The Price of Motherhood

Jacques

Jacques #1 · May 14th, 2018 · 1 · ·

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Sounds adorable! Will mark to read later

Mystic Sunrise

Mystic Sunrise #2 · May 14th, 2018 · 2 · 1 ·

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Cadance hummed quietly to herself as she stroked her daughters mane under their blanket. "Only time will tell, Flurry. But, I'll tell you the same thing I told Twilight when we talked years and years ago: it doesn't matter. Not really. The joy in life comes from how we live, not how long."

Shouldn't this mark the story as a sequal to Inquiry? Because this is taken from there. And I love that story by the way.

Graglithan The Greater

Graglithan The Greater #3 · May 14th, 2018 · 7 · ·

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MY. HEART. ACHES!

This story was so sweet, but it also had that slightly sad undertone to it of inevitability. This was a wonderfully crafted work, and a perfect story to read for Mother's day (or the day after in this case).

Thatsnoreason

Thatsnoreason #4 · May 14th, 2018 · 4 · ·

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Mother ages.
Words to remember. And to respect.

TitaniumTao

TitaniumTao #5 · May 14th, 2018 · · ·

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I will be adding this to my Head cannon. After all I do think Twilight will be more like Cadance then Celestia or luna due to her domain in the end. I also have a feeling that She and Shining are also so linked.

Esorial

Esorial #6 · May 14th, 2018 · 1 · ·

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I figured that's where it was going. I'm not sure if this deserves the "sad" tag or not. Either way, it's a very good scene, and quite well written.

meerkat8472

meerkat8472 #7 · May 15th, 2018 · 25 · ·

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Later...
"So, Mom, you're saying that unless I really want to, I can't get pregnant?"
"Well, erm... Probably?"
"Whew, that's a load of my mind."
"WHAT!?"

TMH

TMH #8 · May 15th, 2018 · 22 · ·

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"WHAT!? You gave up your immortality to have a daughter?" Celestia shouted at Cadance lying on her deathbed.

"Yes," Cadance nodded solemnly, "And I'd do i-"

Celestia interrupted her, "Medammit! Do you know how long it's going to take to find a replacement for you? I'm going to have to plant evil, love stealing witches in all the backwater towns." Celestia sighed and murmured to herself, "Maybe I can get Chrysalis..."

Cadance interrupted her with a cough, "Well, you could always train the pony I gave my life for."

"You know that's impossible, she's a teenager. She speaks with all the 'lingos' and the 'low temperature felines', I can't reach these kids." Celestia air-quoted with a hoof.

Cadance facehooved, "You taught me when I was a teenager. Not to mention that 'lingo' was ancient when I was a teenager."

"I know! I'm really old Cadance, like really, really, really, really, really, really old, and I'm very busy, it takes me time to catch up with the vernacular of modern youth, and by the time I master it the kids are dying of old age. And they never even appreciate it when I deliver eulogies in the parlance of their spring years, 'flippin' A." Celestia scowled sourly at the wall. "But you were a peasant orphan literally born in the woods, you were really simple and easy to shape. Flurry is a 'wild dame' 'jiving' with her 'daddy-os,' I'll need to hire a translator for Sun's sake!"

"Glad to see you care so much about me dying, thanks bunches Auntie."

Celestia did a double-take, "Dying? Cadance you aren't dying."

Cadance did a double-take as well, "Wait. What."

Celestia continued, "No, alicorns are immortal, that doesn't mean immortal until you give it up, that means immortal. Your physical body is failing from the exertion of bringing a new alicorn to life. Your magical essence will just spend a while in a suitable place until you can re-form physically."

Cadance eyed her warily, "How long is 'a while' and what's a suitable place?"

"Err," Celestia shrugged and grinned sheepishly, "Well y'know, six, seven, maybe up to eight or nine hundred years."

"What?"

"Maybe a thousand, that's what happened to Luna after our little tiff. I beat the moon cheese out of her, but a thousand years on a desolate and totally lifeless rock and she was good as new!"

"..." Cadance stared at her, reconsidering her life choices.

"But you probably won't be going to the moon. Not unless you take a banana as your last meal, hahaha." Celestia snickered.

"What does that mean?"

Celestia looked back at Cadance like she'd forgotten she was there, "Oh, inside joke, maybe I'll tell you in a thousand years. Anyway, you'll wind up someplace related to your special talent. So, maybe inside a crystal ball on somepony's mantle or, eh, maybe, a, uhm, specialty toy." Celestia blushed.

"A specialty toy...? Oh... Oh. Oh! Oh God." Cadance looked down at her dying body, dreading death now that she knew what horrors awaited her in the afterlife.

"Oh me indeed." Celestia nodded solemnly. Then she spread her wings and walked to the window, "But you made your choice, probably should have asked why Luna and I never had kids, we have maternal instincts too you know, we would have recommended adoption. We'll take care of Flurry Heart for you, I'm thinking she'll be Princess of 'Jive Talk,' AKA things I'm too old to give a buck about. See you in a millennium Cady!" Celestia flashed a winning smile and dived out the window, leaving Cadance alone.

