Chapter 8, a normal day
Blaze woke early the next morning to the high pitched beeping of his alarm clock, which he promptly silenced so as not to wake anyone else. It was six o'clock in the morning and the sun still had to rise above the horizon and light up the world, for now the moon still reigned. Blaze rolled out of bed and smoothed out the sheets, he'd slept on top of the covers last night, so he didn't need to remake his bed again.
He grabbed his flank pack from under the bed and emptied its contents out onto the sheets with a heavy thump. Inside was everything from the previous day, the box that had contained Sweet creams necklace, which she now wore around her neck. There were three thick text books that contained roughly sixty thesis on the chemical composition of magically generated materials and crystals by Amethyst, princess Lunas personal student. There was also a myriad of loose papers and an empty cigarette packed, which he promptly hid.
Blaze was never up this early, not ever. But after the events of last night he just wanted to get out of the house before he had to face his father, he had to get out taking a breath and hoping the world would slow back down to his speed. It was absolutely ridiculous; only just yesterday he'd been living quite normally. He'd asked Sweet cream to go to hearts and hooves day with him, he'd gone to town and bought silk for his mother, he'd gone swimming in the lakes, everything had been completely normal. But then for no reason what so ever a royal princess had shown up out of nowhere and asked him to become a prince.
When he was smaller Blaze had played make believe just like any colt his age, running to and throw and making up the most ridiculous adventures. He'd been a pirate, a spy, and of course a prince. He'd fought dragons and saved beautiful princesses from towers, he'd run around the garden in a cloak his mother had made him and not ever paused to emerge from his world of dreams. But they were just day dreams, nothing more than his imagination, what Luna had told his father last night had been very real. Blaze had never considered what it would be like to be a real prince, the idea of it had never even crossed his mind.
'Just imagine the responsibility!' he thought to himself as he packed his bag, he knelt down and pulled out a medium sized wooden chest from under the bed. He opened it up and pulled out his old cloak, considering the faded blue swirls his mother had lovingly embroidered into it. 'Princes don't wear this sought of stuff anymore' he placed the cloak on the bed and went back to the chest and pulled out a packet of sweets, which he placed in the pack. 'There are no wars anymore, there are no dragons anymore. It's all just writing letters and doing paper work, there's nothing exciting about being a prince'
Blaze was all for the idea, don't get him wrong, being a prince would have been amazing for his social standing. But it would also make his life so much more difficult, there would be so much more hassle. 'i wouldn't be able to hang with my friends anymore' he thought as he silently made his way around the room, picking up books and spare bits of change to put in the pack 'i would have to spend all my time at the palace learning to be a prince. I'd have to learn how to use different forks and stuff, I'd have to learn how to bow and act with dignity and compliment nobles and all that crap, i don't want that' just look at prince blue blood...wait...why couldn't blue blood inherit the throne, ponies have known about him for years. 'He's only a nephew, I'm the actual descendent of a prince, I'm a direct link to the throne' for some reason thinking of his dad as a prince made Blaze feel a bit weird.
Nova was perhaps one of the ponies he would least suspect of being a prince. His father was the opposite of what a prince should be. He slurped his soup, belched at the table, made cringe worthy lines about his mother. Even his job was considered menial by someponies standards, he worked in the forge, hammer and shaping metal. He didn't know any of the nobility and he'd never been to Canterlot in his life, or been to any sought of royal event...or so Blaze had thought until last night. 'I'm the son of Nova Starflight, the royal prince of Equestria' it just didn't sound right, Blaze thought, he tried giving his own name a title 'Blaze Starflight, the prince of Equestria' that didn't sound right either. Blaze was just a normal Pegasus who was going to live a normal life from he could tell, his cutie mark was a shield in the centre of a silhouetted heart, which his mother told him stood for fortitude. A shield was a normal mark; it was nothing special or royal.
