightly worried for his condition.
"Many reasons." Luna stopped to examine something on the ground, then lifted her head again. "First, we'd decided to examine all of Equestria, so there's no reason to not start here now that we're here. Second, this is a very inhospitable and poorly explored environment, therefore it's more likely that the falip might be here and not yet properly documented. Third, this blizzard will make it harder for Celestia and her spies to find us. Lastly..." She turned and pointed a hoof. "This extreme weather will temper your spirit, making you into a worthy student!"
"Princess?"
"Yes?"
"I'm over here," Blueblood said, waving a hoof.
Luna looked in his direction. "Oh. Indeed you are, my student. Sorry, it's a bit hard to tell your white away from all the snow." She turned back to the direction her hoof was pointing in. "Then what is this other white shape?" she asked, getting closer to it.
"Princess? Are you sure it's a good idea?" Blueblood worriedly asked.
"But of course!" Luna reached the thing. "Let's see. About as tall as a pony, white fur, four legs, two eyes, large fangs... I believe it is not a falip!" she somewhat disappointedly said while turning to Blueblood.
The unicorn gulped. "What is it then?"
"Well, judging by the tracks I found earlier, and by the way it's growling at me, I believe it is a wolf." Luna got away from it and walked towards Blueblood.
"Oh. Should I be concerned?"
"Nah, I'm too big for a single wolf to attack me."
The two kept walking for a bit.
"Princess?"
"What is it?"
"It's still following us."
"Don't worry, I've already told you it won't attack me. Your princess is safe, my dear. Though now that I think about it, it might try to eat you." Luna stopped and concentrated for a moment. "Yes, I do believe it might."
Blueblood stopped at her side. "Should we not... run, Your Highness?"
Luna looked back. "I do not believe that will be necessary. Or useful for that matter."
"And why is that, Princess?"
"Because it has already pounced on us."
Blueblood turned back, to see the wolf in mid-air, falling towards him. He regretted many of his recent decisions in that moment, not for the first time, not for the last time either.
The wolf hit Blueblood's body, and the two began to fall down the side of the mountain, rolling around in the snow as the wolf tried to attack the unicorn only for its claws to remain caught in Blueblood's fur coat. Blueblood screamed, barely managing to hold the wolf's jaws closed with his magic.
Luna looked down at the two creatures rolling in the snow. "Oh, they're having fun," she commented as she heard the sound of Blueblood's desperate cries. She pondered for a moment. "Well, I will have to reach him anyway, might as well go there the entertaining way." She angled herself, lied down, and let the legs on a side of her body give out, pushing with those on the other, thus beginning to roll down the mountain. "Whee!" she giddily exclaimed as her body started to collect snow around it and move faster.
"Help!" Blueblood screamed, terrified, as the wolf tried to push its head forward and bite into his throat. The two kept falling faster and faster, the world around them a blur, until suddenly they stopped. It took a moment for Blueblood to realise what had happened, but once he did, he quickly got back up and started to walk away.
The wolf, having been the one of the two who had hit the tree directly, remained on the ground for a little longer, but it eventually got up too, if a little dizzily.
Blueblood backed away from the animal, only to find himself with his back against a wall of rock in the side of the mountain. The blizzard appeared to be confined to the upper regions of the mountain, so he had a clearer visibility where he was. This allowed him to clearly see the distinct lack of any escape from his situation. His back against a rock, he wasn't fast enough to circle around it and start running away, much less to reach the forest behind the wolf. Even if he could probably manage to teleport there, the wolf was still faster than him, it would catch up eventually. He was trapped.
The wolf began to approach Blueblood, one step at a time. It closed in, a slight curvature to the path it chose to ensure Blueblood wouldn't try to run around.
It was suddenly hit by a rather large snowball, at least trice the size of an alicorn in diameter, which had come rolling down the mountain at a remarkably high speed. The snowball kept rolling into the forest, carrying the wolf along, knocking down trees along its path, and where the wolf had stood was now a slightly confused Princess Luna.
The alicorn got up, looking at the ball rolling away, and pouted. "Didn't even ask for a lift, just kicked me out of the thing," she muttered.
Blueblood stared in disbelief, panting heavily.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Luna asked as she got closer to him, "We've got to find your falip, do we not?"
Blueblood looked in silence as she walked away from him, then looked at the trail of destruction left by the snowball. He swallowed and began to follow her.
