Artist’s description from DA:

So I had this lying around for quite a while, and I finally decided to go ahead and post it up here since I won’t be able to scan anything for a little while.

It’s some more of that RariTwi AU Plotbunny! C: This time I drew up the ever lovable CMC! And, uh, just so you guys know, it’s actually a part of my headcanon that Spike is considered a CMC member, regardless of him never going to gain a cutie mark. O:

ANYWAY, in terms of this particular AU, this is how I’d see each of them:

Like most of the Mane 6, I didn’t really change them all that much from how I personally see their canon counterparts, mainly because I honestly didn’t see a real need to do so. What was actually the challenging part for me about these four were whether or not to keep them as children like they are in the canon show, or make them older, around pre-teen to really early teen (14 or 15-ish). I think leaving them as youngsters can work fine, but I’ll probably draw their slightly older selves just so you guys can choose which one you’d like better for your headcanon of the AU.

NOW, that said, what HAS changed about each of them are their backgrounds.

Sweetie Belle is obviously the Princess of Equestria, and as such she lives the life of royalty. Due to her sweet personality and big heart, she’s often called the “Sweetheart of Equestria”, even if she is a little clumsy or a bit slow on the uptake of a situation (it just makes her all the more endearing). However, being the Princess and the little sister of Queen Rarity, Sweetie is sometimes seen by other greedy royals as a possible bargaining chip to get their grubby hooves on, and as such she too is often accompanied by a bodyguard (it isn’t unusual if she is escorted by Twilight). Despite Rarity trying to allow Sweetie Belle to have a good foalhood, her rank and relation to the Queen often acts as an untentional barrier, and due to this, she doesn’t have that many friends and is a bit lonely at times. Thankfully, she’ll eventually meet the other three, but I think she actually meets Spike first.

Applebloom, on the other hand, lives the busy and bustling life of a typical commoner in Rarity’s kingdom. Her family runs both a blacksmith and a farm, and she helps run both to the best of her ability. Due to the nature of this AU, it isn’t uncommon for foals AB’s age to begin learning how to defend themselves, especially with being in a business such as the Apple Family. She often trains under Applejack’s mentoring, but she also learns from Big Mac and Granny Smith (despite her age, Granny still has the moves o3o). It’s through Applejack that AB meets Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Spike, and due to her personality, she doesn’t really care all that much that Sweetie’s a princess. So long as she’s fun to be around, it’s all that matters. C:

For Scootaloo, I settled for her originally being an orphan. The poor thing lived in the ratty orphanage of some small northern city, said city under the authority of a rather questionable Earl (dunno if this should be a canon character or not). If you’re not royalty here, then you probably live a pretty crappy life. Scoots eventually got tired of the cruelty and crappiness of this orphanage and ran away. It’s when she was on the brink of starvation in some random town that she was happened upon by a couple of mercenaries from the Wonderbolts group. The two of them (Rainbow Dash and Fleetfoot) took pity on the tiny foal and brought her back with them to the hotel they were staying in, where she was fed and cleaned. Scoots initially refused to trust the two of them (that’s right, even Rainbow), but after a couple of days she eventually warmed up to the group, especially to Dashie. However, when the mercenaries’ contract had been completed, they didn’t have the heart to simply leave her to her own devices, so they brought her along. Spitfire was initially displeased with this (mainly due to the danger their job presents), but after a few weeks of the squirt tagging along she warmed up to the idea. It helps that Rainbow Dash took it upon herself to take the filly under her wing, dubbing her an apprentice. It’s through her tough past that Scoots is a little harder with trusting others and has an underlying fear and insecurity (to the point of which she sometimes suffers from anxiety attacks), but once she warms up to you and become close, she’s a friend to the bitter end. Her anxiety will slowly but steadily become less and less of a problem as well, as time goes on.

And finally, Spike. Unlike how I headcanon his origin in the canon show, Spikey was actually found by Twilight instead of hatched by her. He was around 6 years old at the time. She found him during one of her patrols of the outside borders, hiding underneath the paw of a large dragon of similar coloring. The adult dragon had gashes and bite marks all over his body, and it was very clear that he was dead; he had died from protecting his young hatchling from an attack on a rival rogue dragon (an insane one anyway), said dragon’s body lying several yards away. Sympathy and compassion led Twilight to taking the baby dragon from the gruesome scene (it took a little bit of coaxing), and from there she raised him as her own. He is now considered Twilight’s “Squire”, and accompanies her almost anywhere. This version of Spike has much of the same personality as canon Spike, although instead of Rarity, he may have something of a crush on Sweetie Belle. B)

Alright, so I think that’s all for these kiddies? I don’t think I missed anything, but if you guys have any questions feel more than free to ask. And of course, feel free to write a little snippet on them based off of this AU; I actually think I may do one myself on the meeting of Spike and Twilight. O: Aside from that, thanks so much for taking a look at mah stoofs, kids! C: