Rarity and Blueblood's Adventures in Parenting

Manehattan wasn't known for its charm or beauty. Canterlot far exceeded the big city in that respect. If anything, compared to other cities in Equestria, Manehattan was dirty and crowded. The swarms of tourists that flocked the city did not do so to see beautiful buildings or nicely swept walkways. They visited primarily because of Manehattan's many shopping opportunities.

Of the numerous storefronts, there was no other store in town that could draw a crowd quite like Hoity Toity's shop could. He always featured the best of the best from designers all over Equestria, and even a few from outside of the country. Rarity had meticulously chosen this store, out of all of the stores in Manehattan, because not only did it feature her designs, but she had hoped the idea of a crowd would sway Prince Blueblood from tagging along with her while she looked for a dress.

It did not.

“I told you, I do not feel comfortable being around you without some kind of facade, especially since that article came out today. Both of us are risking humiliation. Do you really want to risk death too?” she asked, looking nervously around the store to see if anypony was looking their way.

“It's okay, I have a mustache. According to your pink friend it should be a suitable disguise for the time being. Besides, I needed an opportunity to speak with you without any of your friends around.”

“A mustache? Really? You think that flimsy excuse for a disguise will work?”

“Absolutely. Besides, I would like to think that after two very close brushes with death, I could handle myself should I have to run for my life again.”

“Oh sure, I am positive you could,” Rarity responded, trying to ebb the sarcasm in her voice. “Now, what is it you wish to speak about?”

“Fancypants,” Blueblood responded quickly, and after a pause he added, “and I would also like to advise you about your outfit choices.”

“Pardon?” Rarity asked, raising an eyebrow.

“If I see you in another shade of red or yellow, I might hurl.” He looked around and grabbed the first dress that caught his eye and threw it over to her. “Here,” he said as Rarity levitated the glittering silver dress above her head, still reeling from the suddenness of the whole conversation. “Great. Now, let's talk about Fancypants.”

“Okay,” Rarity started slowly. “Then why don't you start by explaining to me why you are so worried about him. Unlike you, he is a true gentlecolt.”

“I wish to make it perfectly clear to you that I do not trust him. I know that you have an interest in spending your time with Fancypants, and I will try not pester you about it, but please be wary. He has always been a tricky stallion, and I know he has lied about things before.”

“Oh Blueblood,” Rarity interrupted as she inspected the dress she still held onto. “Am I to believe that you are jealous of him? That is what it sounds like, after all.”

“Jealous? Of him? Ha. Why in Equestria would I be jealous of him?”

She paused and looked up at the prince, smiling. “Hold on to that thought. I need to try this on.”

She made her way towards the back of the store, where the dressing rooms were. Blueblood followed behind her, checking every few moments to make sure his fake mustache was still in place.

“Get back here! We are not done talking about this!” He whispered from outside the dressing room. In response, he heard one of the doors slam.

He stood outside the dressing room tapping his forehoof in frustration while he waited for her to come out. He should have known she wouldn't have been as receptive to this conversation as he had hoped. Perhaps it was the subject matter? Or more likely, it was just that she didn't listen to anything he had to say.

From his interactions with her thus far, it seemed the latter was more likely to be true.

It was becoming increasingly obvious that this so-called truce that they had struck was not going as well as they had planned. It started out well; the day before, they had hardly argued with each other at all, and for a moment one would've believed that they actually tolerated each other's presence. By the time Celestia raised the sun in the morning, though, the truce was already on unsteady ground, thanks in part to the newspaper that Twilight had bought from the lobby of the hotel.

She was the first pony to see the article.

Theoretically, it could have been easy to hide the paper. She doubted any of them would read the paper if it wasn't right in front of them. Not to mention, there were plenty of places to hide it and even dozens of ways to destroy it.

Unfortunately, Twilight Sparkle didn't think of any of those options until after Blueblood slunk into the seat across from her with a coffee in hoof.

“Anything interesting?”

Twilight looked around uncomfortably. “Nope, nothing really. Just... you know... news.”

“Miss Sparkle, you are a terrible liar,” he retorted as he grabbed the paper from out in front of her and scanned over the page she had just been looking at. “Well, I guess they kept true to their word. It made the papers.”

From that moment on, their truce had dissolved back into the feud it had begun with. Neither of them had any doubts that this was the plan from the beginning. From the moment the threat of publishing had been made, they had both known that any such article would would purposely be written to make them wary of each other. Even so, they weren't prepared to be publicly scolded and torn down by the press based off the opinions of ponies who thought they knew their story.

