Star Sign
Rarity had never thought she’d be the kind of mare who led on young stallions. Certainly not while she was still in her twenties. Then she met Spike and…
Well, it had been love at first sight… for him. Puppy love, infatuation, first crush, it had many names and none of them were what Rarity was looking for. Nor, not to put too fine a point on it, were scales. He was a charming little dear, adorable even, but it simply wasn't meant to be.
Then he offered to help her around the shop. It was a transparent attempt to spend more time with her, but at this early stage in Rarity’s career, she needed every edge she could get. Free labor was one of them. (Nearly free; Rarity was happy to ignore the gem bin being a little less well-stocked after Spike paid her a visit.) Even more so free labor with connections in Canterlot, a willingness and ability to act as a living pincushion, and thumbs.
It was wrong, but the kind of wrong that Rarity fretted about in the back of her mind while doing nothing to make things right. She would make amends when she’d clawed her way further up the ladder and was thus in a position to do so. Until then, she had a capable assistant whenever Spike had the time and inclination—for it was one thing to exploit a child, but quite another to demand he come be exploited—to lend a claw of his own.
Today those claws were holding up the back of a gown as Rarity adjusted its fall. “Now, just a bit more work here and we can—”
Like a few of her more disastrous dates, the lovely time ended because of a tremendous belch on the part of her male companion. Though to his credit, Spike never lost his grip and kept his head pointed away from the gown. “Sorry, Rarity.”
“Letters come when they come, darling. You’d best let Twilight know she’s gotten something from the…” Rarity trailed off. She’d seen enough scrolls from Princess Celestia to recognize the gold wax seal and scarlet ribbon. This missive had neither, instead bound in heliotrope and sealed in fuchsia. And the icon on the seal…
“Is that Twilight’s cutie mark?” It lacked the smaller surrounding stars, but the dodecagram design was unmistakable. On its own, anyway. Seeing it rendered in triplicate—
Rarity caught herself and cleared her throat. “Er, not to pry, of course.”
Spike didn't seem to mind, bless him. “Yeah, probably from Grandma Twinkle." He sighed as he trudged towards the door. "This may take a while. I’ll be back as soon as I can, Rarity!”
She waved after him,. “You’re always welcome, Spikey-Wikey. And thank you as always!” As Rarity watched him go, the symbol on the seal nagged at her memory. Her telekinesis scrabbled for a grip where Spike had before. Blasted line of sight. And her unfocused state of mind didn't help either. “Grandma Twinkle, you say…”
Rarity would never admit it to Twilight, but she hadn't exactly been a frequent patron of Golden Oaks before her new friends had moved in. Mrs. Bleaknicker, the previous librarian, had featured largely in several of Rarity's foalhood nightmares. Even now, she feared being too loud within the tree, lest the old nag rise again just to chastise her.
“Aha!”
But fear paled in comparison to the warm glow of having one's suspicions confirmed.
To her credit, Twilight merely looked up from her own reading with a friendly smile. “Find something interesting, Rarity?”
“I should say so, Duchess!”
Twilight's ears drooped. “Oh no.”
“Oh yes!" Rarity brandished the library's copy of Twerp's Peerage with triumph, held open to a page absolutely festooned with six- and twelve-pointed stars. "I knew there was something familiar about your cutie mark, Twilight, and now my suspicions are confirmed. Just as I knew an elegant, dignified Canterlot mare like yourself must be part of the august nobility.”
"I'm— You're— You don't..." Twilight clamped her mouth shut for a few moments before she sighed. “Well, you’re not completely wrong.”
Rarity arched an eyebrow. “I don’t see how any part of that could be wrong.”
“I know you have a very... romanticized version of Canterlot, but the reality's a lot less glamorous than you may think," said Twilight, clearly just inured to the splendor of her home. "Any family that’s lived in Canterlot for long enough will end up part of a noble house just so the nobles don’t start developing Strapsburg jaws or cloven hooves.”
“Twilight, your great-great-…" Rarity trailed off as she flipped back a few pages. "Well, there a number more greats involved, but your direct matrilineal ancestor is—”
“The Twilight. One of the few legends of the Paleopony Period with solid historical evidence behind her." Twilight rolled her eyes. "Yes. I know. There’s this awful portrait of her up in my parents’ attic. My older brother convinced me she came out of the frame and ate any bad fillies who read under the covers past their bedtime.” She shuddered at her own foalhood boogeymare.
Hold on a moment. “You have an older brother?”
“Never mind. The point is, Grandma Twinkle’s the duchess. Between my aunts, my cousins, the branch houses…" Twilight's gaze went distant for a moment. Conjured shapes flickered in her magic faster than Rarity could track. "I’m maybe twentieth in line for the title.”
“Ah." Rarity flipped back to the modern state of House Twinkle. She had thought the box with Twilight's mark had been a bit small. Scarcely room for a name, even. "Hence why you’ve never brought it up.”
