On the Origins of the Houses Sparkle and Armor
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” Twilight Sparkle shouted, jumping up and down in excitement just outside her classroom at Celestia’s school. “This is going to be so exciting! Which story are you going to tell, Granny Sparkle? Your stories are always the best!”
Granny Sparkle chuckled softly. “Back in my day, we always kept that a secret until the story started.”
“Oh, come on,” Twilight begged, looking up with the best adorable filly face she knew. “You’ve been keeping me in suspense for weeks now.”
“And you shall just have to wait few minutes longer. Family Appreciation Day traditions are no joke; the whole day is more or less about tradition, after all.”
Humming in disappointment, Twilight eventually mumbled, “Fine…”
A minute later, the door opened, and a pegasus stallion walked out with Sweet Dreams, one of Twilight’s classmates, trailing slightly behind. After a brief hug, Sweet Dreams dashed back inside the room with all the force of a hurricane and all the grace of a three-legged ballerina.
Granny Sparkle watched her run back inside with a smile.
“Granny Sparkle?”
The stallion suppressed a cough as Granny Sparkle turned back in his and Twilight’s general direction. Twilight looked back to find him bowing slightly and shuffling from hoof to hoof.
“What is it, Twilight?”
Ignoring the stallion’s weird behavior as he turned to leave, Twilight asked, “Do you know Sweet Dreams?”
“No, I was just remembering something from when I was a filly your age.”
“You were a filly?”
Granny Sparkle cast a silencing spell so she could laugh as loudly as she wanted, much to Twilight’s indignity.
“Yes, I was a filly once. Everypony was a filly at one time or another. What, did you think I just congealed from the æther or something?”
“Well…” Twilight blushed and looked away. That might have been the case in some approximate sense.
“Anyway, we should be heading inside.”
“Huh?”
Twilight felt the silencing spell fade away as Granny Sparkle’s horn glowed. In its place was a near thunderous stomping of hooves. No doubt the two of them were expected inside.
Door open and halfway through it, Granny Sparkle turned back to Twilight and asked, “Coming?”
Nodding twice, Twilight skipped in right past Granny Sparkle and found the designated filly-sized seat for her at the front of the classroom. Granny Sparkle took the considerably larger chair next to her.
Twilight’s teacher, Miss Nex, said, “I’m sure everypony here already knows all about who you’ve brought in today – for many reasons–”
Trying to hide her blush, Twilight fidgeted in her chair, attempting in vain to somehow take up less space. She might – just might – have a tendency to get overexcited whenever Granny Sparkle was mentioned.
“–but why don’t you go ahead and introduce her anyway,” Miss Nex finished.
Nodding, Twilight said, “This is my Granny Sparkle. She’s the bestest pony–”
“Twilight,” Granny Sparkle interrupted, “you know it bugs me when you use the super-superlative.”
“But you deserve it!” Shirking under Granny Sparkle’s half-glare, half-eye roll, Twilight said, “Fine. She’s the best pony in the world, and she’s super, super nice. She even helps me with my magic and reads to me when I’m too tired to read myself.”
“Hmm… I suppose I could always tell the story of Miss Smartypants and the glass of milk.”
“No!” Twilight shrieked, eyes wide. “I…uh…I mean, no. Please don’t.”
“Oh, but you were so adorable when you–”
“Grannyyyyy!”
First chuckling, Granny Sparkle said, “Well, I suppose I could always tell the tragedy of House Twilight.”
“What, like a history lesson?” Blue Wizard, a colt in the audience, asked. He was quickly shushed by Miss Nex, and Twilight sent a glare his way, but Granny Sparkle just laughed the interruption off.
“Yes, I suppose so. For those of you not familiar with the story, our tale begins many centuries ago, when House Twilight was still a prominent member of the nobility. For what little that meant. Even in those times, being a noble really only gave you an interesting story to tell about your family history.
“Being royalty, on the other hoof, was a different matter entirely – just as it is today. And being royalty was at the root of the tragedy.”
Prose Myth, the only other bookworm in class and one of Twilight’s few friends, raised her hoof and waved it back and forth.
“Yes?”
“That’s not what our history book says.”
Twilight worked hard to look to Granny Sparkle instead of glaring at her friend. When it came to history, even Twilight had to admit books could be wrong, and Granny Sparkle could easily be pointed to as the leading expert on the history of their family.
Except perhaps for Princess Celestia.
“What does your history book say?” Granny Sparkle asked.
