Nickname(s): —
Species/Gender: Unicorn/Male
Mark/Talent: Very detailed and tattoo-like, depicting a flower, a skull and the crystal heart. Symbolizes his talent for helping ponies be comfortable with their bodies and appearence.
Personality: Easygoing, cheerful and loud. A bit pushy, doesn't quite always realise he's annoying or bothering others.
Important relationships:
Cadence (Mother) — They were very close when Diletto was little. Cadence would let him practise doing makeup on her and styling her mane, and they would often bond over fashion and such.
Shining Armor (Father) — Shining has tried to get him invested in sports, or comics, or anything Shining can relate to, really -it didn't work very well, but they're still on good terms, even if they don't have much in common.
Flurry Heart (Older sister) — She's often join him and Cadence in doing makeovers and such. They're not as close anymore, but they're still friends and care for each other.
Luminous Spirit (Older brother) — They exist near each other. If one got in trouble the other would help, but they mostly just… don't interact with each other.
Felicity (Twin sibling) — Peas in a pod. They rarely fight, and when they do they're most often able to talk things out and get over it pretty quickly.
Fire Aurora (Younger Sister) — He cares about her, even if they aren't very close. Diletto is trying to change that though, and wants to spend more time with her.
Faerie Sky (Younger Brother) — Diletto loves to spend time with his littlest brother. Like most kids, he's very open minded and it's fun to interact with him and hear his opinions on things.
History:
Shining and Cadence's original plan was to have three kids, but four is alright too, so the twins were a very welcome addition to the family. As foals, Diletto and Felicity were a bit diffidult to take care of; first, as newborns, they would always set each other off, so if one was upset you'd have to fnd a way of calming the other down as well, or they'd just start each other again. And when they god older they had the problem of Diletto always wanting to do/eat/wear the same thing as his twin, while Felicity wanted to have their own toys, clothes etc. It was difficult trying to balance being an individual and being a twin, especially when they had the added layer of being treated as a royal on top of that, when they were young.
As they stared school they really grew to appreciate it though; it didn't matter if you didn't know anyone in class, or if you couldn't tell if foals only wanted to hang out because of your title, or if you messed something up and got punished or emberassed. No matter what, you were never alone, 'cause your twin was there, often in the same situation.
Diletto was always very interested in how people express themself using fashion, and loved to spend time with his mom practising how to do make-up and how to style manes. He eventually moved on to reading about different fashion and cultures through the ages, to reading about how bodies work and how peoples appearence affect their behaviour. He managed to talk a tattoo-artist into letting him watch how he worked, (him being a prince may have something to do with the other pony saying yes) and got his cutie mark when he talked to a couple of ponies waiting for their turn learned why they wanted to have tatoo's and why it was so important for them. Everyone had always told him that it's only the inside that counts, but this interaction, along with suddenly remembering his twin's adversion to looking too traditionally feminine or masculine, and realising it's because of how ponies treat them differently depending on that, when he got to thinking that maybe the outside did count for something. In terms of how other ponies percieve and treat you, but more importantly, how you percieve and act towards yourself. And then he got his mark, and the ponies in the waiting area told their family that they were there and they helped a prince get his mark!
He really likes the punk aesthetic, and has his mane in a mowhawk style, often wearing piercings and spiked bracelets/collars/rings. He doesn't really have a problem altering his appearence to something else, since he knows other ponies will judge him based on what he chooses to look like. He himself doesn't care what others think, but he knows his family probably does and he is supposed to represent the Empire, so he'd be happy to change for different events if asked. The problem is, his parents doesn't know this and they don't want him to think they disapprove of how he likes to look and dress, so they don't say anything.
He still lives in the castle, and currenly does a bit of everything. Working as a tattoo artist for a few months, then works a personal trainer for a while, holds lectures about health and mental illnesses, taking evening courses at different universities, helps out with various causes, etc. It seems to him that there is always more he can do and learn, so he tries to do everything. He often collaborates with his twin on these projects, since their talents overlap somewhat.
Trivia:
His mark mimics a tattoo's because that's what he was trying to learn when he realised what his talent was. The mark is similar to the three most common tattoo-styles; the first is a flat, often using large fields of bright colors -since ponies have fur, the actual color is mted and blended a bit, so details and shading isn't really visible. The second style isn't technically a tattoo; magic is used to make the follices produce more or less melanin. This allows for much greater details, since you could theoretically have a resolution as high the number of fur strands in the tattoo, and it is completely removable by just doing the same thing in reverse. But it does not work well on those with longer coats, and you can only use a darker and lighter version of the color underneath. The last was originally only used by crystal ponies; when in crystal form they "stain" their bodies with a kind of paint that permanently change the color of that part of the crystal, which then translates to having different fur color when they turn back. It's black on Diletto, but can be practically any color and with any level of detail. When people realised non-cystal ponies could turn crystalline when the heart was activated, a lot of equestrians travel to the empire just to get one.
It's not uncommon for him to have a few of the magic melanin-altering "tattoo"'s -but he can never be happy with one design for long and removes them after a couple of months.
He often wears dark eye-shadow and different piercings. The large fancy crystal earrings he wears were a gift to him from his little brother, who knew he liked to wear earrings and got him the prettiest ones he could find/afford. Diletto never takes them off.
He owns a "few" cats he's picked up from various shelters. He's now forbidden from visiting or volunteering any more animal rescue centers or similar, since he can't control himself and his parents don't want any more cats roaming around the castle.