Titles and Value

by Wages of Sin

The Letter

It was a beautiful day. A perfect day in fact for the pet play date and picnic that was currently occurring in the east field of Ponyville.

"Pinkie, I told you to keep Gummy away from the potato salad!" said Applejack as she dumped the bowl's contents onto the ground off the nearest edge of the blanket, revealing a potato covered alligator.

"Gummy! I told you that that was a one time thing silly! We don't bathe in food unless we ask the Cakes very nicely!" the pink party pony giggled.

Winona was a reliable friend, and was more than willing to help her cold-blooded friend clean up; licking the lizard's tail clean of potato product.

Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Spike, along with Owlicious, Opalescence, Tank, Angel, and newly-added Pewee laughed at the farm and party ponies and their pets' hijinks.

"Twilight? Mail!" a certain grey mailmare called, approaching from the direction of Ponyville.

"Hey Derpy! Whatcha' doing walking when you could be flying?" Rainbow asked, zooming over to the bubble-flanked mare.

"I can't fly with all the mail I've got today. It's more than I've ever had in one day; I had to bring a whole second bag just for you Twilight! It seems like all of Canterlot wants to talk to you!"

Twilight's magic took the large bag and pulled out the first of what seemed to be hundreds of letters.

It was addressed to Twilight from "House Glitterhorn".

"What's this about Twi?" Applejack said, eyeing the bag suspiciously.

Twilight gave a shrug, opening the letter and reading the contents aloud.

"Dear Duchess Sparkle,

House Glitterhorn wishes to convey our sincerest condolences over your loss. We understand your pain and wish to extend any aid you need in this troubling time.

He will be greatly missed.

Sincerely, Luster Von Glitterhorn IV"

"Well I didn't think that the potato salad would be missed so much, but it sure is nice of them to send a letter." Pinkie laughed.

Applejack was first to respond "I don't think they were talking about the food Pinkie... Twi, what's this all about? Duchess? Is this some kind of joke?" she looked over to Twilight to see her standing dead still, frozen in place.

"Dear, what's going on? 'Duchess!' Are you a noble? I was unaware Celestia gave you a noble title! You should have told us!" Rarity exclaimed to the frozen mare.

"She didn't..."

"What's that sweetie? I can't hear you."

"She didn't..."

"This letter is addressed to 'Duchess Sparkle'" said Rainbow Dash as she began to dig through the rest of the mailbag, "Do you know what that means Rarity? ...Rarity?"

Rarity was suddenly as frozen as Twilight. "I'm so sorry Twilight" she said as she slowly embraced Twilight.

Dash flew over confused, "What's wrong? This sounds like a good thing? Right? ...Right?"

Rarity shot dash a soft glare, "Twilight said that Celestia didn't give her the title..."

Fluttershy was becoming concerned now, "Does that mean..."

"Yes Fluttershy, Duchess is an inherited title..."

Dash was more confused than ever and she was getting upset, "What does that mean! I don't understand!"

Rarity looked to the chromatic pegasus, tears in her eyes, "Dash... It means she inherited the title... It means that she was the next in the family line... It- It means the person who held the title died..."

Dash finally seemed to figure out the significance, if not the facts of what happened.

Silence fell over the east field.

Rarity's whisper broke the silence "We need to go to Canterlot."

Rarity escorted Twilight home as the other girls gathered their pets and went home themselves to pack.

-------------------------------------

It wasn't long before they were all on the train to Canterlot.

Fluttershy and Rarity were on either side of Twilight now, comforting the distraught mare.

"Twilight, dear, I'm sorry, but I'm trying to understand what's going on. I've never heard of the Sparkles amongst the noble houses, so how..." she let the words die as she looked to Twilight who looked as if she was about to break into tears again.

Luckily she didn't, "I'm named after my mother, it's a family tradition, but my father is... was... Night Light of the house of Light."

"House Light! That means you were related to- well, ARE the duchess of all southern Equestria!" As if realizing what her words finally meant, Rarity dropped to the train's floor, "I'm sorry your majesty! I didn't realize! If I had known who you were!"

"Rarity, stand up, you're acting like a silly filly." Twilight chastised. Rarities theatrics were having the benefit of lightening Twilight's mood somewhat.

"But! Now you are a titled noble!-" it sounded like she had meant to continue, but stopped when Pinkie started laughing, "Silly Rarity, Twi's been noble since we met her!"

"Well shoot Pinkie, we all know Twi's a nice 'n truthful gal, but we're talking about something else right now."

Pinkie scrunched up her eyes questioningly at the orange mare "That's funny, because I thought we were talking about Twilight's titles of nobility; like how she's now a Duchess but was a Baroness, but oh! oh! oh! She's even a princess! Right Twi!"