"When I get back Flurry Heart is going to owe me an eternity of pampering." Cadance sighed and then shivered. "I really hope I wind up in a crystal ball..."

She didn't.

Really enjoyed the story. It was very sweet and Cadance-y.

Krimble

Krimble #9 · May 15th, 2018 · 6 · ·

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8926975
Cadence was on her deathbed. It had been an amazing however-many decades since she gave birth to her daughter, and the process of raising her family and all the moments that came with it was something she would never trade away; not even for getting her immortal life back. Goodbyes were said, hooves were held, and Cadence's body felt increasingly numb. Cadence had no idea how long it would take for her to return to Equestria (preferably in a form that was neither sex toy nor crystal ball), but she would patiently await the moment when she would be able to see her daughter and aunts once more. Whether it be 10 years or 1000 years, Cadence would wait.

After she passed away, Cadence floated in the void. She had no idea how much time was passing, or if the passage of time was even a concept that still held truth wherever she was. Eventually, a bright light appeared in front of her, and Cadence did not hesitate to move towards it.

"Push! It's almost out!"

'Oh, God," thought Cadence as the light grew brighter, 'I had better not have reincarnated into a sex toy that just got stuck in some mare's va-'

"Push harder, Flurry Heart! Your daughter is almost here!"

'No,' thought Cadence wryly as feeling returned to her stubby limbs, 'This is much worse.'

Cadence decided to gift her daughter one small mercy and made an effort to struggle as little as she could, despite the disgust she felt from becoming intimately acquainted with the inside of her daughter's vagina. Still, as she was floated into her grown-up daughter's arms, she couldn't help but wonder if she herself looked this happy when she held Flurry Heart for the first time. Of course, Celestia was in the room, off to the side. When Cadence and Celestia's eyes met, Celestia winked and walked out of the room.

'...she KNEW.'

In that moment, Cadence made a quiet, but solemn, promise to make any future foal-sitting sessions she has with Celestia incredibly difficult; difficult and filled with especially unpleasant diaper-changing.

Tatsurou

Tatsurou #10 · May 15th, 2018 · 1 · ·

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Huh. Kinda reminds me a bit of Boss Monsters in Undertale. ...and makes an awful lot of sense when put that way.

Rao the Red Sun

Rao the Red Sun #11 · May 15th, 2018 · 2 · ·

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8925070
It sure is! Kind of. More of a side-story. But definitely in the same vein. And thank you <3
8926395
I know what that is now, and I blame you. My eyes are forever tainted.
8926975
8927733
Great work, guys. I'm dying of laughter over here

And a big thank you to everyone else who read, enjoyed, and commented so far. I didn't expect this to get anywhere near the traction it did, so the overwhelmingly positive outlook means even more than usual.

HB_DS2013

HB_DS2013 #12 · May 17th, 2018 · 1 · ·

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8927791 Does this mean that Alicorns are pretty much Boss Monsters!?

Tatsurou

Tatsurou #13 · May 17th, 2018 · 1 · ·

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8931131
From the sound of it, yeah.

DarkDMan

DarkDMan #14 · May 18th, 2018 · 1 · ·

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Very nice and good on the feels!

Ice Star

Ice Star #15 · Jul 31st, 2018 · · ·

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I. Hm.

This is quite good.

Thunderchaser23

Thunderchaser23 #16 · Jul 31st, 2018 · · ·

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What a beautiful story.

reflective vagrant

reflective vagrant #17 · Sep 13th, 2018 · 1 · ·

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I'm not dogging on the concept. It's as good as anything I could ask for. In fact it may just be me overcompensating for me digging too deeply into details of my story but: I felt the story was more feel good fluff than depth of characters. (not to dis on a mom paying THAT price) If that's all it was meant to be, it did great. I guess I was just used to reading stories with more.

long story short, I can see the intended effect and how it can pull at people's heartstrings, but it caused more of a "meh" for me.

Rao the Red Sun

Rao the Red Sun #18 · Sep 13th, 2018 · · ·

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9168042
It was originally written for a WriteOff mini round, which has a word limit of 750. I did fluff it up a bit to meet the 1k minimum here rather than expand it into anything more grandiose, so you're not wrong that it had a pretty basic goal. It also loses a little bit of luster the further you get from Mother's Day, which is (approximately) when it went live here. A happy coincidence, really.

So, don't feel bad at all for only hitting "meh" by any means. I appreciate anyone still stopping by this far after publication.

Juria

Juria #19 · Nov 4th, 2018 · · 1 ·

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In a sea of really odd, and sometimes downright twisted fanfics involving Flurry Heart, this one really sticks out as one of the better ones. It's more realistic, and actually feels almost like something that could be made into an episode. Fantastic work!