One of them nodded his cowled head and drew it back, revealing soft tawny fur. "There cannot be progress without some discomfort. You know this intimately."
Silver snorted softly. "Any discomfort I choose to heap on myself is my decision. That doesn't give me a right to heap it on others for my gain. This is not a flexible point."
The other revealed himself with a brighter magenta coat. "Very well. You have great empathy for your fellow pony, as we would expect from any prince worthy of the title. Even if you didn't begin your life as one. Tell us, human, why do you presume to know what's best for our people?"
Silver flipped an ear back, a little surprised at their knowledge. "I don't presume that. I do what I can, as a person, to be good, to myself and those around me." He reached out a hoof. "I truly am sorry I hurt what were likely your friends. I didn't enjoy it. I want this madness to end."
Tawny shook his head. "Your concern is touching, but not relevant at the moment. You are about to shepherd in a great upheaval. It will cause strife and conflict."
Silver brought the ear forward. "What strife is this?"
"How to put this delicately..." Magenta pointed down between Silver's hind legs. "You will change the balance of power. When you service the princesses, alicorns will become a tribe all of their own, instead of just a pinnacle for the rare pony to reach. How can this not upset the balance of things? These new alicorns will demand new rights, but how can we react? What system can contain a growing population of unaging gods among them?"
Celestia stepped out from behind a hedge, approaching the table with a delicate frown. "It is none of your business what Silver does in private."
Tawny looked towards Celestia. "Good day, princess of the land. Will you join us?"
"I will." She settled beside Silver, almost possessively so from her stance.
Magenta smiled gently. "Already she is ready to have you as a husband, and with it, foals, and with them, chaos."
Celestia snorted softly. "I'm in a good mood from last night, let's not ruin it too quickly. Did you come here to discuss me?"
Tawny shook his head. "No. The Lightning Wheel wishes to advance technology and magical study, for the betterment of all tribes and peoples. Ponies, dogs, zebra, griffons, minotaurs, and anyone else that is willing to work alongside us. Technology is a boon that any tribe can benefit from without favoritism. Magic can be encoded for the use by non-unicorns, but isn't done so nearly often enough. Equality, that is the goal. Equal, but improved."
Silver went stiff with realization. Starlight Glimmer's involvement suddenly made a lot more sense. "How do I fit into that?"
Magenta pointed at Silver. "You come from a world of great technology. You know that we speak the truth. You are also a unicorn of unique talents. We would entreaty both aspects of your being, to help usher in a grand new age for all ponies, neigh, all sentient life."
Silver rolled a hoof. "You might have had my rapt attention had you just come out and asked long ago. Why all the skullduggery?"
Tawny's ears fell. "Those were the regrettable decisions of our past leader. His failures have mounted too high and we deposed him. We are now the leaders of the Lightning Wheel, and our first action was to approach you directly, in good faith."
Celestia raised a brow, looking the two over. "Will you turn over your old leader, for trial?"
Magenta canted his head to the side. "That would be a most elegant solution. We need not worry ourselves with his punishment, if you wish the task."
Tawny held up a hoof. "As a display of good intent, we will furnish him and a list of all his dealings, for good and ill. Do as you wish with them."
Silver bobbed his head. He liked most of where this was going. "One thing. I don't miss the despoiling of the land that technology can bring. Easy resources and pursuit of the biggest profits led humanity to take some disastrous shortcuts at the cost of our world. I would feel pretty crappy if I helped usher in an age of smog and poisons to this rather pastoral world. Also, if you're looking for detailed schematics, my memory isn't that good, and I was never an engineer to start with. All I could provide is ideas and basic principles."
Celestia blanched at the idea Silver painted. "Most certainly not! Equestria is no place for that. The land should be kept pure and healthy, for the sake of our foals and our foal's foals."
Magenta pointed at Celestia. "And that is why we need the cooperation of unicorns. We have reviewed the possibilities. Coal is dirty in every word. We would rather enslave the power of the horn, than the dirty smoke of the earth." He seemed to realize what he said. "That was poorly said. Any unicorn in our employ would be just that, employed, and paid well for their services, just as an earth pony would be paid for their great strength, and pegasi for their weather control. We have several diamond dog packs in our roster, collecting crystals of the purity needed to start the project."