So, by the time Rarity pranced out of the dressing room with her head held high and the silver dress folded in half floating beside her, her companion could only roll his eyes in annoyance over the display. She pretended not to notice.

“Very nice choice, Blueblood,” She announced. “Now what were we talking about again?”

“You said I was jealous of Fancypants. Which, for the record, I am not. Nor will I ever be.”

“Oh yes, Forgive me if I misinterpreted what I've noticed over time, but since you always seem to come in second to him, I assumed that it must peeve you at least a little bit. I assumed trying to look better than him was your reasoning for apologizing to me.” She paused in thought for a moment before adding, “Yet for the life of me I have yet to figure out why you would throw away the good publicity just to get the better of me.”

“Good publicity can mean big things for anypony in Canterlot, I was doing us both a favor by apologizing. If you hadn't turned a simple apology into an argument about something as petty as your ensemble, we could have parted on acceptable terms and we wouldn't be in this dilemma. None of this has anything to do with Fancypants.”

“Then why have you been trying to convince me since the day of the wedding that I shouldn't spend my time with him?”

“I never discouraged you from doing what you wanted. You went on that airship cruise, did you not? And did I ever say that you shouldn't? No. All I am saying is that you should be wary of him, because I get the feeling he is keeping something from us.”

“By 'keeping something' I assume you mean that he has a connection, somehow, to the Silver Guard, am I correct?” The prince nodded. “But, why would he bring us to Manehattan with him if he took her? And why would he willingly put himself in danger by taking the same carriage as you to Ponyville?”

“I have yet to figure that out. Perhaps he wants to lure us into a trap of some kind.”

“Darling, if you would like to talk about untrustworthy ponies, we should discuss your mother. Who had not only disappeared long before I even got to your suite to pick up Ivory Lace, but who also obviously did an interview with somepony while she was supposedly in hiding. Nopony who values their safety would do that.” She looked over at the dress she had been holding on to, and then back at the prince, “I'm going to purchase this dress. Perhaps we could continue this conversation at a later date.”

Rarity began to make her way towards the cash register at the front of the store, careful to put herself in plain sight. If only to keep the in-hiding Prince Blueblood from easily following her.

“You can't just make an accusation like that and walk away from me!” he hissed as he tried to follow her to the front without causing a scene.

“Watch me,” she responded as she sashayed out the door of the shop.

Blueblood stood in the middle of the shop, seething in silent rage. It took all his self-control not to buck the nearest rack of clothes out of frustration.

* * *

That evening, Blueblood paced back and forth around a small alleyway that Twilight had deemed their meeting spot for tonight. He and Twilight had arrived early to ensure that they would have plenty of time before the event to prepare, because according to Celestia's protégé, a mustache would not be enough of a disguise for tonight's festivities.

Instead of working out his disguise and his plan for the evening, Twilight Sparkle had been sitting against a wall with a book in front of her. She tried to listen to the prince while he complained about his earlier shopping trip with Rarity, but was getting increasingly frustrated at his habit of ignoring everyone else while doing that.

“Your friend is infuriating. She constantly ignores me, gives me Tartarus over the smallest things, and comes up with the dumbest plans.”

“Um... Prince Blueblood? I know you're mad, but do you mind standing still for a minute or two? It's kinda hard to cast a spell on you when you're moving around.”

“And another thing, she gave me crap for putting other things in front of our daughter, but the minute Fancypants pays her any attention, she does the same thi–”

His hoofsteps were stopped short by Twilight's magic enveloping him and restricting him from moving around. As a last minute decision, she tweaked the spell to also restrict him from speaking. A break from his complaining was most definitely deserved.

“I'm sorry I had to do that, but you can't be seen here. You already made the mistake of showing your face in Manehattan earlier and it was pure luck that nopony noticed you. Remember, if anypony notices you, you could die. You can complain all you want once you're safe. Got it?

“Mmhmm.”

“Good. Now uh... this might pinch a bit.”

The magenta magic hit him. He winced in pain as it spread throughout his body. Gone were the pure white coat and horn; replaced with a pale blue coat and wings. The prince looked down at himself in a mix of interest and disgust.

“I'm a pegasus,” he said dumbfoundedly.

“Visually, yes, but don't try to fly. Ponies who come across you will believe you are a pegasus, but it's just a visual effect, you're still a unicorn. On that note, be careful of ponies who get too close to you, they could throw off the illusion.”

“This plan is doomed, isn't it?”