Everypony looked in shock from pinkie to Twilight, Twilight herself stared at Pinkie.

"Pinkie, how did you... Never mind." Twilight gave her head a shake and closed her eyes, looking away as if to hide. "Girls, I... I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but I was afraid of how you would treat me if you knew. You know how I was with my magic before Trixie showed up... I thought you wouldn't want to be friends if you found out I was one of those 'stuck up Canterlot snobs'" Rarity shot a glare at Applejack before turning a comforting look to Twilight, "Dear, tell us the whole story, we won't judge you." she said, apparently forgetting her desperate groveling just moments before.

"Thanks girls, I'm really sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but I really expected one of you to figure it out at some point." Twilight gave an apologetic shrug, "Well, anyway, ...where do I even begin? ...I'll start with my family history." Twilight looked around at the girls for confirmation.

Receiving only excited anticipation she began, "As you know, my father, Night Light, is- was the Duke of southern Equestria, but as Pinkie said my family tree is a little more complicated than that. My great uncle, Dewey Glitter, was the Barron of Vanhoover before he passed the title on to my mother."

"But Rarity said that the Sparkle's weren't noble!" Applejack protested.

"Well they technically aren't. My mother's name is Twilight Velvet, and it's a family tradition, so I inherited the 'Twilight' part, but since 'Twilight Light' sounds redundant they just made up the 'Sparkle'. Anyway, she said she wasn't cut out for being a Barroness, so she passed it right on to Shining Armor. Which is why he wears my uncle's badge on his armor: to show his connection to the Barrony of Vanhoover."

Applejack was becoming visibly upset the more Twilight talked, "But how does that go to you then! Wouldn't that make HIM the Barron?"

"Well no it doesn't, because he passed the title to me after his wedding, seeing as he was going to be with Cadence on the throne of the Crystal Empire. He thought it best if he passed it on. Which leads to the Most obvious of the titles I possess, Princess of the Crystal Empire."

Rarity face-hoofed, "Of course! How could I not see it before! Your brother married Princess Cadence! That would make you part of the royal family!"

"It does, but also because Cadence has no family, and they have no fillies or foals yet, so they named me the heir to the Crystal Throne if something were to happen to them, they also liked the idea because I was the one that recovered the crystal heart and thought it would go over well with the population. My training with Celestia didn't hurt either. And that's my story."

All the mares just stared in awe at the new Princess-Duchess-Barroness that used to be their simple librarian/all-team-organizer/Element of Magic/Princesse's student.

Under the scrutiny of her friends Twilight began cover-explaining "My noble title is 'Twilight de Cryst von Sud-Equest de Cant ad Vanhoof. Which is of course the shortened version, derived from the location of authority of the title, preceded by appropriate particle, and arranged in order of precedence. Long hand my full name is-"

Rainbow Dash's hoof met with Twilight's mouth fast enough to stop what she could see was her friend's unraveling.

"So Twi, what you're saying is: you are pretty important, Right?"

Rarity gave a shriek, "Applejack! Don't speak to her like that!"

"Like what?" Applejack shot Rarity a deadpan stare.

"I'm so sorry princess! I'm sure she didn't mean to sound so familiar!" Rarity's begging only elicited an unamused scowl from the newly revealed princess.

"And this is why I didn't tell anypony. Anyway, we're here girls."

Over the course of revealing her great secret to her friends Twilight had forgotten the reason they began this trip, but as they neared their destination the grim reality sunk into Twilight. She was going to bury her father.

The father who hadn't been a part of her life since becoming Celestia's student.

Comments

[Ebonysdagger]

Nice. I had wondered if anyone would ever get around to writing a story about her getting such a letter. I can't wait to see where this goes.

[Lelouch Vi Britania]

very interesting, and as sad as it is, that is exactly how i would picture rarity acting. tracked.

[Seether00]

Ah, Twilight, we knew your were of noble stock all along. Though it begs the question of why no one recognized her at the garden party.

[Ebonysdagger]

1977204
My guess is that they themselves weren't high enough up on the the list of importance to have ever met her or her family. Jet Set and Upper Crust smacked of either lower rung nobility or simply being rich as did a lot of their friends.

[Wages of Sin]

1977204 Better question: why didn't they recognize her as Celestia's student? She LIVED at the castle for YEARS and they didn't seem to have any idea who she was or what she was doing there. So much for the in-crowd.

[Zocarik]

I like this. It fits nicely with many parts of my headcannon. I look foreward to more.
How will you make the nobles behave during the funeral? I wait for the next part.

[Midknight Defender]

and they have no fillies or foals yet,

"fillies or colts", or just "foals" (a foal is gender neutral, filly/colt are girl/boy respectively for those who don't know horses outside of The Show)