Greetings! I offered to pick up a plot idea from NemoSpecific's thread of orphaned plot ideas and come up with this quick concept in a day or two. I sort of figured this'll be the best place to put it before a proper submission to gauge interest and some feedback. I'm a lurker so I've no idea whether it's good or whether it's breaking any rules or anything. Comments are greatly appreciated.

I also apologise in advance for my rambling style of narrative.
Anyway, onto the story:

The unicorn held the bottle in a strong, telekinetic clutch. Bring it up to his mouth, a rich, dark liquid gurgled from the bottle downwards, sloppily emptying itself onto his face and chest. He grunted disgustedly and let the bottle clatter to the ground, fanning his hooves over his chest and desk in a haphazard attempt to clear up the mess. He croaked in vague satisfaction as he found that none of the wine - some old Red from Roam or somewhere; still a waste, though - had ended up on the paperwork that littered his workspace.

Princesses, but he hated his job. Blueblood II Polaris, Prince of Equestria, Duke of Canterlot, Count of Vladimare and Lord of Stalliongrad, Heir to the Platinum Line, considered his lot in life to be predestined; a path drawn out by his Aunt and his parents before his conception. Dull, pointless administrative work, filling the void between the ruling Princesses and the civil service. 'Filling the void' was his job description, for the lack of a better explanation, he drunkenly supposed, for that was what he did.

Appease the nobility. Oversee logistical measures. Attend gallery openings. Attend the Stable of Peers. Oversee the design of ships. Oversee exploration efforts. Attend court. Look handsome. Take the flak for royal faux pas. Become an icon of hatred. Do other inane bureaucratic paperwork. Bully secretaries. Bully underachievers. Bully foreign dignitaries as needed. Appease foreign dignitaries as needed. Resolve border disputes the Princesses can't be bothered to deal with. Bully dissenters. Appease dissenters. The list went on.

He longed for a much more prestigious - and a far less monotonous position, though knew not to push his position. Many in his House had fallen for less. Celestia, how he wished to be designing or onboard a battleship - or a carrier!, his thoughts intruded, or obliterating the whole of Eastern Griffonia! Yes, he thought bemusedly, but knew that reality was not so kind so as to allow his dreams to come true.

The aspirations of his youth had betrayed him, and his lot was to clean after the Princesses. It was his luck that found him inebriated in his royal quarters (the smallest of the lot, he bitterly considered) doing paperwork relating to farm (peasant) subsidies at two in the morning. It was a miracle, he thought, that he hadn't been murdered yet.

Fate, however, would not be kind to him, nor Equestria itself, as he would soon find out.

A sudden clatter and an onrush of light from his doorway. Blueblood instinctively flinched and instinctively, though haphazardly, pulled open his bottom drawer with his magic.

I'm ready for you! I may be drunk, but prepare to taste STEEL!

A weak telekinetic field wrapped itself around the hilt of a surprisingly well-maintained arming sword. Upon viewing his 'assailant', however, the Prince let the weapon clatter back into the drawer and knocked it shut with a hoof.

His glazed eyes perceived a well-built, grey unicorn bereft of a left ear and with dull steel bands running up his left foreleg standing in the now-open doorway to his chambers. Bedecked in a staff officer's uniform, aiguillettes gleaming in the dim light, the unicorn cast a long shadow over the inebriated noble, and grumbled at him.

"Sir."

General Sir Augustus Thunderclap was the Chief of the Equestrian General Staff, the seldom-seen professional head of the Equestrian military whose job it was to coordinate the deployment of the Guard around Equestria, plan for the worst, and show professional disappointment when the Guard would courageously, but inevitably, fail to defeat the foe that the cosmos would deploy annually. A laconic grey unicorn, Thunderclap did not have particularly good impressions of either the ponies above him or those below him, but was still a patriot at heart, and would willingly chew out anyone who was not acting up to scratch. One ignored him at one's own risk.

"Give me a moment, CEGS..", Blueblood drawled as he hastily attempted to sober and clean himself up in the space of five seconds. "What is it?"

"The Princesses are gone."

"Gone. Gone?!" Thunderclap is too serious to joke, especially at this hour, and to me...

"GONE, SIR. DISAPPEARED INTO THIN AIR. MISSING IN ACTION. ABSENT WITHOUT LEAVE; DESERTED THEIR POSTS. NOWHERE TO BE SEEN."

