“I’m here to visit my aunt Princess Celestia,” said Blueblood as he stopped in front of the two pegasus guards in front of the castle gates. It was the day after he had had lunch with Trixie, and he was going to ask his great aunt about Trixie’s idea.

The guard nodded and let him through. “Certainly, sire. The Princess is in her study.”

“Thank you,” Blueblood said and walked by the guard into the castle.

Blueblood made his way through the castle and eventually came to his aunt’s study. He knocked on the door.

“Come in,” said Princess Celestia’s sweet, motherly voice.

Blueblood opened the door and found Princess Celestia in the middle of her room, sitting on large fancy pillow, looking over some documents. A warm fire burning in the fireplace behind her.

“Auntie Celestia,” said Blueblood, bowing his head in her presence.

Celestia turned her head to look at him. “Hello nephew,” she said with a smile. “What brings you here?”

Blueblood raised himself up and stood normally. “I’m just wanted to visit you,” he said innocently.

Celestia knew better, and Blueblood could tell.

“Okay,” he admitted. "There was something I wanted to ask you.”

“Go on,” said Celestia.

“You see, I have this friend who is rather gifted in magic, and she…”

“She?” said Celestia with interest.

“Yes. She is interested in learning more, and I was wondering if you would be open to considering teaching her.” He gave her his best innocent smile.

Celestia’s smile, however, faded. “Blueblood, while I encourage any pony who wants to improve themselves in any way, you know I can’t teach every pony who asks just because they want it. I took Twilight Sparkle as my personal student for a special reason, as I’m sure you’re aware.”

Blueblood sighed and nodded. “Yes. I told her that, but I said I would ask you anyway.”

“That was a very nice thing to do for your friend, Blueblood. You have improved your attitude quite a bit in the last few years. I’m very proud of you.”

Blueblood remembered how it was his desire to gain her approval that had made him decide to improve him self after she had berated him. After all, she was one of the very few ponies he looked up to. He also remembered the months of Celestia’s teaching after he had begged her to show him how to be a better pony so he could gain her approval.

“I couldn’t have done it with out you,” said Blueblood.

“True, I gave you what you needed," said Celestia. "But you made the decision to improve yourself on your own.”

“Thank you, auntie.”

“"You're very welcome,” said Celestia. “I was about to go down for lunch, Blueblood. Would you like to stay and join us?”

“Thank you,” said Blueblood. "I'd be delighted."

Princess Celestia turned towards the door. “Clementine,” Celestia called.

An orange unicorn maid walked into the room. “You called, your majesty.”

“My nephew will be joining us for lunch,” she said. “Could you please add another table setting?”

“Of course, your majesty,” said the servant, and with a bow, she left the room.

Celestia turned back to her nephew. “Blueblood, if your friend is truly that interested in bettering her magic, she can be welcome at the library here to study and practice on her own if she likes.”

Blueblood smiled. “I’ll tell her that. Thank you, auntie.”

“You’re welcome, Blueblood,” she said. ‘Sounds like Blueblood has a crush on this mare,’ she thought to herself. ‘How interesting…’

....................

Trixie’s horn glowed and an entire Timberwolf leaped out of her hat and landed onto the stage, growling out at the crowd. Her audience of several young fillies and colts gasped at the sight of the vicious wooden beast. Little did they know, Trixie was just holding a bunch of pieces of wood together with her magic in the shape of a wolf.

She was at the Canterlot city park, entertaining a Cuteceanera party for one of the fillies.

“Now be gone, wicked beast from Tartarus!” Trixie exclaimed. She then sent a blast of magic from her horn at the Timberwolf, which exploded into a dazzling display of fireworks.

Her young audience cheered and applauded. Trixie bowed. “Thank you,” she said. “You’ve been a wonderful audience.”

As she walked off the stage, a couple of the children ran up to her.

“Wow, Miss Trixie, you’re really great at magic!” said a violet little earth pony filly.

