Prince Blueblood in OMT · 12:50am Feb 19th, 2013
So I find myself disappointed with the lack of characterization for everybrony's favorite love-to-hate royalty, Prince Blueblood. Although I count myself among Warren Hutch's biggest fans, I dislike how he failed to give Blueblood a personality beyond "alcoholic noble living off his family's wealth". By far my favorite characterization for the spoiled prince has been Dawnscroll's A Slice of Life's take, where he was given a soul as well as a legitimate reason for treating Rarity like crap in his one appearance. Which is why I've decided to expand on the character, mixing both A Slice of Life and JohnPerry's Mission: Implausible's canons to create a new and improved Blueblood. Behold!
Prince Blueblood: the nephew of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, Blueblood’s official title is “Duke of Canterlot” and is responsible for running the city while the royal sisters concern themselves with the country as a whole. In truth, Blueblood works as the princesses spymaster and the actual head of Her Majesty’s Secret Service, an elite group of undercover agents working in the shadows to ensure Equestria’s internal security. To maintain his cover, Blueblood has adopted a cover identity of a spoiled, bratty prince utterly incapable of functioning on his own and completely dependent on his aunts’ money and influence to maintain his position. The prince uses this cover both as a means of keeping his enemies off their guard, as well as driving away money-hunting mares who wish to marry him for his title and his wealth.
Blueblood pretends to be weak and helpless without the protection of his personal guard. In truth, he counts himself among Equestria’s most deadly fighters. With magic rivaling the might of a pre-ascension Twilight Sparkle, Blueblood is among the most learned and capable unicorn magisters. His hoof-to-hoof skills are not inconsiderable, as well, the prince having once fought a full-grown manticore to a standstill whilst recovering from a severe horn injury.
Huh. I actually like blueblood fics that make him things other than a jackanapes. I say go for it.
eheh, no. Considering Twilight had the estimated power to level canterlot and surrounding lands as a filly i serously doubt that.
You have to understand i am kinda the only person who thinks of the inner workings magic further then "oh look, a plot device i can abuse!".
Great now i am very afraid of what Twi is capable of now.
845849 Trust me you're not the only one. you souls really need a group or something n_n
Yeah I gotta say I also take issue with the idea that unicorns are useless except for magic. BB's pretty buff for a pony so I can see him being pretty good at hand to hand (hoof to hoof?) combat. Magic so often feels OP'd due to the aforesaid plot device thing.
845849
Couple points:
1. It was never shown in the actual cartoon where the boundaries of Twilight's power lies, or what would have happened if Celestia hadn't stopped her. Anything about her "leveling all of Canterlot" is entirely fandom speculation and thus open to interpretation, I've actually chosen to depower her quite a bit from the norm in fanfiction.
2. I've always been of the mind that while Twilight may have the greatest magical potential of any unicorn ever, due to her young age and inexperience there are quite a few older unicorns significantly more powerful than her. This theory is supported by both the presence of Starswirl in history, and her older brother, Shining Armor. In my canon, Blueblood is around 3-4 years older than Rarity, whom I've always envisioned as being 2-3 years older than the rest of the Elements, so he's got around a decade or so more experience than Twilight. It helps that whereas Twilight has spent her years studying whatever subject of magic catches her fancy, the royal prince has devoted his to combat training and offensive/defensive spells.
3. There is Twilicorn in my canon, for reasons I will explain in the Author Notes of the story itself, but just because she's a physical goddess does not make her power infinite. I'm of the persuasion that alicorns require intensive study and decades, if not centuries, of experience in order to realize their power fully. This also explains why Cadence (whom I envision to be around the same age as Shining Armor) appears to be so much weaker than her aunts. So while Twilicorn might be present we're not going to be seeing her leveling mountains and boiling seas anytime soon, and even if we did, that would only mean that there would be more enemies capable of those things, as well. I like to bring a balance between my good and bad guys, so however powerful my heroes are, you can expect my enemies to be greater still.
4. The reason for Blueblood's strength in the magical arts is based on his heritage. In the show, Rarity refers to him as "Princess Celestia's nephew", I've taken this literally and have him descended directly from one of Celestia's many cousins (in my canon, her family tree is quite extensive). The obvious lack of wings on his part is due to centuries of interbreeding with the mortal pony tribes. Despite not being an immortal like his aunts, Blueblood nevertheless has divine blood running through his veins. The closest approximation would be a demigod, or "more than mortal".
847308
An Old Mare's Tale is a steampunk story, so magic takes more of a background role in the world. I have to agree that many fics focus too much on the magical aspect of unicorns. Too many unicorn OCs are Twilight Sparkles, rather than Lyra Heartstrings. With the obvious exception of Twilight herself, I don't really have any unicorn characters who focus on magic. Even for Blueblood, whose magic is prestigious due to his alicorn blood heritage, magic takes a side role to his work as spymaster for Equestria.