“Ouff!” Blue Blood huffed, walking head first into a street light. Another long night of strong royal reserves leads his royally drunk flank into Canterlot’s Dining district. Many of the buildings were closed, meaning no pony was around to see him like he was. He, very wobbly, trotted along the road, his booze hazed eyes struggling to see more than three feet in front of his muzzle. He pulled his last bottle of his Auntie Luna’s thousand-year-old aged wine, was too drunk to use magic, so he ripped the cork off with his teeth, spit it out into the street, and downed the three-liter bottle. Once the last drop touched his tongue he let the bottle roll off into the streets and trotted on.

Sadly though, after barely a meter, he tripped, just catching himself against the display window of a bakery. His eyes caught glimpse of the pastries, and his stomach rumbles. “Fuck…” He slurred. “You...you just got a bunch of wine y-y-y-you...whiny tummy.” He said, and his stomach rumbled again. “F-fine!” He shouted, sniffing the air. “Bleh, nothing's open I-” At that moment, his muzzle caught a whiff of something...unknown, spicy, flavorful, and above all, it was food.

He stumbled his way through the street, following his sniffer into a back ally and to an oddly designed building, he couldn’t tell if it was the alcohol or the building, but the smell of food tossed the question out of his mind. He entered and was greeted with a set up as odd as his drunk mind could register. He stumbled, taking the nearest seat and waited.

“Father! There’s a customer!” A mare’s voice spoke. Her accent was so...unknown to Blue Blood. When she came into view, even with his blurry eyes, he saw her like an angel glowing in the night. Her figure was thin, lengthy, but firm, well toned and lead the eyes up… Her fur was a bright orangey color and her main was wild and dark fuchsia color. She had ear rings, a head band holding her large, wild mane from covering her eyes, an orange bandana tied around her neck which was jeweled, and a white top. Her cutie mark was some sort of Flower that Blue Blood didn’t recognize. When she spotted him, her nose scrunched from the strong smell of alcohol, but kept her smile and muscled through it. “Greetings sir, I am Saffron and I will be your waitress this night.” She said, levitating a menu over to him. “See anything you like?”

“O-oh, right.” He said, trying his best to regain, or at least act, somewhat sober. “Uh...What’s this? It looks like salsa or something?” Blue Blood spoke, managing to not slur his words.

“Oh yes, the number seven then, coming right up.” She said, walking over to the kitchen window and saying the order before walking back. “It will be out in a bit, my father is going to cook it then head home after you leave I’ll close up shop.”

“O-okay.”

Saffron looked the clearly drunk stallion over, he was trying too hard to act sober. She couldn’t lie, he was a looker, messy, but still had looked. “So where are you from?” She asked, taking a seat next to him.

Blue Blood gulped. She was the first mare to talk to him other than his Auntie’s in three years without cussing him out or out right ignoring him. “Just...wanted to get lost. Been a...guess you can call it a hobby of mine for the last two years.”

“Really?” Saffron asked, raising an eyebrow. “How come this is the first time I haven’t seen you around here at night?”

“I usually wander and pass out in the Royal gardens...the grass is rather soft and one of the guards has taken to waking me up before any pony comes.”

“Sounds like you made a friend.”

“Maybe...maybe.” Blue Blood thought. That guard never treated him badly, not like the royal he was. Is that how friends act? He pondered. “So...I’ve never heard an accent like yours before, where are you from?”

“Oh, a village of ponies in the Zebra Lands. My father and I moved to Canterlot to cook our home’s food for the ponies of Canterlot, and so far our dream has come true. So what about you? You from Canterlot?”

“Born and raised.” Blue Blood stated. “Never...never really traveled outside the city...or far from home…”

“Scared of the unknown?”

“Ironic huh? I got my cutie mark in navigation, yet I’m too scared to leave home.” Blue Blood didn’t know why, though he guessed it was the booze, but he kept talking to Saffron, telling her about how he feels deeply, and she, as far as he could tell, was doing the same.

She left briefly to get his food and he saw her father, a rather large, as in round fellow, but she placed his food down and he began eating. Saffron still sat next to him and the two kept on talking.

“So, how does one get a cutie mark in navigation yet fear travel?” Saffron asked.

Blue Blood paused, and thought back. “It...was when I was a foal. I had just gotten my cutie mark and thought I could run off to find adventure and all that foolish dreams. Well, I got surprisingly far, a train ride I snuck on was headed far out...near Appaloosa. I got off and started walking. If not for some buffalos finding me I would have died from heat stroke, didn’t pack water or anything other than maps, crayons, and a candy bar. Saw how scared it made my...auntie, and I decided to never leave.”

“What of your mother? Father?”

“My mother and father both died when I was a baby, auntie raised me.”