“It’s never been worth bringing up. The only meaningful impact it’s had on my life was my cuteceañera. Technically speaking, it was the social event of the season because of the sheer number of ponies who were obligated to come." Twilight shrugged. "I spent most of it reading in the corner.”
“I see.”
“Disappointed?” The poor dear drooped, dreading the answer.
Rarity moved next to Twilight and offered a friendly nuzzle to reassure her. “Embarrassed. I fear I’ve made a terrible nuisance of myself simply because you’re still the closest thing Ponyville has to nobility.”
“They’re just ponies like you and me. Some are a lot worse.” At least Twilight was able to say that with a smile.
“Let me dream, Twilight.”
“Before I do, I’ve been meaning to talk about my little brother.”
Rarity blinked at the sudden subject change and staggered as Twilight moved away from her. “Whatever do you mean?”
Twilight glared at her harshly enough that for a brief moment, Rarity thought Mrs. Bleaknicker really had made her way back from her retirement in Tallahorsie. “What exactly are your intentions with Spike?”
The plastic, faux-innocent smile on Rarity's lips felt terribly familiar. So did the librarian not being fooled by it. “Ah heh heh…”
Prompt 27: Sigil / Write one character confronting another.
Yeah, Rarity doesn't exactly come out smelling like a rose in her early interactions with Spike. Climbing up the ranks in the fashion industry can mean stepping on a few people. At least Rarity gets their permission first.
The name "Bleaknicker" is another bit of inspiration appropriated from Estee, part of the same family as the Cruelneighs and, yes, the Harshwhinnys.
Twerp's Peerage, the Who's Whom of Equestria's nobility, comes courtesy of Georg.
And really, Twilight Sparkle being a higher social class. The very idea. 
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Which further goes to show that you don't understand what nobility actually is.
It was wrong, but the kind of wrong that Rarity fretted about in the back of her mind while doing nothing to make things right.
See. This is what people mean when they say characters should be complex and have weaknesses and flaws. Not "I'm occasionally a sociopath except for most of the time when I'm a paragon of virtue." I wish more writers were brave enough to include dislikable traits in their characters. Personally I always liked the idea of Spike falling for Sweetie Bell. There a poetic symmetry there. And the idea of Rarity pulling some strings to set them up made a neat little recompense for her dubious behaviour.
A nice chapter. I've always been on the fence about the twilight = nobility notion. I've always viewed the aristocracy as little more than inheritors of illgotten gains at best and parasites at best, at least in real life. And yet I'm as much as sucker for the fantasy as the next one when it comes to fiction... I think it works here.
Twilight was momentairly tempted to suggest that Rarity look closer to home for potential aristcratic connections, but quickly decided to let sleeping dogs lie; Applejack did not need the additional aggravation just now. If the identity of Baroness Ponyville could be determined by a cursory background check such as she had performed upon arriving in her new home, Rarity should have no difficulty in making the discovery herself.
11223920
Now you've inspired me to make some flaws too... But onto Aristocracy... Well, Shining Armor's city shield wall ability and Twilight's phenomenal magical strength couldn't just be random luck, right? There's likely a genetic component?
And given the utility of magical power, the chances that they're higher status, is expected, no?
11224071
I know, right? That this has an Estee reference makes that so much better!
Edit: Well, I missed that that was a FOME ref. Gotta go re-read that.
...
Now onto my own thoughts.
Hehe, narration funny, "clearly".
...
Parallels!
...
Timeline detected!
...
Woo!
And Rarity can solve her issues with Spike now, at least. Although she wouldn't have planned it so soon, or at least planned it at all.
----
Typos:
he come be exploited > he come to be exploited
girp > grip
11224400
Whoa there Galton! Ease of the Eugenics!
In all seriousness, I'm not suggesting that Twilight *doesn't* have better genetics, but what makes you think that's the result of being nobility?
In my experience, and in real life, the Nobility and Aristocracy typically have inferior genetics. "Bloodblood" was actually a slur. The upper classes are more inbred than Alabama. Winston Churchil married his own cousin, and he wasnt an anomaly...
Plus, where is this notion that Nobles are awarded their station based on superior magic coming from? Nobles very rarely earn their position. Nobles families traditionally got their place by having lots if wealth and lending that wealth to their preffered candidate in power struggles. The titles and deeds were repayments. (In real life, most hereditary peers can trace their inherited wealth the looting of some other country or even to the slave trade! After all, it's very difficult to ene up with absurd amounts of money without exploiting someone, somewhere. You don't become a billionaire on a salaried job after all...)
In real life, the Aristocracy arent *inherently* smarter than their peers. They can simply afford to buy advantages like private school, and experimental healthcare. If they didnt give you an advantage, whod pay for them?
