Rarity and Blueblood's Adventures in Parenting

Rarity's parents thought they had seen it all.

After spending every summer traveling to tourist traps all around Equestria, they were well acquainted with the over the top dramatics of their older daughter, the bubbling enthusiasm of their younger one and of course, the colorful and sometimes seedy personalities of the ponies they met along the way.

They had not expected for their eldest daughter to be completely silent upon her return from Canterlot.

Earlier that afternoon, they had received a short note from Rarity acknowledging that she would need to spend a night or two at their place and that she would be bringing a guest with her. The note hadn't answered any of the questions they currently had and Rarity didn't seem like she had any intent to answer them herself.

When she came through the door, they greeted her as warmly as they always had whenever she decided to stop by for a visit. Instead of responding to them, she just walked up the stairs without any acknowledgment. It was shocking to her parents, they were used to some kind of reaction from their daughter. Something other than apathy.

Then as quickly as it had begun, the silence that had unfolded once she walked through the door was momentarily shattered by the sound of a door slamming shut and then the sound of tiny hooves running down the stairs.

“She locked me out of my room!” Sweetie Belle shrieked as she motioned her hoof towards her room.

“Now Sweetie, your sister is really upset about something... we think. Just let her be for a little while I'm sure sooner or later she'll open the door,” her mother assured.

Sweetie Belle walked back up the stairs grumbling to herself, her parents turned to each other sharing concerned looks. This was not how their oldest daughter usually reacted. Usually if she was upset she let them know exactly what was wrong... very loudly. They debated going upstairs to ask her what was wrong, but after having spent many arguments locked outside her bedroom door while she was growing up, they weren't even sure if she would open the door for them.

They heard another knock at the door. The stallion opened the door and both ponies peered outside, their eyes widened in surprise when they saw the prince standing on their front porch with the most fake smile they had ever seen.

Her father's brow furrowed. “No,” he said as he slammed the door in the prince's face.

“Magnum, dear...”

“Absolutely not!”

“He's probably Rarity's guest. Besides, dear, he probably knows why she's upset.”

“Of course he knows what's wrong! Whatever it is, is probably his fault in the first place! And if he is her guest then you can bet your bum that she will get a talking to later. Why bother to give him another chance? He'd just ruin that too!”

His wife ignored him and re-opened the door for the prince. “Come on in, dearie.”

“Thank you,” the prince said as he stepped inside. He had scarcely been through the door when the mare eagerly dragged him over to where they had been sitting.

“Now, do you have any idea what's going on? Rare's been strangely quiet and it's not like her. Her father and I are very worried.”

“Well... you see Blue Belle was taken from my care after I had put her to bed last night... somepony who hates my family stole her as a way to prove I should not have any power.”

“Who in Tartarus is Blue Belle?” Magnum asked furrowing his brow.

“I mean Ivory Lace. Sorry, Blue Belle is a family name and I...”

“So you're tellin' me that my granddaughter was taken because some ponies hate you?” Blueblood nodded. “This is insane!” He turned to his wife and extended his foreleg towards the prince. “This is why he shouldn't have had another chance. I told you it was his fault.”

“I never meant any harm to either...” The prince started to explain, but was cut off by Rarity's mother

“Ignore him dearie, he's just stubborn. Why don't you go on up and talk to Rare? You'd probably have better luck with her than we would.”

“Thank you,” Blueblood said as he stood up.

“No need to come upstairs and see me. I have no qualms with speaking to you all down here,” Rarity responded as she descended the staircase. “Now, I wanted to share with all of you the plan I have come up with. Bear with me, for it may sound somewhat odd, but please note that I have spent a lot of time thinking about it...”

“What? No hello for your dear ol' dad? You just jump right into your plan? I'm disappointed kiddo.”

“I'm very sorry about that father, but I have just been in my own little world for the past few hours. You see, ever since Blueblood and I left the palace I had been thinking of ways to help the Royal Guard find Lacey faster. I have come to the conclusion that I will go out and look for Ivory Lace myself.” She paused for a moment to let the words sink in before adding, “Blueblood, you are welcome to come with me, but don't feel like you have to. I would like to avoid pressuring you into doing something you don't want to do.”

The other ponies in the room looked at her as if she had three heads, while they tried to sort out if she was serious or not. Her parents glanced at each other confused, both trying to understand if she was being serious or just pulling their legs. Silently they were hoping for the latter to be true.

“Rarity, the royal guards have it covered,” Blueblood finally spoke up.

