Home for holidays/Cadance-verse, part 1 · 12:16am Dec 29th, 2012
Ah, it's fun to be home with the family. :-)
In writing news, I'll try to finish up Court Musician as soon as I can. It kind of got pushed back by the holidays and by me being inspired to write 'Fishing in the Dark.' But I aim to have it done by New Years. This time for real.
I got a comment about the 'Cadence verse' on my last post, and since I might be doing that after I finish Court Musician, I thought I'd copy the summary and see what y'all think:
1000 years ago, Celestia and Luna, in a jealous sibling rivalry that grew out of hand, fell and became Solar Flare and Nightmare Moon and engaged in brutal warfare. The youngest alicorn, Mi Amore Cadenza (nicknamed Cadance), was barely able to use the Elements of Harmony to seal them both away in the sun and moon respectively, and ascend to the throne.
A millenia later, Cadance -- who has always loved music -- has taken on a student: Octavia Philharmonica, one of Canterlot's best musicians. Unfortunately, despite being a great cellist, Octavia is not very social, and would rather spend all her time practicing rather than deal with ponies who aren't capable of the musical feats that she has mastered. Cadance, a bit frustrated by this, dispatches Octavia to Ponyville to oversee preparations for the Vernal Equinox Celebration, the time when the sun and moon are in perfect harmony.
Unfortunately, at the Equinox, Celestia and Luna escape and resume their battle, threatening to destroy all Equestria in their conflict. Octavia must befriend and work with five other musicians in Ponyville -- Vinyl Scratch, Lyra Heartstrings, Fluttershy, Bluenote, and Medley -- to find the Elements of Harmony, stop the battling alicorns, and save everyone.
And a little bit more on the setting (these notes are not fully complete, I'm just putting down what I already have):
WORLD
Cadance's Equestria is probably a bit smaller than M-verse (or Lunaverse). Unlike Celestia, who has that 'absolute authority' going, or Luna, who is all about secrecy and shadowy maneuvers, Cadance is both more open and less controlling with her governing. The style of government is probably close to what Britain has, with royalty (here, Princess Cadance), nobility (house of Lords), and pure democratic section (house of Commons). Cadance has substantially more power than the modern British throne, but she still can be legally blocked by the Lords, and the Lords can be blocked by commoners, and so on. No faction of the government can do everything themselves, and the House of Commons do have enough power that the nobles/Cadance can't just, say, double their taxes and laugh into their champagne.
Most local governments are run democratically, though ancient and large cities do tend to have nobles, and the nobles often do have hereditary powers.
CADANCE
Princess Cadance is the royal in charge of Equestria. A kind, compassionate, and loving ruler, she can be stern but rarely becomes angry. She was never in charge of the country until a millenia prior, when both other alicorns kind of went crazy and had to be locked away. As such, she was a bit naive and timid at first, although she seems to be getting over that.
Besides ruling the nation, Cadance's other great passion is music. She likes all types and styles, from famous classical works to modern pokeys and rock songs. She is highly skilled at using her alicorn magic to make musical performances in a variety of ways. She often takes students to teach them more about music (and generally has several at once); thanks to her skill and the resources she has at her disposal, most young musicians would jump at the opportunity.
Her major flaws are that she can be too caring/loving, to the point where she doesn't discipline harshly enough, and she can also be somewhat flighty. She's not really as good a ruler as the other two alicorns (though she's not bad by any means), and she knows it. This can also make her a bit moody.
Her main virtues are her compassion, wisdom (she understands love; understanding tax law is a snap compared to that), and mercy.
OCTAVIA
Octavia is the protagonist, the Cadance-verse's equivalent of Twilight. A young and extraordinary good musician, she was taken on as a student by Princess Cadance. Even among the students, she stands out as the best; she works harder, and has more natural talent, than anyone else in Cadance's class -- or, as far as she can tell, in her age bracket in Canterlot. She plays mostly classical works. Her instrument is the cello.
Octavia is a child of the nobility, given the best of everything since birth. This has allowed her the freedom to develop into a truly brilliant musician, although it does have its downsides. Having been told she's the best for a very long time, she's a bit reluctant to associate with those who... aren't. Besides, she has to practice. As such, she doesn't really have any friends, and sees no need to have them either. She'd rather be alone with her music, or performing with older musicians who are at her level
Her main flaws are her pride/arrogance, condescension towards lesser musicians and (slightly) towards non-nobles (and is probably unconsciously a bit skeptical of the whole 'democracy' idea, what with commoners who haven't been raised since birth learning how to run this or that suddenly being voted into political power), and a certain willingness to jump to conclusions.
Her main virtues are her diligence/work ethic, her Honesty, and her courage.
LYRA HEARTSTRINGS
Lyra is Ponyville's resident bard. She loves tales of old, mighty heroes facing dangerous monsters, and true love conquering all difficulties. She's also a very skilled musician. When she plays, it's bard songs, ballads, and folk songs. Her instrument is the lyre.
Lyra is a very caring individual. She's in love with a confectioner named Bonbon, though they aren't together yet and Bonbon seems to think she's a bit odd. Lyra is also highly passionate, the sort that might wind up dancing through the lilies because it's a beautiful day out and she feels the sun urging her to move. This can sometimes translate into irresponsibility, but in general she's able to make enough money with her music to fulfill her obligations. She truly feels for others, and is often able to understand and think of ways to help them in much less time than would be expected.
Lyra's family is probably not thrilled about her being what they see as a busker.