Tawny nodded quickly. "We can prove the concept in just a few months. Imagine, a world where a communication crystal was only ten bits, instead of a thousand? With the proper mass production, it's possible, without damaging anything. Right now, you have to buy a crystal separately, then commission a unicorn for the singular task. Both steps are slow and expensive, but if a unicorn is doing nothing but enchanting crystals and being paid by the hour, they would become faster, and it would be cheaper. Instead of a distraction, it is their way of life. Do you see?"
Celestia gave a light nod. "I see no harm in that. Communication is something of a sore spot for Equestria when dealing with those without magic."
Magenta smiled at Celestia. "We thought you might agree." His eyes turned to Silver. "Do we have your support?"
Silver tilted his head a bit. "I haven't heard anything I'm against so far, but I'm still not sure how I can actually help?"
Tawny lifted a hoof. "For today, we seek peace between us. There is too much bad blood to request your aid just yet. Let us simply come out of the shadows, so you can see our good work without deception or coercion."
Celestia's expression brightened, becoming almost radiant. She enjoyed a good peace-bringing in any situation. "If this is a true change for your people, then I look forward to seeing what they can do. Keep us both informed."
Soon they were gone, leaving Silver beside Celestia. She leaned over and kissed him on the snout, making him go red. "You handled that quite well."
Silver nodded hesitantly. "Thank you for the assistance. I... think I won a battle there?"
Celestia nodded. "Your... violent means... eventually broke their will to fight you. I wish there had been another way, but the past is the past." She slid over Silver, nudging him backwards and mounting him belly-to-belly. "Let's not think about that anymore."
Silver squirmed a little, warming up at the rather forward position he was in. "Uh, Celestia? Are you?"
Celestia perked an ear. "Am I? I am many things."
Silver stuck out his tongue. "Not what I meant and you know it."
She leaned in and kissed him on the snout again. "Visit me after day court." She slid off of him and cantered away. She was still in a good mood, and he decided he really liked it.
He got to his hooves and trotted into the castle, to be intercepted by a lunar guard. "The All-Mother wishes for you to follow me." And follow he did, trailing along behind until they arrived at a small padded room. "Wait here."
The door closed behind Silver, plunging him into dark. His eyes adjusted and soon he could see what little there was to see in the room, and he waited patiently. The door opened just wide enough to admit a mare, a familiar mare.
Starlight Glimmer stumbled forward, clearly blind. "Hello?"
Silver went hot as he realized what was going on. "She sent you?"
Starlight jumped. "Oh! Silver?" She stumbled towards him in the dark. "Is that you?"
Silver leaned in and let her snout bump into his. "Why did Luna send you to be bred?"
Starlight's ears pinned back. "She said she saw some dreams of mine..."
Silver sat down. "Oh... Is this what you want? I'm not here to force myself on anyone."
Starlight sat down as well, facing Silver but not looking directly at him, which he forgave, assuming she couldn't see a thing. "Will you love me?"
Silver frowned a bit. "You're a lovely mare, physically. You've done some awful things, but if those are behind you, I can forgive those. The most pressing thing is the basic fact that I'm taken, like super taken. I have two herds, basically, and neither of them are recruiting."
Starlight looked displeased at the news, but rose up and approached Silver. She reached with a hoof until she found him, then she nuzzled him a little. "Do we have to be in the dark?"
"You already know who I am, and I know you, so not really." His horn began to glow and they could both see more easily. "If you want to go, that's fine. As dehumanizing as it is, all I can offer you is a stud."
She tilted her head a bit. "I don't know that word." She rubbed alongside him. "Luna wasn't wrong. I have dreamed of you. I would like to be closer to you, but you had to be so... surrounded. When she offered that I could be the mother of your foal, it intrigued me. The bits weren't a bad touch either. I could start a new life with that."
Silver tapped Starlight on the nose. "The Lightning Wheel has new management."