“They were unable to save her the first time around, what makes you think the second time will be any better?”

"Rare don't be like that, it seems like it was something that was beyond their control. After all it isn't like the castle hasn't been attacked before," her mother added, trying to console her.

"Which is exactly why I want to do something, I obviously cannot trust the guards to do their jobs correctly. Besides, Princess Celestia has trusted my friends and I with tasks like this before, what makes this one different?"

"I really do think that we should leave it to the professionals, you and I are much too close to the situation to make rational decisions."

"Professionals? Blueblood, you yourself told me that, as per family tradition, you trained with the royal guard and I have been trusted as a bearer of the Element of Generosity. What pony could be more professional than the two of us?"

"It could be dangerous... I really don't think it would be a good idea for us to do this."

"Says the stallion who probably wouldn't do anything for his daughter unless I made him.”

There was a long pause, nopony knew how to respond to that at first. Blueblood was poised to respond with a smart comment back to her, but stopped himself short, despite desperately wanting to wipe that look off her face.

“Rare, why don't you take your mom outside? I want to talk to the prince alone.”

The mares acquiesced and walked outside slowly. Blueblood's face immediately flushed with fear. Pondering wy her father wanted everypony else besides him to leave the room? Rarity was probably quick to agree because she knew he was going to do something to him.

As soon as the front door closed, Blueblood winced in fear, while her father sat down and sighed in annoyance.

“You know kid I'm not exactly a fan of this idea my daughter has... but she is practically handing you have a once in a lifetime chance to redeem yourself on a silver platter. You should know all about silver platters, I'm sure that's all you eat off of.”

“Actually...”

“Look kid, my daughter hates you, her friends hate you, and I'm sure you know how my wife and I feel about you. Rare wants to go out and find her, let her do it. And for Celestia's sake kid, go with her. Who knows? It might make ponies around here value you for once.”

“I would prefer Rarity to not get hurt. She has no connection to this and I have no idea how dangerous this could become. I would prefer this be done by the guards.”

“I know how you feel, kid. I really do, but it's her daughter too and she has just as much connection to this as you do, if not more. I won't say I'm exactly thrilled with the idea or the situation, but there's nothin' I can really do about it, now is there? Besides, she's right, she and her friends have been trusted by Princess Celestia to take care of seemingly more dangerous villains than this.”

"I suppose..."

"Besides if you do this right then Rare might actually appreciate you. I know I would probably have some respect for you."

While Blueblood was not entirely convinced that this plan would work in any way, shape or form, at this point it seemed like he had no choice. If he even thought about choosing to stay here and hide away from the ponies who want him dead, the ponies in this town would surely make him feel incredibly guilty about it every waking minute. He didn't respond to her father, he just stood up and walked outside where the three mares were sitting gazing at the stars. He took a deep breath and tapped his hoof to Rarity's shoulder. As she turned around, he shot her one of his winning smiles that he usually only saved for his photo opportunities.

“I've thought about it... and you may be right. Maybe the two of us could do it ourselves...” he bit his lip before he almost added “when pigs fly” to his previous statement.

“You mean it?” She asked, her face bright with excitement.

“Yes,” he responded, trying to keep himself from including his own pessimistic thoughts. Right now he just wanted to humor her. Besides, sooner or later she wouldn't want to continue on this journey anyway. How could she when neither of them had any idea where to start, nor did they know what they were supposed to do if they ever did actually find the ponies who took their daughter. While he contemplated that, Rarity levitated an unopened scroll similar to the one Shining Armor had showed them at the palace earlier that evening.

“Did you steal that?” He asked as he followed her back inside. She grabbed the saddle bag she had abandoned earlier and nodded.

“I borrowed it. After all, the guards have plenty of others, besides I need the seal to be unbroken”

“For what?”

“Research,” Rarity replied as she stuck the scroll and another object that the prince couldn't quite see, in her saddle bag and skipped out the door. The prince tried to run after her to catch up to her quick pace.

“Wait... how long have you been planning this?”

“I grabbed a scroll before we got in the carriage and while you were sleeping I formulated a plan.”

“Oh, so would you care to explain exactly where we are going right now?”

“We are going to visit one of my closest friends, Twilight Sparkle, who is a master of research. I noticed that all of the notes in the palace are closed with a wax seal that I have never seen before. I am positive that if we bring this letter to Twilight, she can figure out who sent it based on the seal.”

She stopped short in front of a large tree, based on the signs in front of it Blueblood figured this must be the town's library. “Just wait out here for a few minutes, okay? I don't want you to scare the poor dear before I have a chance to explain the situation to her.”