The officer took a deep breath and lowered his voice.

"Guardspony Grey Stratus went to check on Princess Luna in her observatory as usual, but she was missing; he reported it to the watch officer, who sent runners to find the other Princesses in their chambers - and they were missing, too. I was roused, mobilised the Guard in the Canterlot area and came to find you, sir."

Blueblood shuddered as he took in this information, grasping for breath and shaking his head in an attempt to clear the cloudiness. He reached for a glass of water and took a gulp before glancing back at the scarred officer.

What is one to do when the Princesses go missing?! "You have sent out scouts, messengers? How long has it been since this occurred?" Is this really all necessary, he cynically started to ponder.

"Scouting parties are turning the surrounding towns and hamlets upside down; couriers have been sent to mobilise detachments around Manehattan, Stalliongrad, Cloppenburg and the other major cities. It's been half an hour since Princess Luna disappeared without a trace, sir."

The grey unicorn caught the unease which had quickly darted across Blueblood's face.

"Your Highness, considering the similarity of this...incident with the incident which saw Princess Luna returned to us, we are fully warranted in mobilising all Royal Guard forces throughout Equestria, and in declaring a State of Emergency."

A state of emergency?! That'll just rile the dumb populace even more! Celestia knows how panicked they were after her disappearance a few years ago... Would they even accept a leader who wasn't an alicorn, though?

He nervously glanced up at Thunderclap's grim, ashen-faced visage. Then, a though struck him.
"Thunderclap, you said the Princesses were missing. Are Ca- Princesses Cadence and Twilight secured?"

"No, sir; as I said, all of the Princesses are missing."

It took a second for this information to filter through.

"My sister's sleeping with the Captain of the Guard and STILL she went missing?!" The white coated prince was now fully awake. As much as he found his sister overly-enthusiastic about everything and her choice in a spouse despicable, he still cared for her - not that he would ever mention such to anypony. "Didn't the vaunted Shining Armor notice WHEN HIS WIFE DISAPPEARED INTO THIN AIR RIGHT NEXT TO HIM?!"

"Apparently not, sir. He's in a, erm.." The officer paused to formulate a properly polite continuation. "In a.. catatonic state, I believe. Incapable, sir. Unable to make head or tail of the situation, Your Highness. When we found him he was sleeping soundly; he lost his wits once he was fully roused. My informing him of the entire situation and of his sister's additional disappearance did not appear to help his condition, sir."

Blueblood's blue eyes bored into the unperturbed unicorn, and groaned.

His cynical - and somewhat paranoid mind - saw the hallmarks of... a plot. A plot! Against his person! They'd always hated him, and always knew he sought for greater things. Yes. A plot. They were going to humiliate him! Yes, humiliate him whilst they go off and party - he suppressed a shudder at this heretical and ignoble thought - and eat cake and do nothing and let him endure the punishment as Equestria crumbled! Once he had failed they'd trot in and restore order and throw him into an asylum or make him into the court fool or something! How better to remove the ugly reminder of the old Unicorn monarchs than to lay low its last heir (Cadence, he surmised, was an alicorn in appearance and ability, so she did not count)! But.. he could spring the trap. He knew of the plot now, and could work against it! Yes, he would show his quality in the days that came! But what if it wasn't a plot against him, but a plot against Equestria itself?! What if Equestria's monarchs had really been kidnapped - or worse!

If that was the case, then Equestria really was doomed. He, Prince Blueblood, despised of all Equestrians, would have to rule over a nation which had a distinct tendency to implode on occasion, regardless of whether it was being attacked by some monster, demon or malicious god-figure.

Blueblood, Prince Regent of Equestria. Blueblood the Unready; Blueblood the Accursed.

What in the name of Celestia did I do deserve THIS?!

It was a miracle that it had ever gotten to this point, he thought to himself. A nation whose military was de facto ceremonial in function yet which had a budget that surpassed that of its strongest neighbours, the griffons. A nation which effectively relied upon a hoofful of ponies - six 'Elements of Harmony', his two aunts, his irritating sister and his imbecilic brother-in-law. To say that these ten were an impenetrable defence would be a gross exaggeration, too. Even in his wine-addled brain the Prince could recall at ease two incidents which had nearly brought the realm to heel. In one case, one of his aunts was possessed of some kind, and in a traitorous manner attempted to bring about eternal night. More recently, his other aunt was defeated by a changeling queen in an attack on Canterlot where the conventional military had been shattered in less than half an hour. He did not even wish to consider the other close escapes the nation had endured.