"Believe me, I'm sorry about that," Luna commented as the two walked side by side, "but I couldn't let you keep that wolf as your pet, even if it did seem to like you very much. But such a simple animal isn't befitting of your status, even if you seemed to be rather fond of it."
"No, it's... it's no big deal, really..." Blueblood came to the conclusion that perhaps it would have been better if they never did find that falip, if Luna's standards for what a loving pet was like were those. He was suddenly stopped and startled from his thoughts by Luna's hoof extending in front of him.
"Stop here," she said, pointing forward, "they might be spies sent by my sister."
Blueblood looked forward to see a lone tent at the side of a clearing, with a sign outside and a yellow unicorn walking back in.
"I'm going to ambush them," Luna said, beginning to move.
"Wait!" he said, stopping her by grabbing her hoof.
Luna turned around, quizzically looking at him.
Blueblood realised the stupidity of his own actions, but decided to keep going anyway. "We should use a camouflage spell and try to get information out of them that way. If we attack they might send a distress signal to Celestia." Of course, he would have very much liked that to happen, but it seemed unlikely that those ponies had anything to do with them in the first place.
Luna looked at him for a moment. "You know what? I think you're right. Of course, I would have been able to neutralize them fast enough, but that plan makes sense for you, so we'll go with it." She coated them both in her magic, and they began to walk towards the tent.
"Oh, hello there!" a unicorn said as they approached, noticing them. "Welcome to Flim and Flam's Everything Emporium, anything you might want to buy from magic swords and stone masks to life-sized Chrysalis plushes and crayons to colour animal fur!"
Luna looked at the tent. "In there?"
"Spatial expansion magic, sir."
Luna gave a shrug and began to walk away.
"Wait," Blueblood said, "do you have exotic animals in there?"
"Anything, ma'am. Please come inside."
Luna looked back and gave an understanding nod, then followed them in.
"Here we go," Flim said, moving a curtain to the side to reveal a large room filled with all manners of cages and boxes, all full of animals.
Blueblood began to walk forward but was suddenly distracted by Luna.
"Found it!" the alicorn yelled, pointing at a young anteater. "I've never seen anything like this, so clearly this it!"
"That's a giant anteater pup, sir."
"Oh. Not a falip?"
"No, sir."
"Well I know every other animal in here, so there's nothing for us it seems." Luna began to walk away.
Blueblood's hopes were crushed and buried before he even had the time to realise they'd been there. Then suddenly, a plan formed in his mind. "Get me some of those crayons," he said.
Flim quickly teleported them to him.
In a matter of seconds, the pup was sporting two bright purple stripes on his back and a silver star on his forehead.
"I found it!" Blueblood called.
Luna returned inside. "Oh. Marvellous news!"
The Chapter that wasn't supposed to be there but then the one before got too long and we wanted to have the one before the next one end the way this one ends
Luna rushed back in at the sound of her student's voice, the white stallion claiming he had found the creature they'd been searching for. She entered the tent, and there in his hooves she saw it. "Oh. Marvellous news!" she exclaimed.
Blueblood gave a deep sigh of relief. "How much for the falip?" he asked, turning to Flim.
"Well actually that's a-"
There was no demonstrated evidence of a stare's ability to pierce through a pony's flesh and skin, but the look Blueblood gave to the other unicorn made him decide that it was better to not find out. And if not the eyes, the horn above them would have certainly seen that those were the consequences.
"-a falip, yes. I'll get the paperwork." He walked out of the storage room.
Luna followed him, smiling, and so did Blueblood, the small anteater grabbing the back of his fur coat and comfortably laying there.
"Here we go!" Flam passed them a sheet of paper, every mention of the word 'anteater' scratched away and replaced with 'falip', and after signing it Luna paid with money she'd taken out of... somewhere, probably her fur coat, but Blueblood hadn't had a chance to see exactly from where it had come.
Flam waved them goodbye as they neared the exit. "Everything you need to know about it is written in that paper," he said.
Luna was about to exit when she heard a sound coming from outside. She stopped Blueblood and dragged him behind the curtain, into the storage room, while simultaneously casting a spell towards Flim and Flam. "Celestia's spies," she said under her breath, hiding behind a disproportionately large stuffed toy in the shape of a cute caricature of Queen Chrysalis with a large heart-shaped pillow-necklace that read 'hug me' in bright pink letters, "I don't know how but they found us."
