“So what now?” Cadance grumbled once the crowd watching us was sent away. “You lead me back to the cell I’ve been staying in?”
“You’re room, while bland, was hardly a cell,” I told her, “not like the one I could’ve put you in, or the one your crimes should have you staying in now. But no. Now we go over what the conditions are to your being pardoned.”
“Of course,” she mumbled, rolling her eyes at me.
I frowned at her slight, but didn’t comment on it, continuing, “The very first is that you aren’t going to be leaving the castle without either myself, Radiant Hope, or Luna being present, unless I specifically give consent otherwise. If we see it, the assumption will be that you’re plotting against Equestria and your commuted sentence will be revoked. Do you understand?”
She scowled in response, saying, “Yes, cut me off from everypony to humiliate me more. Thank you, you’re so considerate and forgiving to me.”
“As if you don’t deserve what you’re getting,” I shot back. “Besides, even given what’s happened and what you’ve made of me, this castle is almost constantly filled with ponies for you to interact with. You can hold conversation with them if you’d like.”
“And I’ll be here for a little while, too, Cadance,” Twilight added, raising her hoof. “Plus, I come here all the time. I mean, if you… want me… umm... I’m sorry…” she trailed off awkwardly, looking away again.
“That actually leads us into our next condition,” Luna broke in. “It is one that I myself believed to be fitting for you. Twilight and Starlight will be here this summer to reeducate you in friendship, a skill you’ve clearly let slip by you recently, as well as when they have time available on weekends. You may think of them as your tutors and you, their pupil.” With that, Starlight waved a hoof at her and smiled warmly.
“Twi and I figured we might as well get started today, once this whole thing is over,” she said happily, almost oblivious to her seething expression. “We won’t be overbearing, but I’m sure there are a few things we can work on together. It might seem tough, but Twilight’s a great teacher. I mean, she helped me when I needed it, and just look at me now!” I could tell Cadance wanted to comment, but kept silent as she glared at the mare.
“The next condition,” I started again, “is that the magic absorbing ring you're wearing will remain on your horn until all three of us determine we can trust you to have it off.”
“So basically it’s never coming off,” she responded angrily. “And then what? I go crazy from the hornaches it’s sure to give me?”
“As I said, it’s a magic absorbing ring, not a magic blocking ring. No hornaches involved. You might seem to think I’m an idiot, but I assure you, I am not. Which, of course, brings us to our last condition, bearing in mind that this list will be expanded as we see fit. Shining Armor, if you would?”
He took a step away from the group of Twilight and her friends to stand in front of them, but not any farther, only enough to be easily visible as he floated a sheet of paper over to her, along with a pen.
“If you could sign this?” he said, a complete lack of emotion in his voice
“What- what is this?” she asked, looking down for a moment before looking back at him, the confusion and surprise obvious.
“It’s exactly what it says it is. It’s just telling you that Flurry is going to be in my sole custody and that the Crystal Empire’s crown will transfer to me alone.”
“You- you’re… you’re divorcing me?” she asked, completely shocked, looking back down as she quickly tried to scan through its contents.
“You’re surprised?” he asked, furrowing his brow a bit. “You tried to kill me and then lie about it, and had a hoof in provoking Princess Celestia into attacking my sister. I thought it would be completely obvious to you, seeing as you don’t love me and have a grudge against Twily.”
She stared at him with a slack-jawed expression. It looked like it was the last thing she expected to hear, her face showing her complete and utter shock at the news. Even Twilight only looked down at her hooves, likely expecting this to happen between them. Cadance kept the expression for a few moments before she clenched her teeth and turned back to me.
“This is your fault!” she spat angrily. “You can’t make my husband-”
“No, it’s not his fault. Somb- Alex came to me beforehoof and explained that he was planning to pardon you, and I told him that I wanted this to be a part of your conditions for your release.”
“Why?” she asked, almost seeming like she was pleading with him. “Why are you doing this? You know I still lo-”
“Don’t start with that,” he told her flatly, tiredly. “Do you really think I’m that big of an idiot? I didn’t become captain of the Royal Guard for nothing. You and I both know that you don’t love me, seeing as you tried to kill me. Or, at the very least, whatever grudge you have against Princess Celestia is more powerful than any love you hold for me.”