“Fair enough.”

She smiled sweetly as she opened the door to the library, as hurt and scared as she was, she wanted a few moments of normalcy, besides there would be plenty of time later for Twilight to worry as well.

“Helloooo!” Rarity cooed.

“Hey Rarity!” Twilight smiled as she walked into the main room of the library. “How did your vacation with Fancypants go?”

“It could have gone better...” she said slowly, her smile drooping slightly as she recalled Fancypant's reaction to her one night stand with Blueblood.

“Oh, Rarity, I'm so sorry.”

“It will be fine in time, I'm sure. A trip to the spa with Fluttershy and he will be completely forgotten,” she proclaimed dramatically, then paused and looked her friend in the eye. “Of course that is not why I'm here so late. I'm here because I need your help”

“Oh, of course, what do you need help with? Do you need a new book about fashion to keep your mind off things?”

“No... actually I am here to ask you if you know anything about the Blueblood family, perhaps the history of the family? Or maybe a family curse? Anything really.”

“Why? Did something happen between you and the prince? Was he on the ship too? He made a comment about you being lower class didn't he? I thought you told me that the two of you made some kind of public truce while you were visiting Canterlot...”

“Well... sort of...”

Blueblood took this opportunity to make his grand entrance. He waltzed through the door of the library with his head held high and a smirk on his face.

Rarity sighed, “he's Ivory Lace's father.”

“Blue Belle.”

“Not now!” She hissed before turning back to Twilight whose mouth was wide open as she looked back and forth between the her friend and the prince. “Twilight I know this sounds absolutely insane, but we are in desperate need of your help. Somepony stole Ivory Lace while she was staying at Canterlot Castle with Prince Blueblood. All we have to go on is this scroll found in the castle that was meant for him,” she explained as she handed off the scroll in her saddlebag to Twilight with her magic. “Would you be a dear and research it for us please?”

“Immediately,” Blueblood added. “Forget whatever silly assignment my aunt sent you. This is a matter of greater importance.”

Twilight just stood there, confused, as she tried to register the information that had been fed to her. Thanks to the events that occurred at the Grand Galloping Gala, the two of them had made it painfully clear that they disliked each other. Rarity had made it very clear that she hoped to never have to associate with Prince Blueblood ever again. So how was it possible that even with alcohol they would do something like that? Had they been drugged? Perhaps hypnotized? No, there was definitely some kind of magic spell at work here, there had to be.

She went through all the possibilities before even considering saying anything to them. She wanted to have an articulate response to that bombshell of a question.

“Does Princess Celestia know?” Twilight finally asked still wide eyed.

“No, and I would appreciate it if you kept it out of your little letters to her. I don't think she would take too kindly to knowing that her nephew impregnated one of her precious elements.”

“Does... does my brother know?”

Blueblood sighed. “Yes, Miss Sparkle he was the first in the castle to find out and to answer your next question, no he does not like the situation any more than you do.”

“Twilight, dear, I know you are in shock, but we are in desperate need of your help. Right now, who knows and does not know, holds no importance whatsoever because apparently all of Equestria will hear about it soon enough.”

“I could look it up,” Twilight finally said as she examined the seal on the note.

Twilight Sparkle had to admit, the use of a seal was very surprising, not many ponies used seals when sending letters anymore because it was so much easier to stick them in an envelope instead of waiting for the hot wax to cool off. The only seal she had ever seen in her lifetime featured the crest of Princess Celestia.

She had her doubts about the seal though. What pony would be so simple minded as to give away exactly who they were that easily? She doubted she would find any information about it in any of her books, the seal had to be a fake. Something to throw the ponies off the trail perhaps? The purple unicorn decided that she should start with a different approach.

She took a deep breath. “Blueblood, how about you start by telling me who could have done this to you? Do you have any enemies?”

“Of course not, I'm incredibly well liked among my subjects, well... except for you and your friends, and the duke from Prance because I slept with his daughter, that one mare I left in the woods, the mare I told I had twelve hours to live, the mare I pretended to proposed to, and of course the dozens of other mares I slept with and never talked to again." He paused. "Okay... so perhaps that is just the tip of the iceberg and there are plenty of ponies out there who don't like me...”

“You brought a girl camping?” Rarity asked surprised.

“Really? Out of all the things he said, you are choosing to fixate on that?” Twilight moaned.