Blueblood sincerely wanted to run away from there, but Luna's magic held him in place and he could only listen to what the ponies on the other side were saying.
"We've been sent here by Celestia," he heard a male voice say, "her sister disappeared recently and a cook has informed us that she was in a mountainous area with another pony. We traced the magic used on him to an abandoned outpost nearby, just recently destroyed, and then followed the trail of hoofsteps and destruction until here. Have you seen anyone suspicious? We fear for the Princess' safety, she's been acting weird recently."
"No one has been here," Flim and Flam replied.
Luna growled. "I knew I should have put a temporary seal on that cook's memory. Oh well, I did it with those two, it should be good enough to allow us to escape." As she said that, she moved away, only to accidentally push on the stuffed Chrysalis toy.
"I love you!" the toy exclaimed, and the ponies in the other room stopped talking and began to walk towards them.
"Who even buys these things!" Luna let out in a whispered scream.
The steps from the room came closer and closer.
Luna began to turn and look for a way out, then tried to walk away but realised her student wasn't following her. She turned towards him. "What are you doing?" she asked.
Blueblood hesitated, looking between her and the shadows of the ponies on the other side. This was his chance. He could finally get away from her. But, that also meant never becoming an alicorn, and it would also probably mean Luna would never forgive him. He stared into her eyes.
Luna looked in her student's eyes. Was he planning to betray her? Did he not consider her a good teacher? Would he rather have Celestia find out about what they were doing? Her own eyes began to moisten as her doubts crept up on her.
Blueblood saw his own reflection in Luna's eyes, and realised something. More precisely, he didn't see his reflection in her eyes, but rather that of a unicorn mare, as the camouflage spell Luna had utilized was still in effect. To his credit, he also realised Luna was about to cry, which was the reason that pushed him towards his decision. "Don't let them see you," he mouthed to her, then dashed towards the nearest shelf and picked up a book, purposefully knocking down everything else to make as much noise as he could.
The ponies on the other side rushed forward and entered through the curtain, their eyes setting on Blueblood.
"A thief!" Flim shouted.
"She's trying to steal that book we-well that's actually a copy and not the original, a perfectly legal copy we made with Celestia's approval, as I could prove to you with those absolutely legitimate documents we keep in the other room, so really it's not like there's anything wrong with that book or with us and-well, she's trying to steal it!" Flam yelled.
Blueblood dropped the book and teleported behind them, then began to run away, the guards and the brothers chasing after him.
Luna, who had ducked behind the large Chrysalis, peeked out and then walked out once she was sure she was alone. She looked at the way the items that had been on the shelf had fallen on the ground. She then calmly made her way to the tent's exit, and after making sure none of the guards had stayed behind she studied their tracks in the snow and chose her path.
Blueblood kept running, occasionally teleporting forward. The brothers were far behind him, but the guards were moving closer and closer. But he could make it, he was sure of it, just a little more.
The guards suddenly teleported in front of him, blocking him off and standing right in front of a large path between the trees. "It's over!" one of them shouted, "You're under arrest!"
Blueblood slowly backed away, until he felt a wall of rock behind himself. He smiled. "Come get me!" he taunted.
The guards began to walk towards him, slightly spreading out to make sure he had no way to escape.
They were suddenly hit by a rather large snowball, at least trice the size of an alicorn in diameter, which had come rolling down the mountain at a remarkably high speed. The snowball kept rolling into the forest, carrying the guards along, following the path of knocked down trees, and where the guards had stood was now Princess Luna.
Blueblood walked up to the alicorn. "Thank you," he said.
"Don't worry about it," Luna replied as she got up. "Good idea, using the items on the shelf to spell out a message. I think I'll have to award you a few extra points for that."
Blueblood tilted his head to a side. "There's a point system?" he asked.
Luna looked up in though, rubbing her chin with a hoof. "No, now that I think about it."
Blueblood blinked once.
Luna got closer to him. "How's Akran doing?" she asked, circling him to get a better look at the animal on his back.
Blueblood looked over his shoulder at the little anteater. "He seems fine," he said, "I think he's sleeping right now."
"Great!" Luna smiled. "Now we just need to figure out what powers your connection grants you!" She pranced up to Blueblood's front side. "I can't wait to see what such an exotic creature might allow you to do."
Blueblood snapped back at attention. "Oh, yeah, right, that."