“No, of course not. Just don't put yourself out there like you did at the store today, and whatever you do, don't draw attention to yourself.”

Blueblood sighed. “It's doomed.”

“Prince Blueblood, I know you've been under a lot of stress lately what with Ivory Lace being taken, and Rarity being... well, Rarity...”

“Rarity I can handle.” The prince interrupted, “I dealt with her while she was pregnant, and trust me, that was worse. I just wish she would listen to me more often. Was I alone in wondering why Fancypants was acting so strange on the train ride to Manehattan yesterday? He seemed reluctant to answer any questions Rarity and I had about Gamesome Gallant.”

“Well–”

“And am I the only one that was wondering why once he heard about my daughter, he wanted no part in Rarity's life until our foal was taken? I find it to be rather strange, don't you?”

Just as Twilight opened her mouth to respond, Rarity and Fancypants trotted into the alleyway.

“We aren't interrupting anything, are we?” Rarity asked.

“Yes,” the prince mumbled under his breath.

“No, not at all.” Twilight responded quickly, trying to cover up the prince's grumblings. “Is everything okay? There weren't any problems on the way over here, right?”

“None at all,” Fancypants said before pointing to the pegasus. “Is that Prince Blueblood?”

“Yep, I placed an illusion spell on him. Pretty cool, isn't it?” Twilight beamed.

“No. Not really,” Blueblood responded. “I look terrible. Come on Twilight, would it have been that hard to just change my colors? Did you really have to make me a pegasus too?”

“Actually, by changing your race entirely, it's less likely that you'll be noticed. Trust me, I've thought this through,” Twilight announced triumphantly.

“But–”

“Twilight, how do I look?” Rarity asked, cutting off the prince's complaining. She turned around slowly to show off her sparkling silver dress. “It's been a while since I've worn a dress that wasn't of my own creation. I suppose it will do for the time being.”

“You look great, Rarity!”

“Yes, whoever picked it out for you has impeccable taste,” Blueblood remarked dryly.

“Well, Blueblood, since you have such great taste, how do you plan to dress tonight? Now that you are obviously different.” Rarity threw back.

“I am incognito, so nopony will know me nor will they care about my attire.”

Rarity rolled her eyes, and looked at her friend. “Twilight, thank you for your honest opinion. And Blueblood, it's nice to see that your coat matches your name for once.”

“Perhaps we should turn our focus to tonight. Don't you agree, Miss Sparkle?” Fancypants asked.

“Absolutely!” Twilight said. “Here's the plan. Fancypants will introduce Rarity to Gamesome Gallant. She will engage him in conversation without bringing up any of the events that occurred in the past few weeks in any way, shape, or form. Should anything go wrong, Fancypants will serve as a distraction.”

“And myself?” Blueblood asked.

“Your job is to mingle, talk to ponies and see if anypony else knows anything. I should make it perfectly clear that none of you are snooping through anything! Just go in there and try to memorize everything everypony says. After the party, we'll analyze everything.”

The three other ponies just stared at her incredulously.

“Why would you make a plan that keeps you outside all evening?” Rarity asked, looking concerned. “You'll catch cold.”

“Nevermind that, why do we have to memorize everything?!” The prince asked, taken aback by the sheer amount of work Twilight was asking of him.

“Miss Sparkle, please reconsider. I would hate for you to stay out here alone, all night,” Fancypants said, sounding somewhat concerned.

“No, no, it's fine. It wouldn't look right for me to go in with you guys since my brother is Captain of the Royal Guard. Besides, we need to analyze all the data you three pick up from the party before we do anything to incriminate somepony.”

“Are you sure, Twilight?”

“Absolutely. Trust me, I have a plan for myself too. The other day I learned this new spell—”

“Great, Twilight, congratulations. Now can we please get this night over with?” Blueblood interrupted.

“If you're sure then, Twilight,” Rarity replied, trying to ignore the stallion's outburst. “Well, I believe it is time to put this plan in action.”

Fancypants held out his hoof. “Allow me, my lady.”

Rarity smiled and took his foreleg as he led her into Gamesome Gallant's party. Blueblood and Twilight took a few tentative steps out of the alleyway and watched as the couple gave their tickets to the stallion at the door.

“Well, I guess I am going in to look for clues,” Blueblood said, taking a few steps towards the large entrance.

“To mingle,” Twilight reminded him. “I'll be holding your illusion for you, so don't worry. You're in good hooves. I learned from the best.”

