Cadence Verse! An Introduction

“Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two mighty & regal sisters, who created and ruled a glorious empire that encompassed all the land. As a sign of their divine might, the elder sister, Celestia of the Sun used her power to raise the sun at dawn and awash her subjects in light and warmth. The younger sister, Luna of the Stars and Moon used her power to raise the moon and arrange the stars into beautiful constellations. Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their empire and their subjects: all the different types of ponies.

But as time passed, the harmony between the two sisters was stripped away; they grew greedy and capricious, no longer did they fight to protect their subjects, instead they battled one-another over petty grievances and treated the ponies as servants and tools in their conflict. The princess’s rivalry grew out of control; mountains were torn from the earth, forests burned, the skies and seasons fell into disarray.

But then, without warning, the sisters vanished; no longer could the cries of battle be heard throughout the air, instead there was only a deafening silence. The sun and moon were locked in place upon the horizons, never to truly grace the ponies with their light and beauty again.

Thus began the era of Twilight.

Robbed of day and night, bereft of their once benevolent leaders, the fragile peace between the ponies was broken; the magical land of Equestria was no more.

As storms and decay befell the land, the empire collapsed into anarchy, but a thin ray of hope still existed; eleven months after the princess’s disappearance a foal was found "a foal born of magic, with a strong body and graceful wings." She was found abandoned, in the palace of the Alicorn Princess’s. Lonely refugees happened upon the infant and took her from the dark and haunted castle.

As years went by the young princess grew in strength and renown, until, after many long years Princess Mi Amore Cadenza grasped the heavenly bodies and ended the era of twilight forever; restoring balance and harmony throughout the land.”

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Before I go any further I feel I should note that as I understand it the books and comics are not canon to the T.V show; plus I started this project quite some time before the book was to come out so i'm simply going to ignore it.
Sorry for the long intro, but it helps give this project some extra context. The basic premise behind this world is that both Luna and Celestia fell to evil & became dangerous enough to warrant the Elements of Harmony sealing them away and that Cadence was able to eventually step up and start repairing Equestria. I have a fairly long series of Blog Posts discussing this idea based around world, culture and character building. I also have a basic timeline mapped out in my head for the history of C!verse. I am more than happy to answer any questions or take suggestions, critiques or feedback. This idea was inspired by discussion on a LunaVerse thread and I would strongly recommend the series. There are numerous differences between Cadence Verse and canon, as well as fanon, so i'll try to explain a few of those here as well as my reasoning.

Alicorns:
I tend to write Alicorns as immortal physical gods, much like the Greek Gods, they don't age, they wield amazing power and can alter their shape, to the point of even turning into a storm, Celestia and Luna are at that level; while Cadence is somewhat lower down on the totem pole, she is still immortal in the sense she is un-aging and wields great power but would lose to Celestia and Luna in a fight. (Alicorn Twilight is another kettle of fish, i'm planning on waiting to see what the show does with it before I make any call on how to write her powers.)

(they'd have animate manes, but besides that, this is more or less how I imagine them, angry and in heavy armor.)

Celestia and Luna:
I am basing the more negative behavior's and actions of C!verse Luna & Celestia on ancient deities, the best example I can think of is Gilgamesh. He was two thirds god and the king/protector of his people; he was incredibly powerful and loved to fight, definitely the sort of person you would want protecting you from invading monsters and army's. But he also drank, started fights within his own city and with his entirely mortal and very breakable subjects, as well as being very promiscuous, in themselves these would only be the traits of a thug; but when combined with royalty and the strength to shatter mountains it becomes much worse.

The sisters are similar to this, they are not actively malevolent the way NMM, Discord, Chrysalis and Sombra were; they simply don't realize how destructive they are and are so distant from their subjects on an individual level that they can't relate to them or see the woods for the trees and as a result of larger egos they do not keep their powers in check. (Imagine Luna from Luna Eclipsed, but angry all the time). Then a rivalry started between the two, they both wanted to be the one making all the decisions for the ponies and could not agree with one another, stress and resentment wore away at their bond causing terrible arguments.