"Do they now?" She smirked darkly. "I knew that oaf would get himself booted out eventually. That's a load off my shoulders."
"Are you going to work with them again?"
Starlight looked pensive a moment. "Perhaps, if I like what I see." Her eyes fixed on Silver. "Well, this I like. You've... become quite a thing haven't you?" Her horn glowed and Silver felt his cutie mark being pulled away, floating above her head. "Mine."
Silver snorted with annoyance, his thoughts growing muggy and clouded. "Why did you do that? You can't get out of the castle with that."
Starlight put a hoof on Silver's chest. "I'm not running anywhere. You're in my control, little colt. You just lay back and let momma Starlight take care of you."
Silver felt he should notice something, but his flanks buzzed with the power of the neutralizing cutie mark, smudging out the thought.
Starlight did his thinking for him. "Don't you worry that pretty head of yours. I'm just playing with you. For now, you're mine." She guided him to the ground, then rolled him over and soon she was on top of him. They joined together and put a foal into her belly. At the moment of conception, Silver felt his power rise to a boiling pitch. He knew he was fueling the process and he surged wantonly, leaving himself dizzy and weak, but certain the deed had been done.
Starlight slid off of Silver, swollen with magic, though the magic was absorbing into her at a rapid pace, fueling her for her future life as a mother. "What a good colt you are. Maybe Mother Starlight will have to visit you again, if you're good." Starlight returned the mark reluctantly, though Silver didn't notice the reluctance until his intuition returned with it.
"Why do you look so glum?"
Starlight gave a little smile. "Is it wrong that I'm jealous?"
Silver sat up onto his haunches, slowly recovering from the intense magic use. "Of?"
Starlight frowned a little. "Isn't it obvious?"
It was. Silver realized. Starlight would marry him and never look back, if he was reading her right, but he was already married, twice. It wouldn't work. He leaned in and kissed her on the nose. "You'll find your own special somepony. Just lay off the cutie mark stealing. Ponies need those."
Starlight huffed angrily. "They don't need them. We'd all be better off without them dictating what we do or don't do." She turned away from Silver and let out a soft sigh. "Will you be upset if I bring the foal around later?"
Silver shivered softly. "I can't imagine being upset at seeing my own child, but I can see my wives getting edgy about it. I promised one of them they wouldn't have to see any of my, er, extracurricular activities, so... a letter? I can meet you."
Starlight nodded before trotting out of the room, light spilling in a moment before the darkness returned, only cast aside by his glowing horn. He wanted to save Starlight, from the world, and herself, but he had no idea where to start that wouldn't cause hurt to his loved ones. He sat there in the gloom, recentering himself and relaxing before a knocking came from the door. The guard that led him there poked his head in. "Princess Celestia awaits your company."
Silver hopped up to his hooves and prayed he didn't smell too much like Starlight as he trotted out to deal with destiny.
destiny.
this word holds so much power what is ones destiny.
is Silver Going to not only start a completely new race twice over,
to think about the not only is he possible of passing on or giving if you will lunar baby's to mars but if he indeed has the magic to give new life to alicorn the princess. is this good or bade I know the princess all share the same curse no having foals and immortality.
if Silver can indeed conceive with or put a baby in a alicorn, will it be immortal as it the foal was not ascended it is a natural birth?
there is so many paths open hear witch path will the foal walk if in deed Silver has the power?
ok here are my numbers and I have ben wrong in the past.
the all of princess conceiving with Silver 99% yes
the foal being alicorn 60% yes
if it is alicorn immortality 30% yes
if born and not alicorn, the foal being thestral or of Lunar pony race 100%
ok before I throw my self down this hole to fare I will just stop there.
Harts Fire
Shouldn't that be strife "and" conflict?
He pointed between Silver's "hind legs."
I'd change "privacy" to "private."
Capitalize "she" at the beginning of the sentence.
This really feels like it should be two sentences. "Equality, that is the goal. Equal, but improved."
She enjoys a good "peace-bringing."
Hyphenate "belly to belly."