Twilight had no doubt that Prose Myth was quoting from memory when she said, “The division of House Twilight into the houses of Sparkle and Armor occurred when the two heirs apparent, Twilight Sparkle the Third and Twilight Armor, couldn’t decide who was legally allowed to inherit after the previous generation left the family.”
With much practiced patience, Granny Sparkle asked, “And why did the previous generation leave the family?”
“Because…I…don’t know.”
Twilight Sparkle, technically the Fourth, said, “Because they both entered the royal family.”
“Exactly,” Granny Sparkle said, embarrassingly rubbing Twilight’s mane – not that she was complaining. “It was a succession crisis, and there was much embarrassment all around when we failed to resolve it peacefully. You see, royals are ineligible to hold lesser noble titles. They are the ones that dispense those titles, after all. It would be a rather hollow honor to bestow upon oneself.”
A colt whose name Twilight did not know raised his hoof. “Why is everypony in House Twilight called ‘Twilight’?”
“Heh. That is not actually the case. The problem you are having is simple: sampling bias. Our family was a bit strange in that we exclusively inherited through the firstborn filly when possible, and that filly was traditionally named ‘Twilight’.”
Half-turning her head to look at Twilight, Granny Sparkle said, “This adorable little Twilight here is the first one to come out of either House Sparkle or House Armor since the incident.”
Twilight poked Granny Sparkle with a hoof, muttering, “Grannyyyyy.”
“Oh, you know it is true.”
Twilight just hummed angrily. Any other response was sure to result in more teasing.
“Anyway, not everypony in House Twilight is called ‘Twilight’, just the vast majority of the ones history books care to remember. Now as I was – yes?”
“Is this a love story?”
Twilight looked to Granny Sparkle out of the corner of her eye. She had nearly the exact same speechless expression Twilight had.
“Words to the effect of no,” Granny Sparkle replied. “This is the…the flip side of a love story: a hate story.”
“Oh, good.”
Granny Sparkle gave that colt the look. No doubt she was going to ‘have words’ with him later.
“Now back to what I was saying. When the first member of House Twilight married into royalty, there was no problem. After all, the heir apparent was…” After sighing, Granny Sparkle pointed to Bright Embers. “Yes?”
“Will you marry me?”
The entire room turned to stare at Bright Embers in utter silence.
“Is – is that a…yes?”
Recovering slowly, Granny Sparkle said, “I, uh…no. My apologies, but I must formally refuse your proposal. I tried marriage once, and it did not work out as well as I had hoped. All I have to show for it is a smaller version of myself and memories.”
“What about Mom and Dad?” Twilight asked.
“Who and who, now? I just cannot recall anypony who cannot take a single day off from their research projects to come to their daughter’s Family Appreciation Day.”
“Really?” Twilight asked, thoroughly convinced otherwise. “Because it sounds like you remember them pretty well.”
“I suppose…”
“And who was too busy in her research project to come to my birthday?”
“That is so not fair. I was in Saddle Arabia at the time.”
“Foals’ play.”
“If I had left, the experiment would have gone critical and destroyed half the city!”
“Excuses.”
Sighing, Granny Sparkle said, “Fine. I love your parents too. Happy?”
“Yes.”
Sighing again, Granny Sparkle asked, “Miss Nex, how much time do we still have?”
“Hmm? Oh, I’d say five minutes or so.”
“Excellent. In that case, our story properly begins roughly ten years into the feud. Despite everypony’s best efforts – well, everypony but Twilight Sparkle the Third–”
Without waiting to be called on, Melody asked, “Can we just call her Sparkle? It’s confusing.”
“Very well. Despite everypony’s except Sparkle’s and Twilight Armor’s best efforts, no solution to the problem was found. You see, both Sparkle and Twilight Armor had cobbled together roughly the same amount of legal ground to stand on when making their claim, and both of them were adamant that they should continue the family…line… Yes?”
Prose Myth asked, “Why couldn’t they just both be princesses? That’s how Princess Platinum’s line worked.”
“Well…that is true,” Granny Sparkle began, “but at the same time, you are entirely wrong. Equestrian royalty is not hereditary – not exactly. Ironically, it operates on a more…merit based system. Sort of. Without going into the details, Princess Platinum’s descendants – and other descendants of the proper royalty – are referred to as princes and princesses, but they are officially listed under the nobility.
“Sparkle and Twilight Armor were princesses in that sense, but that was not what either of them wanted. It was not the root of the problem.”