At first they simply yelled at one another in the Royal Canterlot Voice, but this quickly turned into display's of power, both to intimidate each other and to "impress" their subjects (Luna conjuring storms in Luna Eclipsed would be a good example) this eventually became dueling in the streets, skies and the mountains; neither sister wanted to kill the other, they simply wanted to win and prove them-self superior and still loved one another. The problem was that their battles tore up the weather patterns tended to destroy a great deal of land and made the government grind to a halt; but the sisters did not not notice this, to wrapped up in their feud.

Then they disappeared, leaving the world trapped in Twilight, both the sun and moon were frozen on the horizon. Within the history of the C!verse none of the ponies know how or why this happened and there are numerous conflicting myths and opinions on the matter. Even into the modern Equestria the princess's are not forgotten, though nopony expects them to return.

Cadence:
Within fanon, opinions naturally and reasonably vary from fan to fan, I will admit to having more than one head canon for Cadence, the origin I have chosen was inspired by one of RDDs L!verse story's and is simply the one that worked best for the setting and it seems suitably deific. Cadence is immortal and much like her predecessors a physical god, though she begins her life far closer to a mortal than she does an Alicorn; she is now the Princess of Equestria and has recently sent her student/apprentice off to make some friends.

C!Verse Mane Cast:
I could have simply recreated the old cast or used a slightly altered cast from either the L!verse or another AU, but I decided I should work towards an entirely separate universe and I am fairly pleased with the result, the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony can be found elsewhere in my Blog Posts.

Equestria:
This Equestria is naturally a bit different to Celestia's own, both culturally and in Governance, (on a technical level there is little actually established about how canon Equestria is run.) I have already made a post regarding the Cadence Verse government in my Blog. In terms of culture, modern Equestria is not quite as united as the Mane Verse and after their last experiences with Alicorn princess's the ponies were initially suspicious of a new princess leading her to wielding less power. It's more cosmopolitan but also less structured and not as safe/secure as M!verse, it went through a lot in the last thousand years.

Equestria's enemies are larger and more organized, as well as less hidden: for example the Changelings already staged an assault on Canterlot and are a recurring threat throughout S1; creatures such as dragons and Diamond Dogs are also more openly hostile and direct. Cadence's Equestria is also smaller than Celestia's not having had as much time to expand as it's counterpart. In many way's it's a young and energetic nation, only recently unified, and eager to expand its influence on the world stage, and is opening numerous trade agreements and sending and receiving diplomats and ambassadors. Cadence Verse architecture and to an extent government/culture is inspired by Greek/Roman/Italian society.

Notes:
I'd very much like to know if this post is user friendly to those who might know nothing of the C!verse, so as usual feedback would be greatly appreciated! But if not then thanks for reading!
I am also in the midst of going back and editing/updating some of my earliest posts, so that they are more organised and clear. Within the C!verse there would be a few references to the unification of Italy as well as Babylon 5. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I did not have time to find any this time, though I may add a Vecotr of Cadence with a flowing mane somewhere later. Sorry for using a similar format to your post RDD, it just worked so well! :)

Comments

[Lev the Lurker]

Solid intro. Not much else to add, sides lookin forwards to the next blog post.

(side note: between purple unicorns, Warcraft cultists, and sparkly vamps, "twilight" is becoming quite the catchphrase in recent years. Funny how words start popping up like that sometimes, neh?)

[vazak]

891389
Thanks for the comment, i'm glad it worked! I have "finished" a post on the military, discussing the basic culture and some units/weapons I really like, but will be leaving the command structure vague.
Twilight certainly has grown in popularity it's one of those words that just works, sort of like how revelations or reloaded constantly get used in games.
I once considered having the world trapped in an eclipse but decided I liked the way Twilight looked and sounded better.