"Inception" isn't the wrong term to use here, but I feel like "conception" would be more appropriate.
Silver has attracted quite a few domineering females in his his life, hasn't he?
On other topics; Silver clearly needs to pioneer the non-unicorn methods of magic challenging. It might expand the niche that the tech development will create. While I'm not 100% sure of the mechanics behind tribal magic, we know a pony can redirect the flow of magic within their body if they learn, and earth ponies can push magic outwards...
Still, magic tech is always fun.
5987446 The typos have been thrown before Day Court, may they know justice.
5987625 Reading this chapter over, I'm having some mixed thoughts with regards to the Lightning Wheel. So they've come right out and stated that they want to usher in a new era of equality for all ponies, using magic and technology as the springboard for this. Okay, fair enough.
The problem I have is that they've done a very poor job demonstrating why this is so important to begin with. That's not to say that equality isn't an important thing - it is - but rather, these guys seem to be a solution in search of a problem. While Equestria does have its share of discrimination, such as how colt cuddlers are ostracized and lunar ponies seem to feel at least some ethnic tension with solar ponies, there's no real evidence that Equestria has a problem of equality between the various pony tribes. Both in the show and within the context of this fic, there's been a distinct lack of conflict regarding what each tribe can do that the others cannot. Without any sort of major social impetus to push their agenda, their entire ideological stance loses the morally-righteous tone that they're trying to evoke.
This isn't to say that their goals have no merit, but rather that it reduces their agenda from being some sort of noble calling to being no different than any other business enterprise. They want to make new magical/technological innovations - such as affordable long-range communication crystals - available to all ponies everywhere? Great, but while that may usher in more conveniences for the populace in general, I don't see that solving a bevy of social ills, mostly because there simply aren't that many to begin with. Just set up a production line and a storefront and be done with it.
This makes it all the more backward that their former leader set them up as a terrorist organization to begin with, since they were fighting an oppression that was never anything more than a phantom. In all honesty, I don't see how anything was ever stopping them from achieving their goals to begin with - this was never about smashing barriers so much as it was about making a start-up business. This goes beyond simply being wrong-headed, to the point where I have to think that their leader was deliberately twisting the group's aims (or was himself completely blinded with rage towards Equestrian society as a whole for some reason). Maybe he was a changeling under Chrysalis' command? Or he was just looking for an excuse to attack Equestria as a whole for some perceived slight? Either way, he clearly had a warped view of the entire situation.
Of course, even the new leaders are wrong on some particularly salient points. For one thing, there isn't going to be a tribe of alicorns. Not ever. Think about it: we already know that alicorn mares can only be impregnated by alicorn stallions - that's going to be true for any daughters that Silver has. Any sons that he has will be able to impregnate females, but we've already been told that those won't be alicorns themselves; both parents have to be alicorns for that to happen. Simply put, Silver and the princesses aren't ever going to be able to start more than a single generation of new alicorns, not when the females will be effectively barren and the males will only be able to breed the mother's tribe (or another tribe in her ancestry) into being.
The sole exception to this would be if two of Silver's progeny mate, but that drags issues of inbreeding into the equation. Even if the proverbial son and daughter are from different mothers, they'll still have the same father, which means that they'll share 25% genetic material. Now, admittedly, magic does play a strong role in pony biology, so it's entirely possible that this won't be an issue; moreover, the principle of genetic sexual attraction does imply that alicorns (that don't grow up together; due to the Westermarck effect) will find each other more attractive than they would other ponies. So the idea of some of Silver's children getting it on with each other is not impossible...but the sheer odds of such pairings happening are fairly unlikely, simply due to how rare alicorns will continue to be compared to the whole of Equestria. Simple statistics alone tell us that most alicorns will wind up like Cadance: taking a non-alicorn mate.
That's not even getting into the fact that they're wrong about having a "tribe of unaging gods" among the population. We've already been told that alicorns only become immortal if they "attach themselves to the fabric of the world" by representing some fundamental force. Given that Cadance hasn't even reached that level yet (that we know of) and she represents love itself, it's hard to see the next generation of alicorn children reaching that particular plateau - even if they do, there's likely to be only so many such forces that they can use to become immortal, particularly since it's implied that only a single alicorn can represent a single force at a time.
No, what's far more likely is that Silver's breeding with Twilight, Celestia, Luna (and probably Cadance) will simply cause there to be a small (probably no more than a few dozen at the absolute most at any given time) group of alicorn children - essentially representing their own subset of the nobility - that are unable to replenish their own ranks. While there might be the occasional instances of a second generation when half-siblings breed, it's virtually unimaginable that these will ever constitute anything more than the rare anomaly. The idea of a self-sustaining "tribe of alicorns" is a fantasy that's almost certainly never going to become reality. Not when the original breeding population is one male and four females.
On the subject of breeding though, it caught me completely by surprise that Luna's first choice to stud Silver out with was none other than Starlight Glimmer! That's appropriate, shockingly so, since she's been flirting with Silver for a while now. However, this changes my perception of her in this fic - I've been operating under the assumption that Starlight has been flirting with Silver as a means to an end, that she's trying to pull one over on him. The conversation they have, however, seems to imply that Starlight really does love Silver (hence why she was able to conceive). To which I say: why? Why is she ready to give Silver, a pony that she barely knows, her heart? This hasn't ever been explained, and so it's rather difficult to swallow - we've been given nothing to indicate the basis for her feelings, so the entire thing comes across as rather unbelievable.
More than that, the entire sequence with her removing Silver's cutie mark while they were coupling was awkward. For one thing, it was never made clear exactly why she did that - the only appreciable reason seems to be that it removed his ability to discern her heartbreak that rutting like this was the most that she'd ever have of him, but even that makes no sense; Silver's cutie mark doesn't lend him insight into anything except spell-making (more general insight is the effect of Night Watch's cutie mark), so he should have been able to intuit her feelings anyway. Not to mention the fact that she confessed to her jealousy right away anyway, making that entire exchange pointless...so maybe there was another reason she removed his cutie mark while they had sex? I really don't know.
Of course, there's little time to contemplate it, since now Silver has been called to service Princess Celestia. No rest for you, Silver! Of course, if Celestia is in season and wants to conceive, she'll need to have Twilight there (or something else; I still think that there'd be a market for watered-down love potions as fertility aids), but maybe she just wants to test out their compatibility or something like that.
I almost feel sorry for the stallions among the nobles. It used to be that every so often the princesses would take lovers, who I imagine would usually come from their ranks. That's so not going to be the case anymore.
5987658 There are some fallacies here I need to address.
First the fallacy of genetic viability. Just about every population started small, and grew from there. We all, as in every human on earth, can trace back to a shared parent eventually if you dig far back enough. That's how that kind of thing works. So if Silver begat three alicorns each from each of the available females and at least one or two of those was a male and let's say they avoided their direct sisters, but were just as virile, yeah, that population's growing. WOULD they? Possibly not! Children don't always do what you want them to do, and especially if they're raised together, they're going to find the idea icky and fall in love with other ponies and what not, but those are social and mental barriers, not physical ones. Physically, quite possible to do.
Many of the fears the Lightning Wheel puts forward are just that, fears. They didn't demand Silver cease being male or not continue doing what he was doing, they expressed a concern, and then went on to other matters. To assume they even understand how immortality among alicorns works is another fallacy, considering even Luna was surprised when Cadance informed her she wasn't immortal. They're working with the information they have, which is far from perfect. Bad information can lead to many things, like the ruinous attempts to coerce Silver.
Silver has shown, last time his cutie mark was yanked, that the negative '=' mark does rob him of his ability to form intuitive leaps, much like it robbed Pinkie of the ability to even express joy, and Applejack her countryisms, neither being DIRECT expressions of their talent, but tangential. While markless, he was thick-headed and duller, and maybe, on top of any other reason she might have had, she enjoyed the idea of dominating a neutralized alicorn stud. Don't fault a girl her fetishes. She did return it afterwards, so there were no lingering hard feelings.