“Oh my, I’m sorry.”

“I’m over it.”

“You know, a stallion of your looks likely get’s all the mares huh?”

“Heh, once upon a time. I got...well, a mare that is rather high up cursed me out, word got out, now no mares look at me, or curse me out on site.”

“Sounds like she’s quite the piece of work.” Saffron huffed.

Blue Blood chuckled. “She was, but to be fair...I was rather uncouth. Back then I thought I owned the world, last three years have been more of a drowning of reality rather than a simple splash of it.”

“That explains why you’re wearing scotch, wine, and vodka as your new musk.” Saffron chuckled.

“Heh, pretty much. So...how much for the food?” Blue asked, finishing the last bite. The food had sobered him up some, enough to head home anyway.

Saffron merely smiled as she leaned in close to Blue Blood. “On the house, just...don't let my father find out what happened next~,” She said, lip locking Blue Blood.

His eyes shot open wide, after what was happening registered, he embraced it, and that table of the Tasty Treat had two ponies on it rather than food.

Blue blood woke up in cold sweats. Most every night for the past two years he had been having that dream of that night. “Damn...didn't even get to see the good part.” He chuckled, lifting his sheets off with magic and got out of bed, stretched, and yawned.

“Morning breath alert.” Blue Blood turned to see the speaker, only to have a wet towel thrown at his face.

“Very funny Hopper.” Blue Blood groaned, taking the towel off his face. The pegasus stallion had a black coat, blue mane, and tail with a flaming feather as a cutie mark. A month after his night with Saffron, he worked up the guts to order him to act as his butler rather than a guard. Hopper laughed and accepted. “So what's on today's agenda?”

“Dunno, princess Celestia just told me to have you speak with her soon.”

“Odd. Think it's something serious?”

“Depends, auntie catch ya yanking?” Blue Blood threw the wet towel at Hopper’s face. “Still not a denial.”

“Just get my breakfast. I’ll take a quick shower in the meantime and get ready for whatever auntie wants to talk about.”

“Aye aye prince,” Hopper said, tossing the towel into the dirty laundry hamper with his wing then flying out of Blue Blood’s room.

“That's not ev- of screw it.”

After a fast shower and quickly devouring a plate of eggs and toast, Blue Blood trotted his way to Celestia’s throne room. Upon arriving at the doors he inhaled deeply and used his magic to open them. He kept his head low, looking only at the floor till he was at the base of her steps to her throne, then, he looked up at her. “Blue Blood, glad you have finally arrived.”

“Auntie. Is there an issue?”

“Yes there is, and I am afraid it's more your issue.”

Blue Blood became confused. “Have I done something-”

“Hello again.” Blue Blood froze. The voice from his dreams spoke, he turned around and saw the angel in the waking world for the second time. Saffron. “Been a while...Blue Blood.”

“S-Saffron!” Blue Blood said, voice nearly cracking in surprise. “Y-yes it has. You...seem well.”

“As do you...Blue Blood...remember our first meeting...two years ago?”

He gulped. “V-vividly.”

Saffron chuckled, blushing slightly. “Well, you...left me something that night.” She stepped aside. A young colt, barely a year, stepped forward. He had Blue Blood’s coat, and his eyes, but he had Saffron’s mane and tail colors with thin streaks of blond. “The princess already did the tests. He is your son, Blue Spice.”

Blue Blood was frozen. His mind blanks trying to register the fact that this colt in front of him was his foal. “You know what this means Blue Blood,” Celestia spoke, gaining his and Saffron’s attention. “He is your son, by law he is a prince of Equestria, and therefore, his mother a princess.”

“Wait, what?!” Saffron shouted, jumped from that bit of information. “I-I just wanted Spice to meet his father, I, what?!”

“It is the law, Saffron. If a prince of Equestria has a foal while unmarried the mother of the foal and the prince are to be married and she made a princess...you didn't know this?”

“My father and I just got our citizenship papers four years ago, plus, what non-noble knows that is a law?!”

“Usually the kind that wants the foal to become royalty.” Blue Blood spoke, stepping out of his stupor. “Well… This calls for a drink and it still ten in the morning.”

“Try to cut back for your son Bluesy.” Celestia said.

“Auntie!”

“Bluesy?” Saffron questioned.

“It’s mine and Luna’s nickname for him. I’ve called him that ever since he was little Blue Spice’s age.” Celestia cooed.

“And just like that, I’m off to the wine cellar.” Blue Blood said teleporting to said cellar.

“I’ll send Hopper to drag him out.”

“I’m considering joining him there.” Saffron spoke, sitting down in a stupor of her own. Little Blue Spice looked up at his mother and she sighed. “Well son, your father's a drunk...but at least he seems to be with us… Father is going to have a heart attack when I tell him this…”