Blaze returned to reality and inspected his handy-work. His pack was neatly filled in, with his text books laid out in alphabetical order. After that he'd placed his packet of sweets and he'd folded his cloak over the top to keep them all covered, Blaze picked up the back and swung it onto his flank and went to the door. As he was about to leave he hesitated, and then went to his draws and unlocked the bottom one with his magic, he reached in and pulled out a packet of cigarettes which he stowed away in the pack and made his way back to the door and went down the stairs to the back door. Blaze didn't normally smoke; he was pretty clean about it. But when he felt down or restless he would sneak out for one 'and when I'm drunk, i tend to smoke when I'm drunk' he opened the pack door and stepped out into the garden, which looked like a lake of pink in the early morning mists.
In the centre was a small patch devoid of blossom, in its centre grew a small black rose. Blaze went up to it and inspected it, giving it a quick sniff; it smelt like...darkness, like night time. It was written that whenever an immortal felt a surge of emotion for whatever reason, one of these flowers would grow from the ground the immortal had stood upon. Each flower was individual to the immortal however, so no two where the same. Also, the flowers couldn't be killed, and would only die when the immortal that had created them died, which meant that a lot of these things where still alive in the world, Blaze wondered if any of them belonged to his father.
This one flower would be here for a long time to come he knew, and would probably outlast Blaze and his children and even his grandchildren. Blaze gave it a final admiring look before he took to the air and left the house and the flower behind him. The air was cool and clean in his lungs as he soared above the mist and into the open sky, below him the buildings of ponyville peaked out of the mist like islands in the sea. He flew over the town and set down on top of a small round building just off from the centre, landing lightly on the roof so as not to wake up the owners. Blaze sat down, pulled out a cigarette and magically lit it, inhaling deeply. His exhaled and the smoke flew from his mouth and mixed in with the morning mist, looking at it he decided that smoking a cigarette was unlikely to change his situation, so he flung it away over the side of the building. It disappeared into the mist.
Blaze pulled out one of the text books written by Amethyst and opened it up at a page entitled 'the molecular structures of magically forged alloys, deciding to lose himself in a book. 'Many of the metals employed by ancient heroes where forged with metals that contain magic or have magically induced properties, these metals are capable of channelling magic because of their unique atomic structure, where their electron count is higher than the contained number of protons. This means that the metals atomic structure contains an excess of free flowing electrons, which means that the free electrons can bind to magical particles without causing the metal to react and change form and lose its magical properties. These free electrons bind with magical particles and cause a tiny amount of energy to be bonded to each atom, the type of energy is different depending on the type of spell employed...' and on and on it went.
In the streets below the mist had begun to lift and the sounds of waking ponies drifted up to him. Not wanting to be caught on top of someponies at home by strangers, Blaze packed up his flank pack and leapt of the edge of the rood, gliding gracefully down onto the cobbled road. The streets of ponyville where only just starting to come alive, the shadows of ponies looming out of the mists like ghosts. He made his way through the maze of streets and into the square he had come to yesterday, on the far side of the square the local restaurant "the cherry orchard" was just opening for business. He trotted across the square and stepped inside, it was warm inside, and smelt of peaches rather than cherries.
"Can i help you sir?" one of the waiters asked, a unicorn who was standing behind a small counter by the door.
"I was wondering if you had any free reservation spots for hearts and hooves day?" the stallion nodded and opened a small file, flipping through the pages.
"hearts and hooves, hearts and hooves...ah here we go" Blaze crossed his hooves 'come on, come on, there's gotta be at least one spot' "why yes we do, the last one as well actually" the waiter gave Blaze a smile "a table for two, by the river as well i would presume?" blaze nodded "of course, how could i think anything different" the stallion levitated a pen and wrote in the reservation "what name is this reserve for sir?"
"Blaze Starflight"
"Your Novas boy? I remember him, good guy, helped me fish my brother out of the river when he fell off the bridge"
"Hey!" another waiter called from across the room, this one identical to the one behind the counter.
"whatever tom" he turned back to Blaze "ok, that's all sorted, I'll see you in three days then sir"
"cheers" Blaze said, stepping through the door and back out into the morning gloom 'well at least some things are going my way' he thought as the sun began to break through the mist 'Sweet cream is going to love this'