“Why, thank you,” said Trixie.

“How did you do that trick with the Timberwolf?” asked a little blue unicorn colt.

“Sorry, a magician never reveals her secrets,” she said, and then headed ofer to the refreshments table.

After collecting her pay, Trixie left the party and headed home. As she was trotting back to the hotel, she remembered that Blueblood said that he would be visiting his aunt, Princess Celestia, today, and would ask the Princess if she could be her student. Trixie grinned in excitement.

She knew she shouldn’t be getting her hopes up, especially after what Blueblood had told her, but she really wanted to believe that she would soon be learning advanced and powerful magic from the Princess of the day herself.

She got back to the hotel and walked inside her room. She put some of the bits she had made from her recent show inside a glass jar she had setting on the dresser. She was saving up money to buy a new show wagon for herself. And this time she would stay far away from rampaging Ursa Minors.

Trixie flopped down on the bed, exhausted from her show. She closed her eyes and let out a tired sigh.

Her thoughts drifted to Prince Blueblood. She had recently started thinking about him differently. He was very handsome. His light blue eyes, his blond mane, his well-toned body, his white coat. And he had been so helpful to her. To her, he was like her heroic white knight. She imagined him embracing her in his big strong forelegs…

Trixie forced those thoughts out of her head, like she had the previous times she had thought about him like that. She knew she was attracted to the Prince, but she also knew he only saw her as a friend. He was a Prince after all! He could have any mare he wanted. He would probably only be interested in mares like supermodels or the rich high-class types.

Instead, Trixie started thinking about how wonderful it would be to be a successful show mare again, watching the fans applauding her shows, and making lots of money again.

Trixie didn’t know how long she had laid there before she heard a knock at her door. She got up from her bed and walked over to open it. When she opened the door, a smile came to her face as she found it was Prince Blueblood.

“Oh, hello, Blueblood,” she said in delight.

“Hello, Trixie,” said Blueblood.

Trixie then remembered her manners “Would you like to come in?” she asked.

“Thank you,” said Blueblood.

Trixie let Blueblood into her hotel room. Blueblood looked around him at the hotel room. It was very small, not completely spotless, and so common. Not being used to such surroundings, he didn’t feel quite comfortable being inside such a unroyal place, but he did his best to keep a polite smile on his face and ignore his discomfort.

“So I visited my aunt, Celestia today,” he said.

Trixie’s ears perked up. “Oh, good! What did she say?” she asked hopefully

Blueblood gave her a sorry look. “She said no.”

Trixie’s ears fell in disappointment. “Oh,” she said, struggling not to sound as saddened as she felt.

“I’m sorry,” said Blueblood.

“No, it’s okay,” said Trixie, giving him a small smile. “You had said she probably wouldn’t. Thank you for asking her anyway.”

Then Blueblood remembered. “But she also says that, if you like, you are more than welcome at the library there to learn and practice magic on your own.”

Trixie’s ears perked up again at that idea. “Really? That’d be great,” she said. “I bet I could learn a whole lot there.” It wasn’t as good as getting trained by an immortal Princess, but it was still pretty good. “I guess I’ll do that then,” she said, trying to sound enthusiastic.

Blueblood smiled, but he could see that Trixie was still a little disappointed. Maybe a night out would cheer her up.

“Hey, Trixie, would you like to go do something tonight? There is a new horror movie out in the theater called ‘Changeling Vs Dragon’ that I heard was rather good.”

Trixie thought for a moment. “Yeah, that sounds great,” she said. “Just let Trixie freshen up a bit.”

Trixie walked into the bathroom. Blueblood sat down on the bed and waited. He was quickly reminded how long mares took to get ready to go out.

When Trixie was finally ‘freshened up’, she walked out of the bathroom and her and Blueblood left the hotel.

“By the way, Trixie,” said Blueblood as they were walking through the city. “Have you ever been in a private booth at a theater before?”