Twilight nearly scowled as another pony interrupted without raising his hoof. Ponies these days could be so rude.
“What did they want? I mean, why did they want to be the heir so badly?”
“Ah. That is an excellent question. There were a number of reasons, but ultimately, I believe it boiled down to two key ones. First, there was a certain magical…gift, shall we say, that was supposed to be passed down the family line.”
Twilight gulped at the memory. The transfer ritual was actually kind of scary.
Yet another interruption came, this time from Prose Myth of all ponies. “What was it?”
“I am afraid the exact details are a state secret.” Narrowing her gaze, the room growing noticeably darker, Granny Sparkle added, “And I will hear of it if any of you harass my dear little Twilight Sparkle about that.”
“I – uh – could you…not do that?” Miss Nex asked. “Please? You’re scaring the foals.”
The room returned to normal so quickly, if you blinked you would have missed it.
“Apologies. I merely have had to deal with such problems before, and it always turns into an ugly affair.”
Shaking her head, Granny Sparkle continued her story. “Anyway, the second reason Sparkle and Twilight Armor wanted to be the heir was… Well… I believe both of them just wanted to live up to the expectations placed upon them.”
This time, Melody waited to be called upon. “Couldn’t they have just shared?”
“No. No, unfortunately not.”
The school bell rang, and for the briefest of moments, Granny Sparkle looked like she had been saved from the most terrible of nightmares. Twilight suspected she was the only pony that had noticed.
“Perhaps we could continue your story after the weekend?” Miss Nex suggested.
“Yes, I believe I can find the time for that.” Granny Sparkle hastily added, “If it will not interrupt your regular lesson, that is.”
“Oh my, no. Of course not. Having a history lesson from a pony who was actually there is far better” – Miss Nex leaned in to whisper, “And between you and me, far more able to keep their attention,” before returning to her normal posture – “than reading out of a textbook. We could even make a series of it, if you wouldn’t mind.”
Granny Sparkle gave a faint smile and laugh. “I wish I could find the time to teach, but I must decline.”
“I understand. I’ll see you next week then.”
Nodding, Granny Sparkle rose to her hooves and stretched her wings and back. The fillies and colts leaving the classroom passed unharmed beneath her, although no small number stopped to stare or gape for a few moments.
“I feel like going for a quick flight before more business pulls me away.” Granny Sparkle turned to look at Twilight, a knowing smile on her face. “Would you like to ride along?”
Looking about the classroom to make sure all her friends had already left, Twilight jumped onto Granny Sparkle’s back and found a comfortable spot just in front of her wings. Hopefully this time she would not accidentally fall asleep.
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This was an interesting and adorable story. I'd love to hear more about the House of Sparkle/Armor.
Anyways, great fic, it was a fun read
Ohhhhh. I get it. Clever. Very clever.
More please!
That exchange got a genuine chuckle out of me. The only disappointment was the lack of anything actually being learned from this. A magical item gets exchanged that didn't go through, and left so open that it leaves me a bit impassive about the whole thing. It was cute, and that throwing a headcanon wrench about princesses being essentially Presidents who were chosen by another Princess (or something) was okay.
I'd say it is fluffy but not enough to make a decent PB&Fluff out of it. Maybe half a sandwich, at least.
Nice fluff. But I'll pass on voting.
Wait a tick!
Granny Sparkle has a horn and wings?!
Well it was Clear rather quickly that Granny Sparkle was our favorite Dorkable Princess Twilight. Still interesting to see what caused the clash between her daughter(Twilight the 3rd I assume) and Twilight Armor(Shining and Cadance's daughter?). Why was Armor so insistent on becoming her aunt's heir rather then Crystal Princess? Did she feel the position was better or did she have a sibling who took the Crystal Princess position and she refused to be a PINO (Princess In Name Only)?
A cute story, if a bit meandering and rambling. Admittedly that's to be expected when you have a bunch of kids constantly interrupting, so that felt very natural, but at the same time it made the story a bit hard to follow, and there wasn't really any conclusion. It was in fact very difficult to understand what granny was trying to say.
I do support the idea of the naming tradition, though.
5109274 You noticed that too, huh? What a
Clever about making 'Granny Sparkle' our Twilight. I had to go back and re-read to make sure, and sure enough there aren't any references to her actually looking old. Is she supposed to look old, and the thing passed down is being an alicorn or are you using the immortal-alicorn headcanon?