"You haven't forgotten about the special powers a spirit animal grants to their owner, right?" She looked at him with a frown. "I don’t need to remind you what Tiberius allows me to do, now, do I?"
Blueblood looked up. "Oh no no I reme-"
Luna was already limp on the ground, her breathing stopped and her pulse absent.
Blueblood sighed and walked up to the alicorn, kicking some snow in her face. "Princess? wake up please."
Luna blinked a couple of times, and slowly rose back to stand on her hooves and legs. "See? Incredible, isn't it?"
Blueblood gave a long and low sigh. "Yes, Princess. Incredible."
Luna smiled.
"So where do we go now?"
"Back to Canterlot!" Luna declared, beginning to march away, "You've found your spirit animal, now it's time to continue your studies."
Blueblood dashed after her. "We're going there on hoof?" he asked.
"Well, yes," Luna explained without turning back, "we still can't afford to be tracked by Celestia or her guards. This also means we'll have to keep our contacts with society at minimum, as to not leave traces of our path behind."
"But won't your sister know you're back in Canterlot once we reach the city? What's the point of taking longer to get there?" The unicorn had to almost run to keep up with the alicorn, the combination of her pace and the length of her legs causing her to move much faster than him.
"She will," Luna replied, "and that's why you must be ready once we get there. Your studies will continue while we travel as well."
"Oh." Blueblood kept moving at her side. "Did you bring any books?"
"No," Luna replied. "Oh," she added after a moment. She cleared her throat.
Blueblood looked at her, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, our first lesson will be, uh..." She looked at her own mane. "Tibbles, do you have any suggestions?" she whispered.
The opossum popped out of her mane and tilted its head, looking at her. He then jumped out of her and ran to some nearby trees, picked up something from in between them, ate it and then returned to the alicorn.
"Ah...Yes!" Luna turned back to the unicorn. "Your first lesson shall be foraging our food."
"Do alicorns need to eat?" he asked.
Luna chewed her bottom lip for a moment. "No, I think we don't."
"Well then we don't really need to do that now. I ate not long ago, you don't need to, Tiberius just did and Akran is sleeping."
"What does he eat, anyway?" Luna asked, looking at the animal on Blueblood's back.
Blueblood took out the paper he'd received when buying the pet. "Here it says he eats ants. And also milk, for a while still at least, before he grows a little more."
"Then we shall hunt for milk! And by we I mean you, of course." Luna declared.
Blueblood stared at her. "Princess... I am not entirely sure milk is something one hunts for."
"It is, my student. And we shall hunt for it in its natural habitat!" She pointed a hoof forward.
The two had been walking for a while, and only now the unicorn realised they'd reached the edge of a small village. He followed the direction of Luna's hoof, and saw she was pointing towards what looked like a grocery store.
"Come on, go and get it," she incited.
"Princess. Do you mean stealing?"
Luna looked at him. "Oh, of course not! Here," she passed him some bits, and again Blueblood failed to identify where they'd come from.
The unicorn grabbed the money.
"Hunt well, my student, milk is an insidious prey. You will be able to grab it if you take it by surprise, but be aware that it might run away if you aren't careful."
Blueblood turned around to look at his teacher. "Princess Luna, you know what a grocery store is, right?"
"Of course!" the alicorn replied, "Though I've always found that to be a rather unnecessarily fancy name. Back in my days we just called them hunting reserves. But I was always intrigued by the new fauna, like those weird parallelepiped-shaped creatures you're going to hunt. Milk used to be a more cylinder-like species in my time, it's weird how it evolved to be so different."
Blueblood stared for a couple of seconds, then simply nodded. He walked to the store, still disguised by Luna's magic, and bought a cartoon of milk, then returned to Luna. He'd decided she needed someone to keep watching over her.
The two were about to walk away when, turning around, they found a wagon in front of them, just at the side of the path they'd followed to get there.
"Were you two planning to get away?" a female voice asked from behind them, "Did you think I hadn't noticed your presence?"
Blueblood stopped and turned around, looking at the figure of a pony leaning against a tree, her face covered by her hat. He was about to ask her who she was, but he was suddenly distracted by a number of weird things. Like the weird coloured symbols that seemed to float in the air above and around the mare, or the sudden sepia filter that seemed to have covered everything. Or the intro of a progressive rock song suddenly playing in the background. Or what looked like a cardboard cut-out in the stylised shape of a large arrow floating in mid-air.