As for why she has the hots for him, that would require he pin her down outside a breeding room and really have a heart-to-heart to figure that out.
5987699 Let me address these points in turn.
Here's the thing: your second sentence and your third sentence in the quoted passage above contradict each other. That sounds counter-intuitive, but rest assured that that's how that kind of thing works.
Yes, everyone can trace their lineage back to a single most recent common ancestor, but that doesn't really prove anything with regards to "genetic viability" - just because the total population of a given group has a single common ancestor doesn't mean that that ancestor has passed on any of their individual genes down that far, since sexual reproduction means that new genes are being incorporated with each successive generation, "squeezing out" older genes; a single individual's genes are halved with each successive generation, until they're effectively gone completely. That's why the most recent common ancestor for all humans alive today is going to be, at most, about a thousand years old. That doesn't make them the progenitor of the human race, however; it just means that there are unavoidable instances of pedigree collapse.
This is where your third sentence contradicts your second one; the population does not start off small. There were a lot of humans alive a thousand years ago, despite the fact that a single human from that time is now the most recent common ancestor for all humans alive today. Unless you're talking about abiogenesis, then there's always going to be an existing breeding population in play at any given time, though evolution will change their traits across successive generations. That's why you won't find "Adam and Eve" outside of religious texts (unless you're looking for "Mitochondrial Eve," the female most recent common ancestor for all humans, and her male counterpart "Y-chromosomal Adam") - you can't have a breeding pair (or group, in Silver's case) that are the only instances of their species that are making children; that's not enough genetic diversity for them to survive.
Now, it's entirely possible that pony magic will overcome these fairly major hurdles, but even then that would only work if the majority of Silver's alicorn children bred mostly with each other, shunning non-alicorn partners, across successive generations. Even then, the fact that alicorns are only fertile with alicorns would mean that they'd never be anything more than a footnote in the pony population, since all of the other tribes are interfertile (and, for that matter, alicorns mating with non-alicorns would only produce non-alicorns, in the case of male alicorns with female non-alicorns; otherwise it wouldn't produce any children at all).
No one's arguing that the alicorn population can't grow, in terms of there being more alicorns tomorrow than there were yesterday. But that's not the point - the point is that they're not growing as a proportion of the overall percentage of the population of Equestria. More importantly, they're not growing to the point of becoming a self-sustaining population. Even if they don't have to worry about inbreeding, there's still too few of them, living lives that are too short, and with too many other partners to choose from, for that to be a plausible outcome. That's not even factoring in issues of the aforementioned Westermarck effect making them not wanting to mate with each other anyway (presuming that they grow up together, which seems rather likely given the closeness of the existing alicorn females).
So yeah, it's pretty damn sure that there's not going to be an "alicorn tribe."
Furthermore, it's not a fallacy on my part to mention this with regards to the Lightning Wheel, because I never said that I "assume they understand how immortality works among alicorns," as you put it. I simply pointed out that their fears were unfounded, for the above reasons; I never presumed that they'd have access to this knowledge.
Finally, insofar as Starlight Glimmer is concerned, you mentioned that in order to find out why she's fallen in love with him, Silver would have to "pin her down and have a heart-to-heart," but again you misunderstand my point in bringing that up. It's not a problem that Silver doesn't know why she loves him; it's a problem that we, the readers, don't know why she loves him.
I notice that you tend to do this a lot: presume that gaps in knowledge regarding what the story tells the readers require solutions that have the answers being given to the main character. That is a fallacy, since you can have narrative exposition give us insight into the characters - via the omniscient narrator - while the other characters receive no such revelations. Silver doesn't need to know why Starlight loves him, because he's a character in the story. The audience reading the story, however, does need to know that in order for her characterization to be appreciably deepened. The characters act in service to the narrative, and the narrative acts to entertain the audience; the characters are not an end unto themselves.
5987961 Let's try 100,000-200,000 years ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve
You're kind of wrong on this one, or I'm just completely not understanding you, but ultimately this argument means.... nothing to the current story unless we skip ahead by a large degree.