Lyra's main flaws are irresponsibility, obstinacy, and getting too involved in things.
Lyra's main virtues are her Kindness, her passion, and her ability to connect with/empathize with others.
...I have to go now. :-) I'll try to put up bios on the other 4 later tonight or tomorrow.
Definitely an interesting idea. I'm really interested in how much you've fleshed things out. I vote make a group for this so others can eventually contribute.
Interesting.
Interesting as others have said and I think that this universe can be well done, good luck. Making a group because this could be as cool as the Lunaverse and Celestiaverse and Cadance hasn't been featured in stories outside of the "royal Wedding/ Honeymoon/ Crystal empire fics running around. On the other Elements of Harmony (in a musical harmony as well) I love Octavia and Vinyl Scratch, Lyra, and I would like to see what Fluttershy does since she is so known in Mainverse, Lyra is awesome as always, and I have no idea who Bluenote and Medley are.
I approve of the Cadanceverse.
657763
what he said.
I thought vazak was working on a Cadanceverse?
658578: I think his idea is different, with non-pony Elements and all. Besides, no reason two people can't work with the premise of 'Cadance is in charge'.
As it stands I don't have any plans for none ponies to be among the element bearers, but suffice to say when we get to that section of my posts, it's going to be big
Interesting take, I can already imagine episode titles like " the band get's back together" and the like, plus it's just a decent pun on Cadence's name. I don't agree with everything said about Cadence. but naturally we all have different visions for how the world would go so best of luck I'll read these with interest.
658578
Very true, but sadly I don't own copyright to the idea,
658660: Hmm, what do you think about Cadance then? I put these up in part so that people could tell me if my interpertations of characters was way off.
658668
We don't really know huge amounts about Cadence so it really comes down to personal opinion VS preference, I'll be doing a number of larger C!verse posts for her in the coming weeks. Relating to how I view her as a character and how she'd be raised, treated, adapt and eventually what kind of uniter/leader she would be in my eye's.
But I suppose this line confused me a little:
Mostly the sister part, that and considering both the other alicorns turned evil / insane, she would probably be regarded as the better ruler, though I could imagine her not feeling that way. But that's just me.
658701: Erk, sisters was a typo. Cadance isn't related to the other two, except maybe as a descendent.
As for how good she is... the other two ruled the country for tens of thousands of years, then went crazy and got booted. Cadance had to start from scratch as a relative political novice (and was probably very young when she took over). So I don't think she'd be quite as good as they were, at least at first. Yeah, she didn't go crazy/evil, but besides that she's not nearly as good at, say, getting tax reforms passed.
658704
I'm a believer in the idea that there's only so good you can get at some things, and that after a certain point, having done something for longer only gives you more stories to tell, not necessarily more learning experience.
So, for example, I think that it doesn't really matter if you've been ruling for 1,000 years or 4,000 years, because you learn all there really is to know in the first 200 or so anyway.
658704
Oh I agree that at first, she wouldn't be terribly confident, but the post, to me at least, sort of implied that she was still very unsure of herself and not very skilled, even after a thousand years. That was probably my mistake though.
658724>>658725:
Hmm... good points.
Perhaps instead, since she's just one pony (as opposed to two with complimentary styles) she's not quite as effective? I could see situations where having Celestia on one side (all open authority/confidence/righteousness) and Luna on the other (sneaky, shadowy, etc) could make it much more possible to get things done than having just Cadance by her lonesome.
658727
thanks!
Interest point about Cadence only being one pony, but as other wield mroe power in this system there would be more cover for such problems. But yeah I can see her not being as quite as effective as the two sisters combined. Though I do feel she'd be fairly competent and reasonably confident after a thousand years, she would likely still feel she has legendary hoof prints to fill and maybe is even worried about going mad one day herself.
though I may be using that idea myself. 
I've always had mixed feeling about the idea that Luna and Celesita "have" to rule together, though two heads are better than one... usually anyway
It's interesting but I keep thinking of the Roman Republics Consuls when I think of Celestia and Luna with absolute authority and working together. Just immortal ones who never lose their job, ignoring attempt to take over and or destroy the world.
658740
It depends on whether or not she actually knew Luna and Celestia. In my original post on the idea, she never did.
658746
I'm not quite sure what you're referring to specifically in this post, sorry, getting very
But yeah that's how I'm writing it, Cadence never met Luna or Celestia, she's the unexpected aftermath of their fight, sort of like a lots of Deities were. but that's just me
Dang, I was inkling to try my own hand at a cadance-Verse story.
Although mine was Vinyl Scratch as a sort of gadgeteer/magic user. I even had a 'Boast Busters' idea.
I like this one, though.
Interesting.
I believe the only real problem would be justifying both Luna and Celestia escaping at once, and not tearing Equestria apart before everyone can act.
Also, I'm actually kind of disappointed that Octavia isn't the element of Magic, but each to his own.
My first reaction to the summary was "Isn't this just the Lunaverse but different?"
My second, and current reaction is "SCREW IT. THIS SOUNDS AWESOME ANYWAY."
Random thought, would Cadence get her own "Gospel Truth" song about how she defeated Celestia and Luna? It could work pretty well and you could pull it off
696571: Never really wrote a song like that, and I'm not sure she'd be all that thrilled about it, to be honest. It's the kind of thing I think she'd rather not think about.
696743
aww but it'd work so well!
Still your/Cadence's choice and that makes sense, though I could imagine someone else writing a song about it, though I can't imagine she'd be pleased, oh well thanks for responding anyway.