So based on that, as much as I enjoy the fantasy of knights and chivalrous nobleman as much as anyone, I've always liked the idea of Twilight and Shining Armour simply being uncommonly powerful.
I love the idea of Shining armour being raised to the officer Corp from the enlisted ranks (Ever seen Sharpe?) And representing a significant change in the way things are done. Causing a bit of a stir. Experiencing class prejudice. Being given a noble title almost against his will and having to deal with peers who think hes an up jumped social climber.
Twilight seems hilariously illequiped to deal with court intrigue and the likes of stuffy nobles and that alone suggests it would make for an interesting story.
Not to say it can't work well. It absolutely can. Can you *imagine* Starlight Gimmer (Our resident Communist) discovering Twilight was secretly nobility? That sounds like great fun. (I've always liked the idea that even once she abandons her Crusade against any form of difference, she maintains fairly socialistic principles which it was presumably built upon before going off the deep end. If only because I love the mental image of her occasionally clashing with the... shall we say... more status driven... Rarity. Stories are built off conflict after all.
Personally, I think that if inherent nobility plays a roll in magical talent it's much more likely to be the result of influence to get the attention of powerful benefactors like Celestia, or magical tutors, or fancy schools. I think it's more likely that Nobiltiies (used to have Butlers do anything more complicated than lifting a tea cup) might be almost magically drained after generations of inbreeding and complacent.
Twilight magic prowess - far from being a source of evidence for her innate nobility - should in my view cause her to stick out like a sore thumb.
I much prefer the notion that Celestia would have taken *anyone* under her wing, and having Twilight become her personal student because of her heritage - even indirectly - undermines that somewhat. People who get given their nobility on merit.
I'm reminded of an exchange in Yes Minister, that I can imagine taking place between Celestia and Blueblood.
"I have come to decision on this years honours list, Blueblood. This has gone on for long enough."
"Auntie. You're not about to do something drastic are you?"
"I'm not going to sign off a single honour for someone that hasn't earned it."
"... What do you mean earned it?"
"I mean earned it. Done something to deserve it."
"But that's unheard of!!"
11224421
I mean things the other way around-ish.
Story quote:
My idea is that the ones with strong magic bloodlines in the past made themselves the aristocracy, a "Magocracy", if you will, and their lines continued even when the Princesses took the throne.
11224447
That suggests that even after thousands of years the reigns of power are held not by those who are deserving but the descendants of those who wielded magical power at the time.
Can't have been great for the Pegasus or Earth Ponies that nobility has come to be equated merely with the descendants powerful Unicorns...
Though I am perhaps reading too deeply into such things.
11224502
Well, you're assuming that the aristocracy have any actual power beyond looking pretty and being functionally celebrities?
11224512
Well it would be most unusual. I'm assuming it's a decline. Even if they have limited power in the present day, if their civilisation is anything like ours this wouldn't be a static thing but would be the result of centuries of slowly mitigating that power.
That's of course assuming it follows a similar pattern and trend to our worlds concepts of nobility and chivalry. Whether it's the romantic knight, the eastern samurai, the european bloodline, or the caliphs of the middle east. Nobility has always been tied to the idea of inherited worth. Of built in superiority. Even supremacy.
And I think that even in the present day, theres a difference between wielding executive legislative power and possessing power and influence that the average person wouldn't have. But - at least to me - it's still power. Wealth, status, privalige is still hugely involved in our lives and how we structure out societies. Even celebrities (which you contend to be harmless) enjoy extreme privalige and power. Just look at the monsters hiding in Hollywood for decades, untouchable due to their influence and the effect of imagined status and privalige...
After all, modern day monarchies don't wield 'Power' in the sense that they can pass laws. But they certainly enjoy significant wealth, privilege, authority and influence for no reason other than they were given it on account of their bloodline.
Modern dukes and counts can get access to private schooling, specialist teaching and higher education that is out of reach for much of the lower classes barring a few scholarships created to ease their conscience and create the illusion that it was handed out on merit.
And the fact that the aristocracy can get away with even criminal acts by people turning a blind eye to what a lesser citizen would find themselves in trouble with the authorities for is extremely well documented through the ages.
Of course, as you rightly put it, perhaps behaviours are different in Equestria. Everything is relative, and it seems likely that the worst *anyone* could be guilty of would be being stuck up and run of the mill classism and snobbery. A far cry from genuine abuse of influence. It's a bright and sunny universe where people are generally decent and cheerful. Even Blueblood - the character held up as the pinnacle of what is distasteful in the monarchy - is merely rude. Hes a nobleman, but hes an 'equestrian' nobleman. Meaning he's probably already better than most humans purely by virtue of the universe he lives in.
But generally speaking, I find that if nobility didn't afford someone an advantage over the ignoble, nobody would value or seek it. It wouldn't exist if it were not there to separate those who were titled from those who weren't. And if there was no functional difference between the two, there would be no reason for it to emerge as a societal construct.