Assuming they lived with their mothers, Twilight's foals would not be next to Celestia and Luna's foals, and all would be far away from Cadance's foals, but, again, let's not get too mired in what is really outside the scope of things.
I don't feel the urge or need to make Starlight's stance transparent to the reader. She is a mystery, and I'm quite happy about that. Silver doesn't know, and neither does you, because I have not revealed it, and my story is far from the only one that has withheld information. Though you're far from the first reader to demand answers from any given fiction. I think seeing through her veils would cheapen her at this point. She's a manipulator and a complex person, and she's good at hiding her true meanings until/unless her plans begin to unravel. She gets a bit loud when things are collapsing. (QUIET!)
Is the story actually diminished for having mystery?
5988091
I'm not wrong, though I'll admit that I did generalize more than I should have. The precise definition of mitochondrial Eve is that of the female most recent common ancestor "in a direct, unbroken, maternal line" (the italicized word is key). If you disregard the need for it to have been passed only through females, then the most recent common ancestor could indeed be as recent a thousand years ago (though to be fair, two to four thousand years ago is more likely). So yes, I did fail to mention that particular detail, but that's mostly because it wasn't that relevant to the discussion.
EDIT: Insofar as this is a divergence from the story's plot, yeah it is, but so what? Tangents are fun too. The Lightning Wheel is quite clearly wrong about there being a "tribe of alicorns" in the future, and we can discuss why they're wrong without impugning the story for having written them that way in the first place. There's a difference between a discussion and a critique.
The salient detail is how much they'd be apart. Princess Celestia/Luna, Twilight, and Cadance don't exactly live in isolation from each other, as they already spend a frequent amount of time together. If we presume that having a common husband, and entering parenthood at the same time, would increase their bonds rather than decrease them, then it's likely that they'll spend more time together in the future. Throw in advancements regarding travel and communication, and it's not at all unlikely that their children will play together and develop relationships prior to undergoing sexual maturity, at which point reverse-sexual imprinting will happen and they won't feel attracted to each other when they grow up.
There's nothing wrong with having a mystery, but that's only when you know that it's a mystery. At this point, it seems far and away more akin to a gap in our knowledge, rather than something deliberately crafted to present mystique. There are no hints that Starlight's motivation is being deliberately withheld, no cues that suggest that she's deliberately playing her cards close to the vest. Her actions are simply portrayed without any particular context to suggest her motivations, nor any signs letting us know that this is deliberately obscure.
There's more to a mystery than a simple lacuna of knowledge.
5987658
Are you suggesting the secretive organization's stated motives don't match their actions?
When they hand over their "former leader" will it even be the real guy?
For that matter, what 'bad ponies' were they hoping to locate and bring to justice?
Just saying, these motives that don't line up could very well be a ploy to trick Silver into cooperating with a more objectionable agenda unawares, with the added cover of Celestia's mistaken approval.
surrounded maybe?
all technology is evil i mean look at the internet i can insult people across the world. kill the lightning wheel. have equestria stay in its golden age. yes i am aware i use technology extensively. it is my only consolation of being born in the wrong era. again my opinion is not valid but if i were in equestria from the very beginning(their beginning[meaning i would be transported to the beginning of equestria]) i would try for immortality so then i may protect them from humans for all eternity. for who are we to ruin another society with things they do not need? it is not our right to screw with other societies.
somebody mentioned this 34 weeks ago but im just gonna throw this here too XD
surrounded*
6895837 Fixed!
then
7446998 Fixed!
No such luck, Silver, as, unless you cleaned yourself off while we weren't looking, you're absolutely covered in her. And I think you're neither flexible nor willing enough to have done that.
Maybe that was Starlight's plan; spoil Celestia's encounter with Silver.
As to Lightning Wheel... A good portion of the organization is made up of absolute, balls-to-the-wall fanatics. It's far more than just the leader when you have suicide "bombers" openly assaulting defended authority figures just to let them know you exist. I agree with Alzrius, the "technological parity" angle doesn't mesh at all with their willingness to send lethally-trained hit squads into densely-populated areas.