It was remarkable, therefore, that nopony had ever noticed that the Principality of Equestria's continued existence was an astonishing miracle and a complete defiance of acceptable political thinking - nay, a complete defiance of reality itself. A great cosmic joke, thought Blueblood, but then the embodiment of chaos itself, allegedly, has wreaked havoc upon our lands.

Perhaps he was drunk; perhaps he was not. There was only one way to find out whether this was a childish prank or not.

"General Thunderclap. As heir presumptive to the throne of Equestria, I order you to answer my next question truthfully, on pain of treason and death. I have known you to be an honourable stallion, but I demand this of you nonetheless:"

"Is the moon moving?"

It was.

This, however, was not necessarily a good thing, as Blueblood remarked to himself, for it merely complicated the situation. Any prospective 'villain' who had succeeded in capturing the four reigning monarchs, or whatever they were, would surely know that it was in their interest to maintain a facade of normality in his target. Equestria would panic and overreact; once it had all calmed down and the interim government had collapsed or had let its guard down, then was the time to strike a decisive blow. It was what he'd do, after all, if he was planning a coup. Blueblood felt rather confident in this claim: after all, he had help plan a number of coups against foreign powers and often spent his time alone in his quarters - when he was not inebriated - indulging his fantasies in carrying out a coup. Not that he would, of course.

Of course.

The other option was not much better either. Whether it was a prank or whether it was intentional, it indicated that the Princesses were alive somewhere and fully capable of using their powers, but deliberately chose to leave, without a trace, in concert and at the same time in the middle of the night. Whilst the paranoid part of his brain did suggest it was a vile joke, and the deranged idealistic portion a trial of his ability, such conclusions did not help one bit as to relieving the situation.

He considered his options. Firstly, perhaps returning to that drunken stupor was the best course of action. 'Masterly inactivity', as Celestia put it, had served the country well: the entire continent had largely remained in a state of technological stasis, and the lower classes as uneducated and apathetic as ever (though somewhat cleaner) and enemies came and went, usually through some great flank-pull of a triumph by some hero or heroine, like the stories of old. It could just merely be an isolated incident; perhaps the Princesses wished to be alone for a while - a sentiment he could understand. Alternatively, he could merely be too drunk as to tell the difference between an insane reverie and reality.

Leaning back against his chair, he knew what the far more uncomfortable choice was. He could 'do justice to your position, dear nephew', as his now-missing Aunt Celestia used to remark, in a slightly condescending tone that he found both harmful to his pride and yet something to be highly sentimental about. It would not be an easy task, not at all. He felt confident in at least pacifying his fellow nobles; the rest of Government, not so much. The Civil Service had imploded in size since Luna had returned; with Twilight Sparkle's elevation to royalty, the already-bloated force had doubled in size with an excessive number of needed yet undesired checks and oversights. Four Princesses and one Prince to deal with the inane paperwork and monotony of domestic administration were as needed as ever. The matter of the public had to be dealt with too, as much as he loathed them. If the press knew of this, then all manner of panic would have spread throughout the country; whilst he did have fond feelings for his homeland, Blueblood did not have much for its jumpy populace. There was also the foreign angle to consider, which he did not even wish to consider in the long run. The zebras chafed under disadvantageous border tariffs; warhawks in the Griffon Government were always attempting to press claims upon the border colonies.

Then there was the need to 'ensure the family legacy', or more properly, 'ensure the realm's legacy'. Blueblood groaned and placed his head in his hooves.

Sleep it off, dear boy.

Equestria can wait for two hours or so.

Just.. tell Thunderclap to secure the other elements - and the actual element things. Amulets? Discreetly, of course. Yes. Can't disturb the populace, or I'll be dead in two days. Yeesss.

That would do. Masterly inactivity combined with some decisive action. Perhaps it'll be fine and resolve itself in two hours - Equestria was absurd like that. He yelled for his secretary.

"Inkwell? INKWELL!" he shouted out the door. "INKWELL, GET YOURSELF IN HERE, NOW!"

