TWISI: What is a Princess in Equestria? · 3:53am Jan 6th, 2014
During this week's episode, Twilight and her friends are trying to catch a cab for Rarity so that she can make it to her fashion competition on time. Twilight requests one cab driver for help, and instead of saying something like "Of course your majesty" he basically tells her to fuck off and go to the back of the line. I like many people who saw the episode were rather disturbed by this because this pony seemed to have no respect for somepony who is obviously royalty. Ignoring the fact that Twilight is still new to the whole princess thing and ponies might not recognize her yet, she's still got both wings and a horn. She's a god damn Alicorn and this guy completely ignores that.
I have said before that I liked Twilight's change in roles at the end of last season. I felt it was a good next step in her development as a character. But here in season 4 that transformation seems to go completely unaddressed whenever the story doesn't call for it. I want to see Twilight being treated like a princess because that's what she is now, but the writers seem to forget this fact from time to time and this scene with the cab driver really highlights that fact. What was the point of making her a princess if you aren't going to treat her as one?
But whatever, it happened, so now I have to write a new entry in the head canon book to try and explain it away. Thankfully though there IS a reasonable explanation for this behavior: The upper class of Equestria are dense, rude, and care nothing of that which doesn't directly effect them.
Remember back to season 2 in the Episode "Sweet and Elite." Many people criticized why the upper class of Canterlot dismissed the idea of the mane 6 being important ponies because of their behavior and where they were from. Why were these ponies treating their freaking saviors with such disrespect? They're the Elements of Harmony! Surely they should be some of the most well known ponies in Equestria right? I mean they have at least two stained glass windows devoted to them in Canterlot Castle! Well, apparently not and being a national hero doesn't mean anything. That, or the upper class don't care who they are, only that they're not influential in anyway shape or form. They may be heroes, but why bother with them when none of them have a lot of money we can leach away from them. Yeah, because that's the way you want to think about the ponies who saved you from eternal night/chaos.
This apathy towards the mane 6 may very well be present not just in Canterlot, but in other big cities as well, like Manehatten. However it still doesn't account to why the cab driver was so rude to an obvious Alicorn. Well maybe he DID know who Twilight was and knew full well that she was royalty... but just didn't care because, let's be honest, all Twilight has at this point is a title. To the upper class of Equestria it looked as if Celestia just picked some random unicorn from some backwater town and said "Here's some wings! You're a leader of this country now!" I'd imagine that didn't really go over so well with the nobility. To us, we see how great she is and how perfect a leader she would make, but to the rich and powerful of Equestria she hasn't done anything yet to really live up to the name of Princess yet. Imagine, if you would, you lived in Great Britain, and someone dressed up in a very nice outfit with the royal symbol on it, with no guards or escort, came up to you and asked to borrow your cell phone for a moment. Would YOU let him borrow it? Especially if you were busy and in a rush? I doubt it, and personally I wouldn't either.
Now some of you might say "Well anyone can dress up like a member of royalty, but Twilight's an Alicorn! You can't fake that." Fair enough, but then again wings and horn do not a princess make. She's an Alicorn, but so what? What has she done for the ponies of Manehatten or Canterlot to make them acknowledge her as a princess?
I'm not saying that's how they should act, I'm saying that the reasoning behind their behavior is at least partially explainable. They're pompous, rude, and ignorant assholes.... I said it was a reason, didn't say it was a good reason.
Now about the actual question posed: What is a Princess in Equestria? I'd hesitate to call them Figure Heads, because it's obvious that Celestia at the very least does political business, but I doubt the princesses handle all the political and economic processes of Equestria. Judging from the fact that Ponyville has a mayor, I'd say it's a safe bet that there might actually be a parliament of some kind who does most of the governing, but who has to answer to the Princesses and submit to their rule first and foremost.
This idea actually ties into what I was talking about earlier, that the elite of Equestria don't care about royalty until they actually do something or have something that they want. Which is why we didn't hear about Cadence until the mane 6 became directly involved with her (I know that was because she hadn't been thought of by the writers yet, I'm talking in terms of the story). No one cared that Cadence was a princess because she didn't really have any power to herself until she was given control over the Crystal Empire. Celestia and Luna are the ponies everyone wants to gain political clout with, not the ponies who just look like princesses but have no power of their own. So, yes, Twilight's title of princess is just as a figure head, as was Cadence's until she got her own Kingdom. Celestia and Luna are the only one's who's position and title actually means something... but hey, that's just the way I see it.
To be honest, the whole disrespect thing wasn't much of a shocker to me. It's pretty much an expected thing to see towards main characters, sometimes.