“If you thought I was bad around dirt, you should see how he is,” she explained rolling her eyes to prove a point. “Besides, Twilight, it's a lost lead. There are just too many ponies out there who hate him. I would prefer if we searched through your books for information on the seal. I know that will get us further than going through a list of his enemies.”

“Okay...” Twilight responded sounding defeated.

All through the night, Twilight Sparkle poured through the books in her library looking for any information that could be related to the seal, but nothing of importance was popping out at her. She was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to just get an hour of sleep, but she couldn't let herself just stop without finding anything.

By the time the sun was starting to rise, Twilight and Rarity had started their third pot of coffee and Twilight felt she had come no closer to a conclusion than she had been when Rarity and Blueblood entered the library the night before. She was almost done with the final page of her last book on the history of wax seals and she and her friend both seemed ready to give up all hope on this lead, when one particular image caught her eye. She brought the seal on the scroll and compared it to the one in the book then smiled.

“Finally!” She exclaimed. The other two unicorns quickly moved in next to her to see what she had found.

“This seal bears the logo of the Silver Guard,” Twilight announced proudly.

“The what?”

“Well, according to this book, the Silver Guard used to be a secret society that was run by the members of the royal families in Canterlot hundreds of years ago.”

As Rarity and Blueblood poured over the book and description of the seal, Twilight ran over to one of her bookcases and used her magic to grab several books about the history of the royal families. She hadn't opened those books since she had been back in Canterlot with Princess Celestia, and she couldn't quite recall what they had said about past royal families. Now was the perfect time to refresh her memory.

Blueblood, on the other hand, was trying to get through the small paragraph about the Silver Guard. It wasn't the subject matter that confused him, it was what it was implying that had him flummoxed.

“This book makes absolutely no sense, there is only one royal family in Canterlot. My family. I can assure you that none of the few surviving members of the sole royal family would stoop to foalnapping my daughter.”

“Your family isn't the only royal family, Prince Blueblood.”

The prince looked over at Twilight, obviously confused. “What do you mean?”

“That's just it, Blueblood there's only one royal family now, but there used to be more. According to the Hearth's Warming story, there were two other tribes. Once the Princesses took the throne she allowed the leaders of the three tribes to continue to be figureheads of each race. Meaning that there used to be three houses of nobility. It's quite possible that the descendants from the other two houses are angry with you because you're the only one that is still in power.”

“That's it? That's all I had to do to tick off other ponies? Just being born into the wrong family? That is absurd!”

“I'm not sure exactly, I mean other than just being born into the royal family there isn't really any reason for them to have a problem with you,” Twilight explained shaking her head. “But your best bet is to track down the ponies who used to be a part of the house of Merriweather and the house of Gamesome and find out the truth for yourself.”

“What happened to them that they are no longer considered royalty?” Rarity asked in the midst of a yawn.

“The book doesn't say... whatever they had done must have been pretty bad though. I mean Princess Celestia isn't one to just ban royalty over a trivial matter.”

“So I've noticed,” Rarity said as she glared at the prince.

“How would we go about finding these ponies? Surely they no longer go by these names now that they are out of power,” Blueblood said ignoring Rarity's previous comment.

“I'm not sure exactly, you see the family trees I have stop around the time they left the throne and that was generations ago. I could probably try and research it, but I can only assume that it will be incredibly difficult because there is very little preceding information to help me. It could take days, possibly weeks, maybe even months...”

Blueblood sighed, of course it would come to this. Unfortunately, he did know a pony who would know how to find this information thanks to his bountiful sources of knowledge and his numerous acquaintances. He did not exactly want to associate himself with this pony right now, as they were not exactly on good terms, but of all the ponies in Equestria... nopony else knew better about the Equestrian elite both past and present than this pony did.

“I know somepony who can help.”

“Who?” Rarity asked excitedly.

“I am not at liberty to say right now, because I am not entirely certain that this pony will want to help me; we are not exactly friends. I do know that I will need to go back to Canterlot to speak with him about it. I get the feeling he would not be interested in reading or replying to a letter from me.” Rarity opened her mouth to speak, but Blueblood interrupted her, “before you say anything, yes I know the risks associated with traveling back to Canterlot, especially in broad daylight, but I am willing to take them to get this information.”

He surprised himself with his own words. Just a few hours ago he wanted no part in this quest, and now he was offering to put his own life on the line for information. Perhaps it was because he really wanted his daughter back, or perhaps it was because wanted to be respected instead of laughed at by the other nobles. Either way he decided, he was going to do this.

“Actually, I was going to thank you for finally showing some initiative, but yes, do be careful.”