DM: Blueblood buys a couple of your apple fritters, one for him and one for Dainty Dove. He samples his fritter and says:
Prince Blueblood: As apple fritters go, I have to admit it's a top-notch recipe.
Twilight Sparkle: So, he can at least act polite. Any idea why he might secretly hate you, though? Have you met before?
Applejack: I dunno, have I?
DM: You're fairly sure you've never met him in your life.
Applejack: ...Not leavin' much ambiguity on that one, huh?
DM: On his way back into the palace, he adds: Though you should be aware that you're competing with the free buffet in the banquet hall.
Applejack: Hey, at least I already sold an apple pie tonight!
Rainbow Dash: To the one guy who is obsessively... obsessed with pie.
Applejack: Right, right... Well, Prince's movin' anyway; maybe Ah'll change tactics a bit.
It begs the question: What kind of upbringing led this Prince, a nephew of Celestia who has been shown to be laid-back and hooves-off to a fault, to hysterically scream about apple fritters being too "common" for him?
There are moments where "It's just a cartoon" and then there are moments where "Hey, wait a minute..."
What kind of upbringing? Probably one where Blueblood has gotten served all his meals by lavish fancy chefs of specific classical cuisine. He got spoiled, big time.
Or he's paranoid about being CAUGHT eating "common fare" because his title is an empty formality and he knows it. Blue Blood is afraid that if he gets caught eating commoner food, people will start thinking that he really is a commoner. Which is not helped by his only claim to noble status being an empty title that only has as much status as ponies think it has.
Probably one where Blueblood found himself being accosted by, and this is putting it delicately... gold diggers, even while he was still a colt?
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Rarity. But let's face it, she was there specifically to meet and capture the heart of a handsome prince. Not Blueblood the stallion, not Blueblood the person that she knew anything about, but Blueblood the wealthy prince whom she had never met before and knew nothing about, except his appearance and the fact that he was a wealthy aristocrat.
It wouldn't surprise me if much of Canterlot high society is like that.
Although I still think Blueblood's behavior is specifically to drive away Rarity. Note how he only objects to the apple fritters et al after he tries one, despite having had several seconds to look over the food. But, it's also after Applejack established herself as a friend of Rarity's. Thus, if Blueblood is dismissive of Rarity's friend's cooking, perhaps she'll leave him alone...
Celestia is a laid back princess yes. Doesn't mean all those noble sorts of canterlot are with some such as the prince I would guess taking pride in distinguishing themselves from the 'common' caste by their diets and lifestyles. Simply to make themselves feel superior because they are however distantly related to their Princess God-monarch. Raised in such an environment, Blue Blood is a privileged jerkwad who is perhaps willfully ignorant to how he isn't that special.
Actually, he was supposed to be a Duke, but hasbro didn't think kids knew what one of those were. I believe the official stance now is that he's only distantly related and the "nephew" relation is only with a dozen or so greats in front of it.
My theory is he's a descendent of the Unicorn King of old and he only calls himself a nephew in order to stay relevent.
One fic I read mentioned Blueblood being a descendant of Princess Platinum,who adopted Luna and Celestia so the Nobles would accept them as rulers of Equestria. That made a lot of sense to me.
The real-life book "Journal of the Two Sisters" implies that he's a descendant of Princess Platinum. Platinum is still referred to as "Princess", even with the 2 princesses around, and so it is implied that the title remains hereditary. At that point in time, they still held real power. The journal doesn't make it to Discord's reign, but presumably they lost whatever power they still had then. Since Faust is no longer on the show, her original plan could have been changed behind the scenes.
Princess Sapphire was introduced as "daughter of the Unicorn King" in Hearth's Warming Eve, so they did have Kings and Queens before Luna and Celestia took power.
It used to be a common thing in European nobility to 'tighten' relations to more important nobles as a matter of status. So if you were a second cousin three times removed you'd still say 'cousin', or even 'nephew' depending on the age difference, ignoring the actual distance. And given that adoption was *extremely* common to make up for the low child survival rate, it was easy for a noble to make a web of relations that covered most of Europe.
Canterlot is referred to as a Kingdom by the Flim Flam brothers.
I assume Prince Blueblood was raised by the local royalty of Canterlot, not by Princess Celestia.
Incidentally, I headcanon that he's the descendant of Princess Platinum and that Celestia and Luna are her adoptive sisters.
I know Faust's explanation, but it came across as "huh, this was a last-minute change, so here's my slapdash explanation". Also, she doesn't run the show anymore.
My favorite theory is from a fanfic... where Prince Blueblood is an even more bookish recluse than Twilight Sparkle was. Celestia begs him to attend the party, so in desperation he grabs a book on royal etiquette.... not noticing it was written over a hundred years ago-- and was intended for FEMALE royalty. Expecting everyone to fawn on him, open doors for him, turning his nose up at food "so as not to be seen as a glutton" (a la Scarlett Ohara in the opening of 'Gone With the Wind')....
Keep in mind that Blueblood did everything you'd expect Rarity to do if she wasn't a main character but a regular gold digger. He wanted a flower and a cushion just as Rarity expected to be given, expected his date to hold open doors and ruin their clothes on puddles (which in particular was a silly scene as Rarity should have noticed he had nothing to put on the puddle since he was only wearing a collar), and was pathetic and "whiny" about anything that wasn't immaculate and over-priced.
Whether that's his real personality or what he does to mock potential suitors he doesn't actually want, the only real reason to interpret him as a genuinely bad "antagonist" instead of just a prissy prince(ss) is that he was doing those things while male, which made the whole pretty-but-useless damsel shtick less expected, as well as all the non-prissy princesses raising the bar for what you'd expect from Equestrian royalty (even though every noble that isn't an alicorn is about what you'd expect, Blueblood included, in a show where basically a bunch of random peasants save the world every week instead of the police or military or anyone else who should be in charge doing anything to help).
There are moments where "It's just a cartoon" and then there are moments where "Hey, wait a minute..."