“I already told you, that was Sombra who attacked-”
“You really truly do think I’m just that big of an idiot, don't you?” he started angrily, before cutting himself off. “No,” he told her, closing his eyes for a second to regain his composure. “I’m not doing this. Just sign the paper, and then… don’t speak to me again, understand?”
Cadance bit her lip at that. I couldn’t tell if she was hurt, angry, thinking, or a combination of the three, but she didn’t take his pen, and just stood there for a long minute before finally speaking again.
“I don’t- I’m not giving up Flurry Heart completely. I still want to be able to see her. She’s my foal.”
“I’m not giving you any custody of her after what you’ve done,” he told her with authority, a few of Twilight’s friends cringing at that statement. “As far as I’m concerned, you don’t deserve to see her ever again. You know she could’ve been hurt in all of the mess you made?”
“How would she have been hurt?” Cadance countered, her voice getting louder. “Who would’ve hurt her? Nopony!”
“You don’t know that, and you can’t know that.”
“I do know that because nopony did!”
“She had to be left all alone for hours because of you! She could’ve hurt herself in that time!”
“I deserve to see her! I’m her mother!”
“A horrible mother who hurts her father!”
“Stop this now, both of you,” Luna interrupted, ending their argument. “Shining Armor, you will allow Cadance to see Flurry Heart at a rate that will be determined later, and Cadance, you will sign the paper, today, dissolving your union as he requests, understand?”
“I don’t deserve all of this,” the pink alicorn grumbled angrily, stomping her hoof as she huffed and flicked her mane out of her face.
When she's right, she's right. She deserves to have an anchor tied to her and thrown off the side of a ship, but this is the lands of forgiveness and happiness.
"Did I miss anything? Fillies have been imprisoned in Tartarus and turned to stone for less and nobody argued against it. You have no right to complain when your legal punishment is basically house arrest, parole, and the friendship equivalent of AA meetings after a pardon by someone who has every right to send that head rolling."- I could definitely see at least one of my characters having a field day with her on that comment alone.
As reasonable and understandable that I want to be there is one quote, one full quote that fits this situation perfectly.
KARMA BITCH!
You deserve way worse.
Luna going to regret that, when Cadence kidnaps her, Shining will never forgive Luna for it.
10722021
In this situation, completely cutting cadence off from flurry heart would be a terrible idea if they want to reform her. Doing so would very likely push cadence to a point of no return.
10721791
Well well well who did I find over here
10722037
Because she is Flurry's mother and she didn't directly and didn't want to indirectly cause her daughter harm, I think they should let her had some contact with her, at least at the start as a trial.
A stupid question and I may just confuse stories but wasn't there Chrysalis involved?
Where is she now?
Wasn't she trapped the last time she was used by Radiant Hope as a distraction?
Radiant Hope isn't in dungeons so why Chrysalis for the same or even lesser thing?
From a story perspective, it seems pretty fair that Shining Armor would rule the Crystal Empire for the measly couple of decades he has left in life until his daughter can take the proper place on the throne. But I just don't like Shining Armor in general, so it kind of bums me out that he made off like a bandit after contributing to Cadence's fall from grace.
10722120
Chrysalis had a bunch of previous crimes to be held accountable for, but you are right. She wouldn't even have attacked if Radiant hadn't goaded her into it with promises of reward and help. Maybe a case could be made that she was tricked into a form of "entrapment" that would have her sentenced lessened or something.
Now THIS is the punishment I'd been waiting for.
10722021
Given my real life observations involving my brother and his toxic Ex, I'm with you on this. Said Ex is bad enough without having tried to kill her husband or endangering an entire country(or two depending on how you view the Crystal Empire). Given that, unlike Starlight when she became Twilight's student, Cadance is totally unrepentant about what she's done, do you really want another alicorn raised, even partially, by such a toxic parent? And yeah, that's assuming she doesn't try to take Flurry and run. At best she'll do her level best to poison Flurry against her father and the rest of the royals.
10721793
11. Almost everything said during the trial could also be considered an act of attempting to provoke/ encourage others to disrupt the trial/ rebel.
"You mean to tell me that after I tried to kill my husband and take over the world I get pardoned and he doesn't want anything more to do with me? This is so unfair!"