Blueblood walked into the event and handed his ticket to the attendant at the door with little acknowledgement to anypony around him. He had attended multiple parties, and this one was no different. Of course, usually in the parties he attended, his purpose was to go around and schmooze with other ponies. This time, he had to blend into the background and raid Mr. Gallant's mansion... more or less.

He couldn't help but note that the interior of the mansion was nothing grand. The building may have been luxurious looking on the outside, but the inside was nothing to boast about. There was nothing on the walls that seemed original. There were a few scattered photos of Gamesome Gallant and his family, but that was about it. Nothing at all like the ornate decorations exhibited throughout Canterlot Castle.

The event didn't seem to take place in one designated room, either. There was a larger ballroom type room where most ponies were, and a few large archways that led to smaller rooms.

He caught a quick glimpse of Rarity and Fancypants, who were happily chatting with an earth pony that Blueblood assumed must have been Gamesome Gallant, and snuck through a door, out of the large ballroom.

If there was anything Blueblood thought he was good at, it was mingling with other ponies. After all, as a prince who had hosted and attended events, he had a bit of practice. Tonight, however, he felt uncomfortable and unwilling to initiate conversation, and very few ponies were willing to start up a conversation with a stranger.

He wasn't even sure how to introduce himself should somepony ask about him. Not to mention, he would just embarrass himself. How does one go about eating and drinking without using magic?

Wings? Can wings even hold things?

He walked over to the bar and tried to grab a drink with one of his wings for a good minute before remembering that he didn't actually have any wings on his sides. It was just part of the illusion. Damn it. He tried with his hoof this time, but instead of grabbing the glass he pushed it off the bar.

Everypony turned and looked at him for a moment, and then turned back to whatever they were doing. That was the last of trying to talk to the ponies here. It was time to try a different tactic, one that Blueblood believed would work better than Twilight's inane plan.

Sneaking around.

After all, what better time was there? Nopony was paying attention to him, and nopony knew who he was. It was perfect. And if he was the one to find out the truth about what happened to his daughter, everypony else would be sorry to have ever doubted him.

This was the chance Rarity's father had been talking about. The chance to prove to everypony that he was not as incompetent as they believed, and the chance to show Rarity that he wasn't as bad of a father as she claimed he was. He wasn't going to get many more chances like this, and besides, what would other ponies know about the foalnapping? If they did mention it, he doubted it would be information that didn't come out of the gossip columns from the daily papers.

All he had to do was try to be invisible. He had already made it through Manehattan during the earlier hours without being noticed, so snooping around a small event, in theory, should be a cakewalk.

* * *

There was nothing more terrifying than everypony stopping their conversation to stare. Had it been any other day, Rarity would not have minded the attention at all. In fact, she would have relished in it. She loved the idea of ponies looking up to her for information about what to eat, say, and wear, which was why she greatly enjoyed her time in Canterlot.

There is, however, a difference between somepony looking up to you, and somepony glaring at you. In this case, it was clearly the latter. Every step she took, she could see ponies shooting her disapproving looks, shaking their heads, and whispering to their companions. They had read the article.

These ponies believed they knew the whole story. They knew all about the fight between her and the prince at the airship launch, they knew about what went on afterward and they knew the result.

To his credit, despite this, Fancypants did not once leave her side, as he walked her through all of the different rooms that made up the event, making passing nods to the ponies he knew. The duo finally ended up exchanging pleasantries with a tall brown earth pony who introduced himself as Gamesome Gallant.

“This is it...”

As soon as the pleasantries had been pushed aside, the brown earth pony moved on to the topic she had been dreading for a very long time.

“Rarity, eh? So, you're the little lady who is the talk of the town tonight. I must, since you are here, ask if any of that information is actually true or if somepony is out to get you.” Gamesome Gallant chuckled.

“Don't deny it. Deny it and you could never see her again.”

“Yes, that's me, and yes, it's all true,” she said, then added in a voice barely above a whisper. “I have a daughter with Prince Blueblood.”

“She sells herself short.” Fancypants interjected. “The article focused solely on the more intimate subjects and why ponies they knew opposed the idea that either of them should raise the filly. Rarity and her daughter are lovely despite everything that was said against them in the article. The prince, of course, I cannot say the same for.”

“So where is your daughter now?” Gamesome Gallant asked. “I hope she isn't staying at the palace, after what his mother said about you and her own son as well. I wouldn't trust either of them to do anything.”

It became clear to Rarity, in that moment, that while the article in the papers this morning had defamed her and Blueblood thanks to a few interviews that painted a less than perfect image of their relationships with their daughter, the article had never mentioned that she had been taken.