As for the plot, I'm confused how this is marked complete. There's so much of the plot left unexplained that it feels like a puzzle missing two thirds of the pieces. There's being ambiguous and then there's just an incomplete story. We have all the outer pieces and a couple of clusters here and there, but most of the actual picture is missing. Its really good, which makes it frustrating considering that, without being expanded on, there's not much here. I really hope you choose to expand on this, because this is a seed that could blossom into something incredible
5109329
…. now I get it!
5109329
Indeed - this looks like a solid and interesting outline for worldbuilding, but that's all it is at the moment - an outline with some bits and pieces filled in.
Politics are very much about specifics and nuances after all, and while we can infer some things from what was revealed, by and large much of the crucial information is still missing, preventing us from drawing any solid conclusions. The setup is intriguing, yet the outcome is not fulfilling because of its incomplete nature.
The very topic of succession itself demands more investigation with an Alicorn up in both sides of the family line (as "Granny Sparkle" is clearly our very own Twilight Sparkle and Cadence on the Armor side) - I mean, there is no need to succeed anything when the family matron is going to be around for the foreseeable eternity, short of her getting bored and stepping down from her position, but as we already established positions aren't hereditary (so even if any of the Alicorns stepped down, their heirs wouldn't automatically gain their titles).
So even what exactly they fought about isn't very clear aside from broad strokes - and devil is very much in the details, here.
Anyways, I hope this gets expanded upon - it has the potential to be great, and it would be a shame to see it go unexplored.
5109329
Yes, that's regular old Twilight Sparkle II, youngest of the immortal alicorns, former heir to House Twilight, defeater of Discord, freer of Luna, et cetera.
The magical gift being passed down is the rainbow power from the Element of Magic(/just the Element of Magic if you don't like rainbows/any equivalent future magical macguffin in canon). It's lightly implied that Twilight Sparkle IV has it at the moment.
Is there going to be a sequel? Or are you going to do a prequal and actually show the real story if the tragedy if House Twilight? Because that would be awesome!!!
Heh, nice. Though I was anticipating the twist by about halfway through. :)
I do wonder what happened to drive the heirs apart, though...
It's an interesting read, but I'm not really sure that it has any place to go beyond what's already here. The fun of it is the journey to recognize who Granny Sparkle really is... While I like the concept of the two truly royal branches of House Twilight going forward in time, there is a lot of wrangling needed to try and get a conflict out of it when neither alicorn-hood nor friendship-cannon abilities are clearly hereditary, and so a lot of new headcanon would be necessary to really get into the details beyond what has been suggested here.
It was fun as a one-shot though!
5109287
Really? When did you realize? I didn't figure it out until about a minute after I finished the story, when I was trying to remember if the author ever said if Granny Sparkle had a horn/magic, thus making her an alicorn OC that somehow was never mentioned in the show, or if she was just a pegasus.
5111240
She cast a silencing spell even before entering the classroom so that she could LOL to her heart's content without disturbing anypony.
The "congealed from the æther" bit (which was apparently semi-true) raised some immediate major flags as well, as that very much fit's Twilight's rebirth as an Alicorn.
hmmm... interesting.
Nice story. A bit ambiguous but very cleverly done... you should continue this. The potential is there for much more.
Have a Scootaloo
How do you get stallions then? Are ponies like starfish?
5111552
I laughed too long and too hard at this.
5111240
For me it was pretty much clear when Prose Myth gave the history book interpretation and mentioned "Twilight Sparkle the 3rd". Though it was already pretty sure it was her when the teacher said the students knew he for multiple reasons.
Of course Twilight still being alive, and apparently young does mean much of the heir conflict wasn't about the heir ever getting their grandmother's job. Twilight's duties as Princess of Friendship are pretty vague, she doesn't actively rule Equestia so it's left to her to interpret how ever she thinks she should, doing what ever she wants so long as it promotes friendship, I don't see her giving that up unless absolutely necessary, and picking and heir only because she is legally required to do so.
I was thinking "Granny Sparkle" was Celestia until she was named as a separate person. Took me until the end to figure out who it really was.
Passing down the magical gift is rather weird though. And "Granny Sparkle" didn't sound much like Twilight, to be honest.
5109257 5111791
And that's the line that clinched it for me who Granny Sparkle really was. Who else but Twilight Sparkle (II?) would have to choose between keeping half of a country from being accidentally blown up, and attending her great^n-granddaughter's birthday party?