"Nobleman" has to give you *something* or they wouldn't have a word for it.
That power, that advantage, might be less tangible in the modern era. Much as it is in our universe. But just as in real life, being an aristocrat may not afford you such privileges *on paper*, the reality is rarely so neat and fair.
But that's not really the point. I generally find the practice to be... distasteful. I heavily dislike the idea that anyone can be said to be inherently better than anyone else.
Twilight as nobility is a common enough trope that I don't dislike it in principle. But I much prefer it as a source or sociopolitical friction.
How does Rainbow, someone who's identity is founded upon the notion of making herself the best, deal with the idea that there is metric by which someone would measure her worth, for which no matter what she does she cannot advance? She cannot change her ancestry.
Rarity is clearly enamoured with the idea, even to the point of behaving in an uncharacteristically vapid manner of a social climber to fulfil that fantasy. Because ahes bought into the idea.
These are *interesting* ideas. Great sources of conflict because Aristocracy is inherently socially divisive. And division stokes conflict. And conflict produces stories.
That said, I should stress is a personal preference. A... taste... you might say. I am under no illusions that there are plenty of readers who'd find the notion of exploring equestrian sociopolitical intrigue to be boring as all hell. Its merely a matter of taste.
Big Sis Twilight is super cool Twilight
11223920
I've always liked how Rarity is both the most generous, and the most greedy, of the Mane Six.
11224648
I agree. It's much more interesting.
In real life, peoples personalities are how they generally behave. But no one acts the same way all the time. Place someone under the right pressure, engineer the right circumstances and the kindest people can be capable of cruelty. The most generous capable of greed and selfishness.
I think what's interesting is the question "What do you care enough about in order to defy your nature?" Three things all wise men fear. The Dark on a motionless night. The Sea in the middle of a storm. And the anger of a gentle man.
Rarity is objectively a good person. She is. She leaves the world better than she finds it. So seeing what it is that she compromises her own values on is fascinating. She places an inordinate value on her business, measures her self worth based upon her vision of a successful future. *That* is what she's willing to break her own morals.
Personally, I'm of the opinion that the Elements dont just embody their elements. They *value* their elements. Rarity values generosity in all things. It's how she expresses her all encompassing love for her friends. Their elements arent necessary the traits they embody but the ones they most *want* to have. The ones they most aspire to.
It's much more interesting when they fall short of their ideals, than to when they embody them the whole time. Flawed heroes are much more interesting than paragons of virtue.
One idea I've played with has House Twilight as having once (in the far distant past) been one of the foremost houses of Equestrian nobility, at the absolute top of the heap. The problem was, they were a Night Court house, strongly aligned with Princess Luna. So when the Princess went mad and the abeyance began, they suddenly became persona non grata. And ever since they (along with probably a bunch of other noble houses who favored Moon over Sun) have been in this weird position where they are technically of high noble rank, and still have a great deal of wealth and resources, but are nevertheless somehow outside the true social elite.
11224421
11224447
On top of that, if magical power is inheritable to any meaningful degree, then noble houses would be incentivized to try and secure marriages with the most powerful mages that pop up, to cultivate greater power for their next generation. Not to mention that those gifted with powerful magic are more likely to accomplish the sort of impressive deeds that might lead to being elevated into the nobility. So over the generations, magical strength would continue to be gathered in the noble bloodlines.
11223920
As for my cynical self, the first place I envisioned that story going is a scene in which a hurt Sweetie Belle confronts Spike and asks, "Was I just an age-appropriate Rarity to you?" And Spike himself being unsure of the answer. Which makes for a compelling story, but one that doesn't have a happy ending.
11223819 11224071
As Twilight noted, Rarity has a very romanticized view of both nobility and the capital. She just cannot process that her uncouth friend who just happens to own a parcel of land granted to her family by the crown is, by definition, a noblemare. Not until it gets shoved into her muzzle, anyway.
11223920
Character complexity is necessary for both growth and believability. The strength and richness of the Mane Six was one of the central pillars that elevated Friendship is Magic above just another 22-minute toy commercial.
And yeah, there's no solid indication of Twilight's social class prior to getting her wings. Cadence foalsitting her might indicate some degree of elevated importance, but it's hard to tell.
Also, regarding the discussion between you and 11224400:
Do bear this in mind:
In this Canterlot, it's less an attempt at magical eugenics and more trying to keep the blood relatively fresh. A thousand years in one city and Celestia making her opinion known means even the greediest power grubbers can acknowledge that a family tree that fails to branch has unpleasant consequences.
But yeah, suffice to say, this is skimming the surface of a very deep pond, one I don't intend to dive into any time soon. Goodness knows others have explored Canterlot politics in far greater depth than I care to.
11224950
Ooh, headcanon strongly considered at minimum.