The startled bureaucrat stumbled, half-awake, from the chambers opposite from Blueblood's.
"Look here, Inkwell, I need you to do the following. The security of the realm depends upon it."

And my sanity.

Bravo. Masterful.

I look forward to seeing this when it is complete.

Yeah this is pretty good. I... really want to see more, especially considering he believes this could be just a trick to try to humiliate him... and would look forward to seeing how much of his hatred is deserved and how much is not.

I have a pedantic error to point out! He says in an early paragraph that he's allowed to oversee designing ships, then that he wants to be allowed to design ships. It could be two different actions, but if that's the case then you should use more different terms, or put some more emphasis on how he hates just being allowed to watch.

I'm liking it so far!

I say keep going with it.

Keep going, indeed.

Thanks for the comments, all. Tried to clarify the bit on ship design - thanks for pointing it out.

Continuing to work on it; might get the first chapter out (the first few hours of Blueblood's 'rule') late next week.

Currently it's Blueblood-focused with a couple of major OCs and Shining Armor contributing. Slice-of-life desperate politicking with some dark, understated attempts at humour.

Suitably enough I've been trying to avoid bringing the other Elements in early like Blueblood.

EDIT: Also, stallions, stallions everywhere! Writing up a Dramatis Personae for my own use and all bar one of the incumbent Royal Council are male...

3442014
First off, that piece up above is at least seven shades of awesome.

Secondly, when you said "the bit on ship design", I honestly thought you meant shipping!

... will there be any of that, too?

3442552
Shipping? Probably unlikely considering how I've planned it out. The circumstances of the fic limit the pool greatly and I'd be awful at writing that stuff too.

Normally I'd ship Blueblood (through a characterisation as an elitist intellectual with some military capability) with Twilight or Rarity but the former's out of the question, leaving the latter.

No actual concrete plans on what to do with the Elements but I've thought of a plot 'device' that I might use to accelerate the plot/drive more action that's outside of Canterlot. If it happens it'll probably:
a) Drive Blueblood off his rocker even further.
b) Make Rarity hate him even more.

3442552
3446534
*snerk* Okay, this requires Lyra to be of the "conspiracy theorist" variety, but it would be hilarious/cute if she and Blueblood slowly became a couple after a very rocky start.

Lyra: This is all CLEARLY a plot by the Prince to seize the throne for himself! I'd better keep an eye on him so I can figure out what he did with the Princesses!

Blueblood: I knew it! Someone IS watching me! Who is this unicorn? Is she a spy for the Princesses? For whoever captured them? I can't have her brought in for questioning, that would let them know I'm on to their game..!

Just a running gag at first (the lengths they go to to spy, counter-spy, almost getting caught, etc etc)... eventually they're just rolling with it...

Blueblood trudged into his room, utterly exhausted. How so many ponies could get so passionate about APPLES, he would never understand. The poor prince carefully hung his collar up before he carelessly flung himself into bed.

"Goodnight, Ms Heartstrings."

The bush on his balcony rustled. "Goodnight, your highness."

3446829
They'd make for an amusing couple, that's for sure!

3447078
3446829
3446534
... I actually thought of a similar idea, but with (in fact!) Rarity.

That Rarity takes it on herself to keep an eye on the obviously-scheming-against-the-princesses-including-Twilight Blueblood. And that, underneath layers of mistrust and making up and mistrust again, they still share some kind of attraction.

Heck, Rarity could have a nightmare wherein a charming, clichéd Dark King version of Blueblood tries to woo her to his side, with Rarity waking up completely confused (and somewhat annoyed XD)!

3446829
3447078
3447202

POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW (depends on how I plan it out)
If you'll recall, I had BB order Thunderclap to secure the Elements of Harmony. Supposing some Guard Officer decides the best way to do so discreetly, at least in the case of Rarity, is to break into Carousel Boutique at 3:00 AM.. I mean, what's the worse that could happen? It's not like the Element of Generosity has a near-feral cat..

3447225
THAT would be... difficult to explain

Oh please, please have something similar happen!
Maybe even have them deliver a very angry miss Rarity all wrapped up like a birhtday present to the completely flabbergasted Blueblood.

An update:

I've posted the completed first chapter (under my profile, named "Monarchic Melancholy", awful name I know) and am working on the following few. Rather busy and travelling for the next month so it I've no promises on regular updates.