Not that the publicity that they were getting from the article was good, but surprisingly, it never mentioned that neither of Ivory Lace's parents knew where she was. On the other hoof, it did mention over and over again why neither of them were fit to be parents.

“She's not at the castle,” Fancypants answered before maneuvering the topic away towards a work related topic.

For a few moments Rarity tried to follow along with their conversation. She was hoping that Mr. Gallant would say something that would give away what he did and did not know about Ivory Lace.

Unfortunately, after several minutes of this, she realized that it was a pointless effort. The conversation did not seem like it was going to drift back towards the topic it began with anytime soon.

* * *

Only half of the evening had passed by the time Rarity had decided she couldn't spend any more time at Gamesome Gallant's event. He seemed like a nice enough stallion, but at this point she had felt that she made a foal of herself, and any attempts to gather information were squashed by her companion before she could gather information from their host.

Just a room away from them, Blueblood was having similar feelings. It was hard to imagine that the night that they had put so much hope into, would end up being this bad. There was no filly safe in his hooves, and no redemption for him.

Worst of all, Fancypants was making his way up to the makeshift stage in the main ballroom. He doubted that was going to go well, but didn't think that whatever he had to say could make the night any worse than it was already shaping up to be.

Now, he assumed, Fancypants would go through some long drawn out speech about something nopony really cared about, but because he was one of the most important ponies, everypony would pretend to care.

During most high profile events, despite his disinterest, Blueblood would feign interest, if only for appearance's sake. Thankfully, now that he wasn't bound to royal obligation, he was free to ignore Fancypants all he wanted, without any backlash.

“Excuse me, everypony! I have an announcement to make,” The band stopped playing and every pony in the ballroom stopped and faced the stage, trying to make sense of what was going on. They hadn't expected Fancypants to stop the party; it wasn't on the agenda.

“Tonight I came to this event with a stunning lady, Miss Rarity.” Everypony turned around to face her, Rarity just stood there in surprise, unsure of where her date planned on going from there, but definitely enjoying the benefits of being put on display.

That was all the prince needed to hear. If it was just going to be a whole speech basically trying to repair the damage from the gossip column, then it wasn't worth listening to. Perhaps there was something in another one of the adjacent rooms that he had missed earlier.

So while Fancypants rambled on and on about nothing in particular, Blueblood made his way through the hallway, looking for something that could lead to incriminating evidence of some sort.

“That is why I am asking her right now if she would do me the honor of being my marefriend.”

“What?” Blueblood blurted out, making a few nearby ponies turn to face him.

He should have known Fancypants would pull something like this. All that had been asked of him was to be a distraction, just in case something were to happen. He could have just walked into a room and started talking to ponies, but no, Fancypants never did anything half way.

Not to mention, he deliberately went back on his promise not to go after her.

Not that he really cared about that, but for somepony well known for being a gentlecolt, one would think that lying was not exactly condoned.

Blueblood could feel his illusion begin to falter. He wasn't sure if Twilight was able to hear the announcement and was surprised by it, or if the whole thing was just in his imagination. Either way, it was probably best not to risk being caught.

Desperate to find a place to hide so nopony would see that he was here, Blueblood dodged up into a stairwell and into the closest room. The room itself was pitch black with only a small sliver of light coming in from underneath the door that he had just closed behind him. He fumbled around for a few moments before finally using an illumination spell to get a better look at the room he was hiding in.

In his first lucky break of the night, he found himself in what he assumed to be Gamesome Gallant's study. The room itself was nothing special, save for the important looking documents scattered everywhere, but because of the earth pony's apparent disorganization, it was tempting for Blueblood to snoop around and see what those important papers held.

After all, in a mess like this, what better place for a pony to hide potentially incriminating evidence than in plain sight? Nopony would expect it.

The prince started to look over the papers that had been carelessly strewn about. Most of them seemed to be business invoices and fun letters to friends and coworkers. Nothing truly out of the ordinary, except for one piece of paper that seemed to stick out from underneath the bottom of the wooden desk, as if it had been pushed under there and then forgotten.

Curious, Blueblood's silver magic took hold of it as he brought it up towards his eyes. At first glance, it didn't seem to be anything special. It looked as if it had been written on a scrap piece of stationary, and despite being dated mid-way the previous week, it seemed to have been folded and unfolded numerous times. It wasn't until he caught sight of the writing on the paper that he realized what he was looking at.

“This could all blow up in our faces.
-Fancypants”