This was the point at which I realized the direction that the "twist" was going to take. Just under halfway through the story. As you and Harwick put it, the fun of the story is figuring out who Granny Sparkle is. The problem is that I got done with the fun part halfway through and expected more fun to be had in the latter half. More revelations. More details to puzzle out. But the story had spent its ammunition already and had nothing left to engage with.
The writing in this story is great on a technical level. The dialog and characterization are beautiful. But the story is missing. Perhaps if I hadn't sussed out the twist until the clue in the final paragraph, I might have ended the story on a sweeter note. As it is, though, I was disappointed.
Good story. I'd say you've got a great idea going here; definitely not something I've read before.
That being said, I got kind of annoyed with the kids interrupting every few sentences that Granny Sparkle spoke. Gah! Kids!
Equestria must have a lot of transgender ponies.
I'm surprised Twilight isn't recognized, though. Well, the teacher seems to have noticed, but the class managed to not realize the face of somepony who's been their princess for a couple centuries now.
I hope you don't mind, but I'm about to try unfavouriting and refavouriting this story as part of a test of the update. The new default list order, which I'm very much hoping I can change somehow, has put it at the top, hence it's selection.
edit: Test complete. I apologize if there was any inconvenience.
5113376
No troubles. I didn't even get the messages. Perhaps the favorite notification system has been deprecated? I haven't figured out how to view other people's favorites (public bookshelves now, I suppose) anymore either.
5113386
Nor have I.
It feels like I'm missing something there at the end, but a good read never less.
The character tags kinda spoil the big twist.
Also, this feels really incomplete.
OH, it took me a moment to understand what this was, but now I get it! Nicely done!
It's interesting, but there's just really not anything to it. Fluff, and nothing more.
Though I'd love to hear the second half- we might get enough information there to make some basic assumptions.
Also, logic dictates that, if she was there, and her name is 'sparkle', she must logically be Twilight Sparkle the third, or perhaps second, but I rather doubt it.the way she placed emphasis on Sparkle rather than armour, amongst other things, makes it far too likely to ignore.
I didn't really get it, but well done! No errors that I could find, and you seem like a good writer! Bravo!
wait is granny sparkle an alicorn
*Granny Sparkle cast a silencing spell so she could laugh as loudly as she wanted, much to Twilight’s indignity*
*Granny Sparkle rose to her hooves and stretched her wings and back*
Wait, was this always tagged incomplete?
Now I'm picturing Granny Sparkle simultaneously glaring with one eye and rolling the other.
5116090
Actually, I think in this case Logic dictates that she's Twilight Sparkle the second and the one from the TV show, whereas the young Twilight Sparkle is one of her descendants. It's hinted at rather than pointed out because this is supposed to be a 'twist'. I wanted to say this made her Twilight Sparkle the First, but given that the 'previous generation' to the Third was the one who ascended into royalty, that would make her the Second and the alicorn. Shining Armor, of course, being the other member of the previous generation who married into royalty.
In one hand, it was nicely written... in the other, I'm completely lost...
5834244
My guess about her being the third, and not the second, is because of her focus on "sparkle's" flaws. it comes with a level of emotion and almosgt hate that I would expect out of someone who caused the issue, not one whose daughter caused these problems. I don't think anything in the story requires that Princess Sparkle is the same as Granny Sparkle- after all, there's nothing to say that Twilight didn't end up with, say, Flash, and have a pegasus foal as a result, who could then be granny Sparkle, and the Sparkle of the story.
Interesting idea.
I can't tell you how many times I read this story before I finally figured out who Granny Sparkle was. I do have to admit, it took reading most of the comments and then rereading the story to finally get it. However reading it with the new information in mind only made the story 10x better!
Oh.
Ohhhhh. Oh that's clever.
~Skeeter The Lurker
Oh! That makes so much sense now, the title even spoils it, but it hides so plainly in plain sight that you miss it as soon as you realize it...
Clever author...
TBH, I did have to read the comments to finally figure out who Granny Sparkle was.
just about sums up my feelings
cute though
Screw the Twist, reading this with Twiggles having a classic granny voice and a shawl is 20% funnier
Waiiiiiiiiiit.
She's Celestia?
I would've never noticed if it weren't for the utter confusion I had as I read through the comments section.
Damn, my detail orientation is failing.
I finally figured it out. Grandma Sparkle is our Twilight. This takes place in the far future.
First paragraph mentions the horn and the last mentions wings. More importantly the merit-based system.