I'll reiterate, I LOVE. HATING. THIS STORY'S CADENCE. SO. MUCH.
I know i will get alot of hate for this but i guess for my inner peace i want to vent abit even if others find it wrong.
What Cadence did is wrong on so many levels but she had one thing straight and that was beggining of the rest..... Celestias preferential treatment of Twilight and grooming for her to become DeFacto alicorn successor to sun and moon irked me so badly that i couldnt even begin to fanthom what the writers were thinking just dropping that bomb. And on top of that to not even consider Cadence even if they did get a whole empire (cough* cough* one big city W.O.W. *cough*cough) she should have been concidered first as she is everything Twilight was and better in life sans enormous power that come with being an element bearer of magic.
A skilled diplomat, a loved princess, a successful mare and mother, powerful in her own right with how much she had to shoulder with the shields ect plus rebuild the whole medieval kindom to modern standards with a hyperactive foal not making things easy.
I love Cadence, and i can see exactly her train of thought that stimmied everything that happened and i can also see that in her horseshoes i would while not exactly go the whole evil mastermind route made my oppinion VERY well known to both Celestia Luna and Twilight. There would have been tartarus to pay.
And if it ended up being that Celestia did this out of consideration for her family and foal i would have atleast wanted to be told that and make my own decision whether to take the throne or not......
Alex is completely 100% unlikeable to me to the point of anoying, Sombra i just want to die and Radiant heart is a horseslipper that will do everything for Sombra even if hes an umbrum and their kind is susceptable to evil which he fell to and efectively killed most of the population/enslaved the kindom and killed a beloved and Just ruler (Amore) who while she knew what he is tried her best thinking the crystal heart could save him. (While wrong she didnt know better).
And i know i will get this wall of text dissected and be pointed out inconsistencies it still stands that she was in a way wronged by a much younger Alicorn who basically had no training to be a princess at all to be given that privildge no matter if she was a sister-inlaw.
I want this Cadence to win, there I said it, it boils my blood to see a random tyrant even if he was a somehow displaced human be put in charge of everything with a traitor to her own kindom (Radiant) while Luna just watched basically everything Celestia worked for be desecrated.
Celestia is another story i wont get into but i also see he point of view and seeing "Alex" parading alive as evil Sombra and a remainder of what she lost...... i would kill him on the spot. Fck the consequences.
Thats my rant over, i guess roast me if ud like but i had to say it.
Brutally, savagely rekt. Shining Armor is giving her exactly what she deserves.
10734366
Now that a father
Well to be fair, if she was banished to Tartarus it is unlikely she would have remained ruler over the Empire anyways.
Cadence isn't the alicorn of Love - both here and in the show in my personal opinion - she's more akin to the Alicorn of Emotions, and being able to control/manipulate/direct others emotions... she has a terrible way of controlling her own.
Shining is still going to be responsible for the child support, if he insists on keeping her.
10849235
Why else would he demand to keep Flurry but to raise her as a loving father? Something he already did together with Cadence until recent events in the story. You just told it like he doesn't want to be responsible for that, but why wouldn't he? She's his daughter and he loves her as that. He doesn't think Cadence is a good role model for her anymore, though. And for all the valid reasons. Until she fix her hate issues she really shouldn't see her daughter.
10729087
I do agree at least with the first part. I don't think this Cadence deserve to win after what she did, though. Twilight really isn't princess material and feels much better in the lab doing what she truly loves to do. Science. So, dropping responsibility for the entire Equestria on her was really really dumb of Celestia. Especially when there's someone fitting the role much better.
However, this Cadence burned all the bridges when she decided to involve Sombra in this. Alex is an unlovable asshole, but he really doesn't matter in this case. It was her choice to work with Sombra and it was her choice to use presumably Sombra's creation to drive Celestia mad and she was completely fine with Sombra turning Luna and her own family (Twilight) and friends to stone and enslaving Crystal Empire. So, no, she screwed everything really bad and doesn't deserve anything anymore. Celestia shafted her for no reason, but she screwed up so much more.
Could she take over in a better way? Yes, yes she could. She could make regular visits to Canterlot until Twi would decide to make her co-ruler and with time Twi would remove herself from ruling over nation on her own without any extra influence. It really isn't her forte and she haven't asked for this in the first place.